Welcome to Statham
The entire team was in awe as they saw the sights of Wyoming, the attractions were old but gold. From the Buffalo bill center to Yellowstone national park. "Amazing."
Even though they wanted to spend time admiring the sights and taking all of its greatness in, they still had a tournament to show up for and although the tournament started 2 days after they still needed to show up and book rooms for the players.
"That Geyser was amazing," Afeez shouted looking back as they drove away from the beautiful park.
"Listen up everybody, even though this might still be explained to you while in Statham I think it's okay for me to gloss over this with you guys. The tournament has 24 teams and will be going on a one-out format."
"One loss and that's it." Arthur gulped.
"The brackets are split in half and are 12 on each side meaning that the finals will be against the other bracket." Paul looked at his notes.
"That means eight teams have already entered into the second stage, how does that work?" Xiao pointed out that eight teams won't have to play the first match.
"It's usually decided by standings but since this is the first tournament it's based on random selection, those who got lucky will skip the first game."
"And we obviously don't get lucky." Shin chimed in.
"It doesn't matter, I know the capabilities of everyone here and I more or less know the same for everyone in Luthervale. They are a team that relies on each player being a jack of all trades."
"Jack of all trades," Xavier said to himself.
"Each player lacks individuality and even though that is good sometimes, when up against teams like ours. Individuality has the upper hand. What could actually be challenging is our second and third matches. We might face up against Statham high and Union Prefecture both of which had very high standings in the last tournament."
"Christopher Alan," Yuri said, words that felt like the first time anyone had ever heard his voice. "He's a dangerous man."
"Yuri's right, Christopher of Statham high excels in ball retention and aerial combat. 9 out of 10 times his tackles will ground you but will never give him a card, his defense coupled with their already splendid offense might just be a tough nut to crack. Our key men for this would be Shin and Afeez. Use link passes to bypass him instead of a head-on challenge."
"Yes sir." Both Shin and Afeez responded.
"What about Union?" Annabel asked, Union was another team she had on her radars alongside Tenzin and Helios.
"That's one of the weirder ones, they're a solid team all around but they put a defender as their only striker in a 5-4-1 formation."
"Easy win?" Kyle asked.
"I doubt," Cory answered. "But be on your guard against them, don't want another Tenzin."
"So I'll be announcing the 24 teams now, in Statham we'll learn about the matchups." Paul flipped a page.
Marion High, Coach: Paul Siegfried
Luthervale, Coach: Joe Tristan
Wrenchester, Coach: Gareth Gilbert
Statham, Coach: Adam Ellis
All peak, Coach: Song Ha-Jun
Langley, Coach: Walter Grey
Union, Coach: Jeffery Zimmermann
Finreef, Coach: Ian Hommes
Coral Dune, Coach: Elton Paves
Jameson, Coach: Jameson Randsworth
Goldbridge, Coach: Finn Wallsrow
Quinnvay, Coach: Daniel Oswald
Bastet: Bryan Samstone
Daniel Freds: David Fred-dim
Marigold, Coach: Holland Tennessee
TynRose, Coach: Tiffany Parish
Flintslot, Coach: Tyler Blinks
Minakata, Coach: Aoi Hinata
Patricc-Uma, Coach: Velma Galloway
Santanna, Coach: Grant Fischer
Honeycomb, Coach: Jeremy Silvers
E-Cille, Coach: Cyril Youngstown
Che Fang, Coach: Yuze Liqin
Tracksprint, Coach: Jake Hoover
"Did you really have to call the name of the coaches?" Annabel asked.
"I guess I could have left that out."
"Song Ha-Jun? your dad?!" Mark asked Shin.
"Yeah," Shin answered and didn't speak about it any further.
"We're five minutes away." The bus driver said and Paul sat down.
"What do you think the place would look like." Arthur asked Benjamin but he didn't answer him.
"Any fancier than Marion and I might just faint," Xavier answered Arthur.
"SHHHHH." Cory put one finger over his lip and everyone quieted down.
Statham was definitely a sight, almost as if they just tried to one-up Marion in every aspect they could've. They set sprinklers on their pitch, had floodlights over their pitch and had an actual stand for the audience.
"Is it even a high school anymore?" Liam said looking at the pitch.
"No way, they're officially a better team than we are." Xavier said looking at the pitch as well. "They have cheerleaders for Christ's sake."
"That's all it takes for you." Liam said now looking at Xavier who gawked at the cheerleaders.
The bus parked and all the players exited, they didn't notice it but over 20 other buses were parked behind the school with over a hundred players loitering around in a space near the main building.
"Are we the last ones here?" Byron asked.
"No way," Max said counting the busses. "I think we are."
"That's what looking at geysers gets you." Cory followed Paul to what seemed like a coach meet-up.
"Can't wait to set my feet on that." Byron said excitedly.
"So you're the losers from California, Marion." A voice said.
"And you are?" Arthur walked up to him.
"Christopher Alan," Yuri said and also walked up to the Statham defender.
"And they have a third-rate goalkeeper as well." Christopher laughed garishly. "A truly B-rated team."
"I wonder what you'd say when we win." Xiao joined them.
"Don't push your luck kid, this isn't and will never be a fairy tale."
Tap Tap Tap.
"You'll be surprised," Xiao said looking directly at Christopher. "There's nothing more fun than hitting a nutmeg through the legs of a defender who thinks he's all that."
"I'll make you regret your words."
Tap Tap Tap.
"Are you sure about that?" Xiao smiled.
"Coming through pleasseeeeee." A boy holding what seemed like 20 drinks crashed into Xiao and Christopher spilling soda everywhere.
"Oh my God I'm so sorry, I'm so dead, please don't kill me." The boy said while packing up the non-spilled soda and loading them back unto the tray he held.
"What are you doing?" Byron asked.
"Oh. I'm delivering drinks for my friends." The boy said, his voice sounding like that of an actual 10-year-old.
"Seems like your friends don't think of you as a 'friend' if you catch my drift." Xavier picked up a drink and loaded it unto his tray.
"Noooo that's nonsense. See you guys later!" The boy ran away and Byron read the name off his back.
"Zeke. #9, wow he really is a player and a striker at that." Byron said reading the name off of the boy's back.
"C'mon guys let's go, they said we can't just stand there. We gotta go over to the other teams." Cory came over and ordered the team.
"That should be fun," Xavier said sarcastically.
All the teams stood together in a space given to them by Statham and they waited for the coaches. Paul and all the other coaches came up holding sheet papers in their hands and the coach of Statham spoke.
"Due to the number of participants in the tournament, there are going to be some teams that progress to the next round automatically. Those teams are as follows, Statham, Che fang prefecture, Minakata, Quinnvay, Langley high, Santanna high, Patricc-Uma prefecture, and Jameson high." Adam said as he flipped a page on his notepad.
"Bracket A consists of Statham, Marion, Luthervale, Finreef, Union, Che Fang, Minakata, TynRose, Marigold, Bastet, All peak, Quinnvay."
Shin clenched his teeth when he heard All peak was in the same bracket as Marion, he didn't have the cleanest breakaway with his dad and he wasn't ready to confront him.
"Bracket B consists of Langley, Wrenchester, Goldbridge, Coral Dune, Daniel Freds, Santanna, Patricc Uma, Honeycomb, E-Cille, Tracksprint, Flintslot, Jameson." Adam closed his notepad. "Your coaches will tell you your match-ups, that will be all for today."
They found a hotel close to the school and booked 7 rooms, 5 for the team with 4 players sharing each room, 1 for the coaches and 1 for Annabel. There are two more days before their match with Luthervale meaning they had time to train and rest. "Why does Annabel have to sleep in a room by herself."
"Shut up Xavier," Jeremiah said as he turned the lights off.