Greatest Of All Legends

Chapter 64  Vitoria de Guimares VS FC Porto.

A melancholic smile was plastered across Jason's face as he went on to write what the little girl, Selina demanded on the jersey before handing the marker back to her father and rubbing little Selina's head.

He said a quick goodbye and began to walk away, his emotional state slightly turbulent, but he quickly put it behind him and attended to a few other fans before heading into the stadium along with his teammates.

They were led to their locker room where they met the two assistant coaches who told them to quickly change so they could get onto the field and have a little pre-match training and match warm-up.

The assistant managers would be overseeing that along with other technical staff since the manager had already headed to the pre-match press conference.

The players were soon on the field and doing a few warm-up drills as the stadium slowly filled up with the home fans of Guimares and the visiting fans from Porto.

After an hour of pre-match warm-up, the players headed back into the dressing room for final preparations before the game.

The head manager was already back from the pre-match press conference and quickly took the players through the pre-planned tactics once again while the players dressed up in their kits.

Soon the players were in the tunnel while the bench players were already sitting at the bench along with the head manager.

After the players filed out and did all the pre-match ceremonies, the match started shortly after with the Porto side being the team to kick-off the game.

Immediately after the game started, the Porto side tried to assert their dominance with high possession and rapid attacks that came from every side of the field.

They managed to get a few shots away within the first twenty minutes of the game, but they still weren't close enough to taking the lead as the Vitoria de Guimares side stood strong and thus the two teams were stuck in a deadlock.

But after the first twenty minutes of the game, things changed rapidly and the Vitoria de Guimares took the reins of momentum and began to play like champions, and it didn't take long before they began to oppress the Porto side and push them back into their half for the rest of the first half.

The Porto side continually tried to break this surge of momentum, but time and time again, they were continuously repelled and they were stuck in a passive play.

Sergio Conceicao on the sidelines barked out instructions and tried to encourage his team, but nothing seemed to be working.

The good thing was that even though they were being heavily pushed back, they still hadn't conceded a goal yet even as the clock ran down and the end of the first half approached.

Sergio Conceicao was already thinking about the changes he could make to the tactics that could help the team put on a different display in the second half when disaster struck suddenly for the Porto side.

The Vitoria de Guimares side had been trying to break through the Porto's defensive line yet again, but just like before, they were met with a sturdy wall, and they ended up losing the ball once again, but Mattheus Uribe who had been a little jittery after being oppressed for the most of the first half of the game tried to clear the ball but ended up kicking the ball at Danilo Perreia.

Danilo Perreira couldn't get out of the way in time, so the ball slammed hard into him before rebounding back over the Porto's defense line.

The striker of the Vitoria de Guimares side who had been in an offside position couldn't believe his luck as the ball dropped right beside him and he was left face-to-face with the goalkeeper.

He deftly controlled the ball before moving closer to the Porto goalkeeper and skillfully curled the ball around him, not letting himself be pressured by the defenders closing in from behind him.

Augustin Marchesin was no match for such a sudden move and despite trying his best, he could only watch as the ball curled past him in a blocking position and nestled into the bottom left corner of the goal.

GOAL!!! {In a surprising yet unsurprising turn of events, it's Vitoria de Guimares who score first despite the odds stacked against them} The commentator's voice echoed around the stadium despite the home fans cheering at the top of their voices.

{It can be said that we all saw it coming with how they had been the dominant side, yet scoring from a mishap by the Porto team is still quite surprising} The commentator's mouth didn't stop working despite how his words made the Porto team even more distraught.

The goal had come at an unexpected time and had stunned everybody on the Porto side. The players, the staff, and the fans were lost for words.

Mattheus Uribe and Danilo Perreira who were the cause were even more so and could not look their teammates in the eyes, especially Danilo Perreira who had been dragged into this situation by Mattheus Uribe shooting the ball at him.

"I hadn't asked for this," he wanted to shout out, but he didn't dare to and could only pick up the ball from the goal and take it back to the halfway line.

After the Vitoria de Guimares side took their sweet time celebrating their goal, the Porto side finally kicked off, but they had barely made the pass when the referee blew the whistle to signify the end of the first half.

The players of both teams trudged across the field towards the tunnel, but it was obvious that one side looked more upbeat than the other side.

As the Porto players filed into their team's locker room, the players who were tired chugged down water, but before long they felt almost scared to swallow the water in their mouths because of how the head manager just silently watched them with cold eyes that only displayed the emotion of disappointment.

After a full minute of awkward silence, Sergio Conceicao finally spoke, "I will not make a case of how you guys played in the first half as I'm sure you yourselves know that you were not up to par,"

"... As for the goal you conceded… " he paused mid-sentence to take a deep breath and control his raging temper that threatened to spill over.

"Anyway… going forward, we will be making a few changes," Sergio just decided to not mention anything about the goal as nothing that would come out of his mouth right now concerning the goal would help to lift the players' morale and he still needed to win this game so he refrained himself.