Second Chances: Indonesian Football Player

Chapter 40's

Sandy Walsh took a corner kick sending the ball into the middle of the box. There looked Nathan Kabasele a fairly tall player from the Anderlecht II Team preparing to receive the ball, but our central defender Miguel Alaron managed to gore the ball out. But Anderlecht's second-team attack was not over, the ball fell to Dendoncker's feet, he was preparing to kick from outside the box, but I quickly closed the space in front of him. Seeing the space I had closed Dendoncker down, he quickly canceled his intention and passed to Jordan on the left,

Jordan received the ball well, he quickly passed Kierst Donovan, before crossing into the box. This time Nathan managed to gore the ball and direct it towards the goal. It was fortunate that Damon swiftly read the direction of the ball and caught it with both hands ending the relentless attack from Anderlecht's second team.

After that we were completely in all-out combat by the second team of Anderlecht. I decided to focus on defending, several times I could cut, intercept and snatch the ball from the opponent. But Anderlecht's second team was led by three talented midfielders, Dendoncker, De Bruyn and Samy. They kept control of the midfield against me and Isaac.

In the 29th minute, Dendoncker brought the ball back, I blocked and tried to stop him, but he gave a short pass to Sandy on the right. Sandy quickly accelerated forward. Antonio tries to stop him, but Sandy quickly passes to Nathan before running and receives feedback from Nathan. Now with a second pass with Nathan, he managed to break through the left side of the heart of our defense, Rochefort, trying to block it, he said, but he was passed by Sandy who immediately took a horizontal kick with his left foot into the left corner of Damon's goal. Damon tried to reach him, but the ball was too fast and went into the net.

The score is now 1-0 for Anderlecht's second-team advantage. Goals scored by Sandy Walsh.

The game continued, with Anderlecht's 1-0 second-team advantage gaining more confidence. I see it is very bad, if we continue to be depressed like this, we will lose. So I took the initiative to attack when the opportunity arose. And the opportunity came in the 42nd minute, where after a failed corner from Jordan, we managed to do a counter attack.

Isaac who managed to get the vomit ball gave me a pass, I quickly dribbled towards the middle of the field. On my right and left I saw Andres and Ryandi running fast. I decided to give the hull pass to the right, Ryandi who saw it accelerate his run and managed to control the ball well, he quickly ran forward. Now the situation is 3 against 2 where, Ryandi, Kim and Bjorn face two defenders from the second team Anderlecht.

Ryandi quickly reached the right side of the heart of the Anderlecht II defense, in the middle of already seen Bjorn and Kim who are ready to welcome the bait to be given by Ryandi, who will be given by Ryandi, the two defenders also prepare to cut and intercept the ball. But Ryandi thought otherwise, he made a cutback pass backwards in the direction….Nero who quickly ran and welcomed the ball, Dendoncker who was chasing him tried to tackle and stop the kick that would be released by me, but unfortunately for him, he tried to, I was quicker to kick with my left foot into the top left corner of the goal that Davy Roef could not reach from the second team Anderlecht.

Now the score was 1-1 in the second minute thanks to my equaliser, I celebrated the goal by running to Ryandi and celebrating with my team-mates. After a while we prepared to continue the match.

With the equalizer goal, the game turned around, now we have the ball. Isaac and I always won possession in the middle against their three midfielders, with increased confidence we managed to control the midfield. But the second goal did not come until the minute injury time to 2 or 47 minutes. After Mehdi Tarfi's failed corner kick unleashed a long-range shot that Damon managed to capture. Damon quickly released a pass to Isaac, I who saw the left side of their defense immediately ran into the wings and switched positions with Kim. Isaac who saw it immediately did the left side feed.

I controlled the ball with my feet and ran straight to the left side of the heart of Anderlecht's second-team defence. Now I face one on one with one defender that is Vervoort, but I managed to pass him and enter the penalty box. Now I'm facing one on one with the opposing goalkeeper. But before I let go of the kick, suddenly Vervoort made a hard tackle from behind that caused me to fall.

*PRIIIITTT*

The referee blew the whistle and pointed to the white spot, which means we got the penalty. Not only that, Vervoort was also given a red card for doing a professional foul on me. Because if he doesn't stop me with that tackle, the odds are 90% for a goal.

Vervoort came up to me and helped me stand up and apologize. I just nodded, because I knew it was the thing to do to prevent the goal from happening. Now we got the penalty, I gave the ball to Bjorn intending to let him take this penalty kick but, he didn't want to and said instead.

“It's okay, take it.” I said once again.

“No you alone.” He said as he put the ball into both hands and out of the box.

I just sighed and nodded, I put the ball on the white dot. After that I took a few steps back, looking at the goal and the goalkeeper. I sighed twice and focused on taking this kick and scoring. The referee blew his whistle. I took a swing, took two small steps before doing one big step before releasing a hard kick into the top right corner with my left foot. Goalkeeper Davy Roef tried to pull the ball away, but the ball was too fast and hard so he failed to stop my kick and get the ball into the goal.

Now the score becomes 1-2 for the excellence of RSCA Youth Academy in the 47th minute. After the goal the referee also blew the whistle marking the end of the first half. I still celebrate my goal at the right corner with my teammates. We are very happy because we finished the first half 2-1 and outscored the second team Anderlecht. After that we went into the team's dressing room.

Meanwhile with coach Marcel and his Assistant.

This is an encouraging result for coach Marcel. After being depressed in the first 30 minutes of the game, which made him very anxious and frustrated when the first goal was scored by Anderlecht II's team. But now he can breathe a little relieved, seeing his team play, especially Nero's game, makes him optimistic to win this game.

“Nero is getting better day by day.” Said his assistant coach.

Coach Marcel was silent for a moment

“He is very talented. But his habit of deviating from the strategy of the game will get him into trouble later on.” Marcel said carefully.

“Yes, but he scored with his penalty. There was no one who could make the most of the gap in the wings like that earlier. His speed and dribbling skills are increasing rapidly” said the coach's assistant.

“Ya, indeed. It made me leave it with that little deviation. I feel even though he is very good on the wing, but his best potential remains a midfielder.” Said Coach Marcel.

“I can't argue with that.” His assistant said with a smile.

With that they entered the dressing room and met with the players. After delivering a few things and tactics, Coach Marcel allowed them to take a short break before the second half restarted.