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Chapter 53 Experiencing Matchday at Estadio do Dragao
**Tuesday, 28th January 2020**
Jason slowly drove into a free space in the parking lot in the Estadio do Dragao stadium and turned off the ignition of the car.
After the training/punishment the day before, he continued his own personal training until late before leaving the training complex.
The team had also had a few hours of training earlier today at the training complex before the coach had called out the players who would be in the team's line-up for the day's game.
He had them stop their training to avoid them getting exhausted and took them aside to lay out to them, the team's game plan for the upcoming game.
Jason, who wasn't among the line-up had continued his individual training until almost 5 pm.
He had then stopped, freshened up, and then drove to the Miami restaurant to get something to eat and to meet up with Sofia as they both were going to the Estadio do Dragao after to watch the game, so it was sort of a date.
Jason hadn't experienced the atmosphere of a match day at Porto yet, and since he would always be allocated tickets to the game as a member of the team, then why not watch the game at the stadium instead of back at home?
Sofia who was a fan of the Porto side was also all for it when he had brought it up so that had led to the current situation.
Jason and Sofia got out of the vehicle and joined the crowd that was streaming into the stadium in droves.
Sofia wore an Alex Telles Porto jersey along with dark blue jeans and Jason was dressed in black cargo track pants and a hoodie, but Jason didn't bother pulling the hoodie over his head as there was no point in doing so.
He wasn't famous enough that he had to hide his face from people and despite the cold, he didn't need to cover his head as in his words, "Who needs a head warmer when you've got enough hair."
They made their way into the stadium and found seats in the stands that overlooked the team benches and sat comfortably to wait for the beginning of the game.
The pre-match warm-up was already over and it was soon going to be time for the players to make their entrance so they didn't have to wait too long.
The Porto side and the Gil Vicente sides came out holding hands with children and the referees in the lead. freewebnσvel.cѳm
The pre-match formalities didn't take much time to get through and the match soon kicked off after both teams had picked a side.
The Gil Vicente side was the team that kicked off the match and their travelling fans seated behind their goal cheered loudly as the team kicked off.
This was the second time both teams were meeting this season and their previous meeting had been the first match of the season which had ended up in a defeat for the Porto side so the shouts of the Porto fans soon overshadowed the voices of the travelling fans as they spurned their team for a victory this time.
The match started on a very attacking note and the ball flew across the field a countless number of times as both teams tried to find a goal.
There was no shortage of exciting attacking football from both sides and both teams didn't hold back and rained down shots on each team's goalkeeper.
This went on for the first thirty minutes of the game but a first goal still hadn't arrived and the two teams attacking attempts slowly dwindled and they slowly transitioned to a more conservative style of football.
It was at this time that the Porto team's wingers ineffectiveness began to show itself once again.
It wasn't as bad as in the previous game against Braga, but as soon as the Gil Vicente team stopped sending players forward and their defenders settled back to play a more defensive game, the holes in the defense that the Porto wingers had managed to exploit were closed up and they found it difficult to have as much influence on the game as before.
Luckily other members of the team were up to par enough to keep the Gil Vicente team under pressure enough to prevent them from making any waves, but as the end of the first half approached, the Gil Vicente began to play more aggressively than ever, their objective seemingly being to get a goal before the first half ended, and soon an opportunity to do so showed itself.
In the 43rd minute, Jesus Corona lost possession of the ball when he tried to dribble past a player from the Gil Vicente team and the player who snatched the ball quickly started to begin a counter but was forced to slow down before long due to the quick rearrangement of the Porto's defense to quell the counter-attack.
The Gil Vicente team ended up stopping their counter to not risk losing the ball and instead opted to pass the ball around patiently just outside the Porto penalty area.
It was inevitable that leading the opponent to their penalty area without increasing the press would cause problems and soon a Gil Vicente midfielder found the team's center forward, Lima at the edge of the penalty box.
Lima quickly used his physique to shield the ball as he turned to face the Porto goal and fired a low-driven shot to the left corner of the goal.
Ivan Marcano, the Porto goalkeeper quickly flew at the ball, but to his dismay, he was a few split seconds too late and the ball flew past his outstretched hand to slam into the back of the net.
*GOAL!!!*
{And it's Gil Vicente who score first after a counter that seemed to have lost its luster}
{A surprising effort from the striker who brought his position to life with a wonderful strike on the ball, sending it past the keeper and into the back of the net to lift his team and the team's supporters who have traveled to watch them play}
{With that goal, history looks set to repeat itself} The commentator performed mouth acrobatics while Lima, the Gil Vicente striker performed jubilation acrobatics of his own in front of the thousands of fans that filled the stadium, but only his teammates and the visiting fans were in any mood to follow him in jubilating the goal.