Open Play: Ladies, Goals, The Everything System in-between

Chapter 49: [49] "Fresko Part 1"

Forty-three minutes played. SC Valois still behind.

Luc was running a pressing drill on Neji directly now, anticipating his first touch, trying to force him wide rather than central.

But Neji easily adjusted.

He started receiving with his body at a different angle, shielding the ball with his back shoulder, making the press arrive at a different point in the movement than Luc had expected.

He was adapting in real-time, mid-match, like someone who had already been studying SC Valois since the draw was announced.

"He’s watching me the same way I’m watching him," Luc thought.

Minute forty-five.

Last play of the half.

Phocéen broke down the left. Owusu was caught upfield from a previous attacking phase, the space behind him was open.

Their left winger cut inside, avoided Demirci’s attempted tackle, and arrived at the top of the box with momentum and a clear look at goal.

He shaped to shoot.

Hadj threw his body in front of it.

The block was full-length, chest-first, the kind that bruises ribs and earns applause from the right kind of crowd.

The ball went out for a corner.

Phocéen’s corner was wasted, overhit and caught easily by Blažek.

The half-time whistle blew immediately.

Half-time. 1-0 to Phocéen.

---

The locker room presented a team that had worked hard and had nothing to show for it.

Idriss sat without looking at anyone. The post-shot expression on his face showed how the miss was eating away at him.

Cillian was pulling his sock down, examining a stud mark on his ankle.

Mateo stood with his captain’s armband pushed up his forearm, already thinking about the second half.

Henri came in and went straight to the board.

"Their press triggers when we play centrally. They wait for us to play through the middle, then collapse the play by pressing. We’re giving them exactly the situation they want."

"We’re not playing through Neji’s blind side," Luc said.

Henri pointed at him. "Correct. He doesn’t have a blind side centrally, so we stop giving it to him. Everything wide. Wide and early. Force their wingbacks to defend, not just attack."

Luc was already thinking it

Wide first. Space their defensive line out. Then play into the pockets Neji couldn’t cover all the way from his central starting position.

[System Notification]

[Objective reminder: Neutralize the Neji–Fresko partnership and score against Phocéen]

[Reward reduced: +1 Spatial Awareness stat (permanent)]

[Penalty: If SC Valois loses, all stats reduced to base level ahead of the Paris Royal game]

"Reward reduced?"

[You have already failed to neutralise the Neji-Fresko partnership]

---

Piii

The second half began in earnest

Minute forty-nine.

Mateo played the ball wide left immediately, skipping the temptation of the central lane entirely. Dário received it on the run, drove to the byline, and whipped a cross in early.

Idriss met it with a firm header.

The Phocéen keeper palmed it over the bar.

Corner kick.

The corner came to nothing, headed clear by Fresko himself, who had dropped into the defense with the assurance of a striker who understood exactly how a goal-line clearance protected a lead.

But SC Valois had the ball back quickly.

With their second phase of attack, Cillian drove into the left space, found Luc dropping to receive on the right.

Luc took it on the half-turn, two touches, the second one sharper than the first.

Neji was already closing him down.

"Am I the only one you fucking press?"

Luc played it backward to Mateo and ran into the blind side Neji’s press created.

Mateo played it back first time, driven hard across the face of the pitch to the right channel.

Luc was there. Running. The center-back scrambling across.

He didn’t take it wide. He cut inside on his left foot, took one touch to set himself on the edge of the area, and drove a low, hard shot toward the near post.

The keeper got both hands to it but the ball cannoned off his wrists, rebounding off the inside of the post.

It crossed the line.

GOAL!!!

1-1.

Stade Valois shook with the post. The home crowd finding their lungs atlast.

[System Notification]

[Open Play Goal — Beaumont 10 | Fontaine 11]

[One behind. Keep going.]

Luc celebrated with theatrics for the first time in a long time. After his teammates who had hurdled him had allowed a final celebration, he held up one finger to the camera behind the goal.

One behind.

---

Minute fifty-eight.

The equaliser had reorganized both teams’ way of thinking.

Phocéen pushed higher. Neji started receiving further forward, in areas closer to the SC Valois penalty box rather than his usual midfield command center.

The problem with that was that it freed up the space behind him that he otherwise would usually had occupied.

Luc recognized the shift in the fifty-ninth minute.

But a problem arrived before he could do anything with what he noticed.

Minute sixty-one.

A Phocéen corner from the right side. Mateo met it at the near post, tried to clear it.

Three Phocéen attackers and two SC Valois defenders contested the ball in the six-yard box. A scramble, boots and elbows, the ball going in four directions inside one second.

When it finally cleared, it landed at Fresko’s feet on the edge of the area.

From that distance, why would he hesitate.

The shot was struck with the outside of his right boot, bending viciously away from Blažek, who had been caught slightly forward from the corner routine.

The ball curled into the top corner.

2-1.

Fresko’s arm was raised before the net had even bulged. Confidence personified.

The Phocéen bench erupted again. The manager let them this time.

The Valois fans fell dead quiet.

Luc stood at the edge of his own half, watching the Phocéen players celebrate, his shirt damp with sweat, his body absorbing another gut shot.

Fresko had scored.

"He’s good," Luc thought. With the cold, look of a man who now needed to score again.

---

Two goals behind with about thirty minutes left.

Fresko needed to be neutralized.

The wager needed a second goal.

"The match isn’t over yet!"