Game plan

The sun glistened and so did the pitch, the wind blew to the south and the sounds of raging footsteps overcrowded the senses of everyone nearby.

Each team could use the Statham pitch but in order to maximize its use, they shared the pitch in half and practiced in turns meaning every team could get a decent warm-up before the first-round matches.

The matches had been announced and they were as follows for each team. The A bracket's first matches were Marion high vs. Luthervale high, Finreef academy vs. Union academy, TynRose high vs. Marigold high and Bastet academy vs. All peak high.

While the first-round matches for the B bracket were, Wrenchester high vs. Goldbridge prep, Coral dune vs. Daniel Fred's high, Honeycomb institute vs. E-Cille academy and Tracksprint high vs. Flintslot foundation.

Two matches would happen on the same day and others would happen on the days after, the players of the team that progressed would be given a two-day recess to recuperate and would have a match on the third day that followed and since this was a tournament played on a one-out format. Nobody was in a hurry to play the next match.

It was finally Marion's turn and they had the half pitch they played on for about 30 minutes. Byron shot the ball at Yuri and even though the goalkeeper read its direction the accurate shot still found its way into the net. They did light training all through, exhausting themselves would do them no good since they had a game against Luthervale in two days.

Paul looked at his squad from the sidelines, they were exhibiting exactly what Cory told them to train and against any team he could bet on his team's odds but something wasn't sitting well with him. "Hmm," Paul had re-watched some of Luthervale's old clips, dug into the specialties of their players and also looked into their coach but he didn't see what his gut was telling him to avoid.

"2-1, that's what the scores should end in but I might be wrong." Paul said and Cory stopped what he was doing.

"Wrong? big words coming from someone of your..." Cory paused.

"Pride?" Paul completed.

"I was looking for the more subtle way to word it."

"It's true, I hate admitting I could be wrong but." Paul looked at Byron. "Somethings missing in our game plan, someone's missing."

"You want us to spitball?"

"No, it's fine, focus on their fitness. I'll figure it out myself sooner or later." Paul walked onto the pitch, he looked at all the players then thought about how Luthervale played. They focused on everything a footballer could, none of their players had exceptional speed or anything like that. They moved and played like one single organism and that was the opposite of how Marion functioned at this time.

Of course, he knew Marion had the upper hand when it came down to it but he knew that Marion didn't have anyone to bring them together. Glue for the team. They had Danny who could take control of the offense and defense as well as Arthur who seemed to be a good captain for the squad but that wasn't enough to bond them together.

Byron passed the ball using the outer part of his foot, the ball got sent outside the box and landed spaces away from Xavier who caught up with the ball and volleyed it into the goal from a ways out. "Sorry, my pass was a bit off." Byron apologized.

"Get your stuff together man, the cheerleaders are watching." Xavier grabbed a ball and passed it to Byron. "Don't make me look bad in front of them."

"Xavier Leon Frederick, what were his strengths again?" Paul looked at the midfielder. "An average player through and through, loves volleying and heading but doesn't have anything that makes him special. A jack of all trades."

Byron passed the ball to Liam and Liam crossed over to Xavier who tried a bicycle kick to impress the girls who stood on the sidelines but failed.

"He didn't even flip over." Byron and Liam laughed as Xavier fell.

"I really hope he can focus if he's played." Paul facepalmed. "Hmm, I have an idea." Paul walked to his office and Cory took over.

They practiced till their 30 minutes were up and they made way for the next team which just happened to be Statham. "Don't lose to Luthervale," Christopher said while looking at Xiao.

"Don't injure yourself while stretching." Xiao wanted to flip him off at the end but there was no need.

Byron wanted to look at Luthervale's warm-ups but their opponents for the next match never showed up so he watched Statham and the remaining teams instead.

The teams were being weary and weren't showing off their full capabilities and that was to be expected, it was the same advice Paul gave them so it wouldn't be a surprise that other coaches would do the same.

They retreated to their hotel rooms and Paul gave them their tasks for tomorrow. "Rest." The team was shocked but it was necessary, they had a game in two days and they needed to be at the top of their game if they wanted to start the game at their best,

Byron, Xavier, and Max walked around the streets near Statham. They wanted to visit Yellowstone park again but it was too far and they didn't have the slightest idea how to get there, they window-shopped, bought some ice cream then tried to hit on some girls. Or rather Xavier tried to hit on some girls. An attempt that he wished he didn't make.

They had passed Benjamin, Arthur and Silvestre earlier and the only reason they left them was because Xavier was jealous of the attention random girls gave the group. "Pretty boys."

They finally returned to their dorms after having dinner and had a good night's rest for the match ahead, just like normal Byron could hardly sleep and the sheep weren't doing it this time. If he wanted to continue getting played he needed to show Paul that he was needed. "Max... Max, you up?"

Max didn't respond despite being awake because he more or less knew what Byron wanted to ask. If he had answered, Byron would've proposed going to train until they fell sleepy and that was something he wasn't going to be a part of.

Though Byron thought he was the only one awake, that couldn't have been farther away from the actual truth. In reality everyone in the Marion team was awake, even Cory, Paul and Annabel. Each person counted the seconds leading up to tomorrow's game. Anxiety, excitement, fear, joy. There was a mixture of feelings from everyone on the team but the only time these feelings would matter would be tomorrow on the pitch.

Marion dressed up in their orange and black patterned strips and walked into the tunnel alongside Luthervale, this was probably the first time they had been in a tunnel and hopefully it wouldn't be their last. Fans who were 90% made up of school students screamed as the teams made their way unto the pitch, camera flashes blinded them, the commentators shocked them. There might have been only 150 people in the stands but to the players, it felt like eighty thousand.

"Win," Paul told his team only one word and that was all he needed to say, this wasn't like the time against Tenzin. He was ready and so was his team. "Show them how much you've improved, show me how much you've improved. Show yourself how much you've improved."

"YES SIR!." The entire team said in unison.