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

Chapter 67: [67] "Colbert’s Cathedral"

Piii.

The whistle cut through the noise at Stade Valois as thirty thousand people rose to their feet before the ball moved from the spot.

Montclair in their away kit. SC Valois in their black and gold splattered home kit. The pitch was bordered by advertising boards that were running a deodorant ad. No mud, just a flat surface and a crowd, on both sides, that had been watching their team dismantle opponents all season. Montclair the better side as of recent.

Montclair kicked off.

They didn’t play it forward. Their striker Alvarez rolled it back to the center-back and the whole team dropped five yards and invited SC Valois to come and take the ball if they wanted it.

They didn’t want it, not yet. The mid-block held. Luc stayed high. Hugo sat between the lines with his arms at his sides as he watched Brémont.

The passes began.

Right center-back to left center-back. Left to right. Into Brémont, who received, played it sideways. Twelve passes in forty seconds, every single one of them horizontal or backward, the ball moving like it was alive and refused to stay in one place.

The Montclair crowd loved it. Every pass met with a low, satisfied cheer.

"They’re warming up the crowd with possession," Luc thought. "Same way a boxer jabs to measure distance before the killing blow."

---

Minute seven.

Brémont received for the fourth time in the half and played it to his right center-back. Hugo stepped toward the passing lane between the right center-back and Brémont, not pressing, just occupying the space of the return pass.

The right center-back played it wide instead, to Montclair’s right fullback.

The right fullback drove forward into space. Owusu closed him down fast and won the duel, the ball running out for a Montclair throw-in.

One disruption. But not entirely a turnover.

Henri made a quick gesture from the technical area.

---

Minute eleven.

Karim received wide left, the first time all match their left winger had the ball in his area.

Aubert was there. Two yards off, showing Karim the outside toward the byline.

Karim didn’t go outside. He took one touch inside, exactly as the video room had shown, his body cutting across Aubert, but that should have been impossible at that angle.

Aubert recovered. Just.

He got a foot in, steering Karim’s touch slightly long, and Demirci came back to collect the loose ball and play it upfield.

Aubert straightened, he knew his positioning on the next phase of play would have to be half a yard tighter.

He had learned from that immediately.

---

Minute seventeen.

SC Valois’ first real chance to attack.

Mateo won the ball in his own half from an overhit Montclair pass, a rare miscommunication between Brémont and his left central midfielder. Mateo drove it thirty yards forward before playing it wide right to Aubert, who was pushing up the right side with Montclair’s left winger caught too high.

Aubert crossed early.

Luc arrived at the near post, his run timed off the right center-back, the Blind Side Run Timing firing before the defender had decided which direction to commit.

His header was clean and downward.

The Montclair keeper, a 6-foot-2 veteran named Prost, got both hands flat on the turf and palmed it away at full extension.

Corner.

The away crowd responded before the ball had even gone out. Applause for their keeper, they recognized the save required their appreciation.

The corner produced nothing. Hugo’s delivery was good, Ekberg attacked it at the near post, but Montclair’s zonal block was exactly as practiced. It fell to their central midfielder and he cleared it out.

---

Minute twenty-three.

The ball came from nowhere and suddenly from everywhere at once, the nature of ball progression made by a team who had been building pressure through inaction.

Brémont received in the midfield, the first time all match he had received facing forward rather than with his back to goal. Hugo was a half-step slow in reading the positional shift because it was the first time Brémont had done it this match.

Half a step was enough.

Brémont drove the ball into the space between Mateo and Demirci, a gap that materialized because both of them had leaned slightly toward the Montclair left winger during the previous phase, kudos to Karim’s movement.

Alvarez had drifted into that space before the pass came in.

He received on the turn, Hadj was arriving immediately. But Alvarez didn’t try to run. He spun and wrong-footing Hadj’s momentum, and laid it off first time to the right midfielder arriving late from behind Mateo’s shoulder.

One touch. A shot from eighteen yards, fired low to Blažek’s left.

Blažek got down but the power and placement beat him.

1-0.

The away fans cheered heavily.

Thousands in full voice, making a kind of deafening noise.

The Montclair right midfielder hadn’t celebrated. He had already reset for the next possession play to continue, as though scoring was just another completed task rather than a reason to stop working.

"Dangerous," Blažek said, getting up from the ground.

[System Notification]

[Objective reminder: Exploit the right channel twice. Score from it or create from it.]

[Reminder: You are now 1-0 down.]

[Penalty countdown active]

"Don’t remind me."

---

Minute twenty-eight.

SC Valois regained their shape. The goal had given Montclair a breathe to tighten their defensive structure, dropping their three midfielders into a flat bank in front of their back four... making that Montclair right channel all the more important.

Bastien had started the match in Dário’s wide left position in the eleven today, Henri’s decision reflecting exactly what Hugo had said in the video room. His runs were harder to track.

He made one in the twenty-ninth minute. A late diagonal from the left, crossing the face of the penalty area, peeling off the back of Montclair’s right center-back as Luc drew the left center-back’s attention with a run towards the other end of their post.

The pass from Hugo was early and slightly overhit, the weight just too much.

Bastien got a touch on it but couldn’t control it. The ball ran out for a goal kick.

Close. But the execution needed more fine tuning.

---

Minute thirty-three.

Karim received again on the left.

Aubert, the Valois right back was tighter this time, positioned to force Karim to the outside. But Montclair had identified Aubert’s adjustment too and their left central midfielder arrived in the pocket Karim had cut into the previous time, giving him another option beyond the one Aubert had been trying to cut off.

Karim played it to the central midfielder who had arrived.

The midfielders ball reached Alvarez at the top of the penalty area. Hadj was on him, Ekberg covering.

Alvarez laid it off backward to the arriving right midfielder.

Same position. Same angle. Same man... maybe even the same attacking move.

The only difference, the shot was harder than the first, bent slightly by contact with a Valois shin.

2-0.

The stadium sound changed from noise to certainty. Two goals for a possession team. They couldn’t wait to watch the highlights any sooner.

Henri was already at the edge of the technical area, pointing at Mateo, gesturing that he was not covering where he said he’d cover.

Mateo acknowledged it with a fist.

The problem wasn’t the shape. The problem was Montclair’s right midfielder arriving late into shooting positions that neither Mateo, Owusu or Bastien were tracking.

He was the ghost in their midfield. Arriving after the Valois press had committed, finding the ball in pockets that existed for a brief period.

Luc walked to Mateo.

"Their right central midfielder, number eight. Every time they transition through Alvarez, he starts ten yards behind his position and arrives into the shot zone after our press commits. He’s been free twice. Both goals came from him."

Mateo didn’t argue, he just changed who he tracked on the next Montclair possession play.

---

Minute thirty-eight.

Luc received between Montclair’s right center-back and their right winger who has been quiet all game, that right channel they identified.

He held it under a press from the right winger, the Pressing Resistance helping him in keeping the ball, his body angled to buy the time he needed.

Idriss had started his run the moment Luc controlled the ball. Along the inside of Montclair’s right center-back, deep and diagonal, arriving at the far post with half a yard of space.

Luc played it.

The pass was good. Weight exactly right.

Idriss arrived. The right center-back had tracked the run but couldn’t recover in time.

Prost spread his arms, ready for a shot at his goal.

Idriss hit it with his right foot.

Prost got a full hand to it.

The ball came off his palm onto the crossbar and out.

Idriss pressed both hands against his forehead, standing and staring at the keeper.

The Montclair faithful absorbed the moment with quiet confidence, more in their goalkeeper than in the opposition’s forward.

Half-time whistle.

Piii.

2-0. Montclair leading at the break.