January 4, 2015.
Round 19 of the Segunda División.
Atlético Madrid B hosted Leganés at home.
“Welcome, football fans.
This is Jack, bringing you today’s live coverage.”
Jack was in a very good mood today.
Matches involving Michael Chen were always full of drama, and the fans knew it.
“Now let me introduce the starting lineups for both teams.
For the home side, Atlético Madrid…
And for the visitors, Leganés: up front, Hernández partners Philip.
In midfield: Roberto, Sindis, Keck, and Touré.
At the back: Blind, Ferdinand, Klein, and Sack.
In goal: Martínez.
Both teams are ready on the pitch!”
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With a sharp blast of the referee’s whistle, the match kicked off.
“Atlético are clearly well prepared today.
We can see Pacquiao and Ruli focusing their attacks down Leganés’ right flank, because that right-back is undeniably their weakest link!”
Ruli received the ball and squared up against Sack.
He knocked it past him and accelerated hard down the wing.
Sack was left behind like a training cone.
Ruli reached the byline and cut a hard pass back into the box!
Costa arrived in the middle—and cleverly let the ball run right through his legs!
Waiting unmarked on the edge of the box was Oriol.
The Ghanaian struck it first time on the volley.
Goal!
“Atlético’s first shot of the match has already produced a goal!
The scorer is the newly arrived defensive midfielder, Oriol!
That was a very composed finish.
He caught it perfectly on the volley.
There’s real quality in that strike!” Jack explained the early breakthrough to the viewers.
The home fans erupted.
Drums began beating rhythmically in the stands, and the crowd sang the club anthem in a deafening unison.
Leganés head coach Barry looked miserable on the touchline.
His starting full-back was injured, and the replacement simply wasn’t up to standard.
There was no tactical fix for a pure mismatch of pace, so his only option was to keep pushing numbers forward to outscore the home side.
Barry stretched out his arm, aggressively shouting for his team to press high.
Michael watched it all unfold from his penalty area.
When Oriol’s volley hit the net, Michael pumped his fist and roared in celebration.
From the back, he carefully observed the changes in the opposition’s shape.
When he saw five Leganés players crowding aggressively into the attacking third, he immediately went on high alert, calling Levis over and directing him to strengthen the defensive cover on the right side.
Leganés restarted the match.
Despite going behind early, they didn’t panic.
They patiently tried to work their way through the crowded midfield.
Touré took the ball and drew two Atlético midfielders toward him.
With one sharp feint, he escaped Herbert, then accelerated past Felipe.
The visitors were about to create a numerical advantage up front!
Reading the play, Oriol shifted across to cover the gap and cleanly won the ball back with a heavy standing tackle.
“Well done, Oriol!” Simeone Jr.
shouted, clenching his fist on the touchline.
Back when Oriol was originally coming through the Atlético academy, he had been developed strictly as a defensive midfielder.
Now that he had returned, he was right back in his natural, comfortable position.
Philip pressed forward to close the defender down.
At the exact same time, Hernández quietly started making a blind-side run toward the goalkeeper.
Sure enough, when Levis saw the high press and turned to pass back to Michael, he heard his keeper scream, “Play it out!”
Levis immediately adjusted his footing and launched a long clearance down the touchline.
When he glanced over his shoulder, Hernández had indeed been lurking right in his blind spot, eagerly waiting to intercept a back-pass.
A cold chill ran down Levis’s spine.
‘That sneaky bastard,’ he thought.
Levis raised a hand toward Michael to acknowledge the life-saving shout.
In the 35th minute, Leganés took a throw-in on the right flank.
Philip received the ball and bounced it back to Touré before immediately making a penetrating forward run.
Oriol charged over aggressively, fully prepared to win the ball with a bruising physical challenge.
But Touré was deceptive.
He gently nudged the ball aside and cleanly slipped past the charging Ghanaian.
Oriol desperately wanted to turn back and drag him down, but Touré had already released the pass.
It was a precise, surgical ball, cutting straight through the heart of the defense.
Philip took it in stride and went one-on-one with Michael.
A massive chance!
Michael didn’t wait passively on his line.
He sprinted out early to close the angle.
Seeing the keeper rushing him, Philip immediately tried to place a low shot into the far corner.
Michael rapidly dropped his body into a full split!
The ball deflected heavily off Michael’s extended lower leg.
The rebound didn’t bounce far, and Michael seamlessly sprang back to his feet using a quick kip-up.
The fans behind the goal roared in approval.
But on the other side of the box, Hernández took control of the loose ball and drove toward the net.
Michael shuffled rapidly across his line to face him.
Hernández placed a curled shot toward the far post and the ball bent just out of Michael’s reach.
But arriving at the far post, another player threw himself at the ball.
Levis!
The English defender cleared it off the line with a desperate sweeping kick.
Michael and Levis collided with each other, hyped up from the defensive stand.
“Well done, brother!” Michael shouted.
“Same to you, man!”
Their teammates rushed over to high-five them.
On the touchline, Barry furiously kicked a water bottle into the advertising boards.
“Damn it, this kid really won’t just go away!” Barry cursed.
On the pitch, Hernández looked like a man who had just been robbed in broad daylight.
When he struck the shot, he was certain it was going in.
He never imagined that even if he finally managed to beat Michael, he still couldn’t get past Levis sweeping on the line.
After that scare, Atlético comfortably controlled possession for the remainder of the half, and the referee eventually blew his whistle for the break.
…
Inside the away dressing room, Barry laid out a revised tactical plan for his squad.
“In the second half, we focus entirely on set pieces.
If we can draw fouls outside the box or anywhere near the edge of the penalty area, we execute our planned routines.
If we can catch them sleeping and take it quickly, even better!”
Over in the home locker room, Simeone Jr.
was highly satisfied, telling his players to hydrate and keep their focus sharp.
The second half began with both sides switching ends.
Leganés kicked off.
At the back, Blind controlled the ball.
Noticing that Atlético’s forwards were sitting deep and refusing to press, he began casually passing it back and forth across the defense to waste time.
Loud boos instantly rang out across the stadium. Read this novel at novelping.com for the best experience.
Hearing the crowd turn hostile, Costa quickly stepped up to initiate the high press.
At Atlético, the supporters’ energy dictated everything.
Blind had been patiently waiting for Atlético to break their shape.
The second Costa moved, Blind launched a precise long pass straight into the open space behind the Atlético defense.
Because Levis had dropped slightly deeper to cover, Hernández was kept onside as he controlled the ball.
But he didn’t immediately attack the goal.
Instead, he began carrying it sideways along the edge of the box, deliberately trying to draw the center-backs out.
Felipe stepped up to put a tackle in.
Hernández cleverly dragged the ball to his left, manufactured minimal contact with Felipe’s trailing leg, and immediately went down.
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The referee blew for a foul, awarding a dangerous free-kick just outside the box, though he kept his cards in his pocket.
As the Atlético defenders jogged back to set up the wall, Hernández quickly placed the ball on the turf.
A quick free-kick!
He tapped the ball short into the middle, and Philip sprinted onto it, striking it first time!
“Goaaaaaaal!”
Michael had been turned sideways, communicating defensive assignments with his backline.
The shot was hit into the bottom-right corner before he could even set his feet.
‘Rewind ten seconds!’ Michael shouted in his mind.
Time snapped back.
The referee blew his whistle for the foul again.
Michael pointed and shouted, pretending to organize his defenders’ positioning, but in reality, his peripheral vision was locked entirely onto Philip’s stance.
Hernández took the quick free-kick.
As the ball rolled across the grass toward Philip, Michael was already shifting his weight.
Philip struck the shot.
Michael exploded off his line, appearing at the right post in a flash.
He caught the ball firmly against his chest!
The entire stadium erupted in stunned disbelief.
Atlético’s players furiously swarmed the referee, aggressively protesting that Leganés had taken the kick before the whistle.
The referee waved them away since the quick restart had been completely valid.
“Hernández takes the free-kick quickly!
The referee allows the play to continue!” Jack screamed into the microphone.
“Philip shoots!”
“Michael saves it!
My God!
What a save from Michael Chen!”
“Looking at the slow-motion replay, we can clearly see Michael was busy directing his backline’s positioning.
But the exact second Hernández takes the quick free-kick, Michael anticipates it perfectly.
By the time Philip actually strikes the ball, Michael is already covering the post!”
“That whole sequence was genuinely brilliant!
There’s a saying: no matter how cunning the fox is, it can’t beat a hunter!
Today, Michael Chen is that hunter!”
On the touchline, Simeone Jr.
clenched both fists and pumped them aggressively.
“Yes!
Having Michael back there genuinely raises this entire team’s defensive ceiling!”
Over in the away dugout, Barry looked completely stunned, rubbing his face in sheer frustration.
‘How the hell did he save that too?’
On the pitch, Hernández and Philip just stared at the keeper in disbelief.
For attacking players, seeing a perfectly executed trick-play get casually swallowed up was deeply demoralizing.
Hernández gritted his teeth and glared toward the goal Michael was guarding, a stubborn, burning frustration rising in his chest.
‘Even if I know you can read it,’ Hernández thought, wiping sweat from his brow, ‘I still want to see just how many of these you can physically stop!’