Going To The Ball

"I'm not going to stand here and tell you all well done, because you all played like fucking shit!" Michael stared at his players who hung their faces as they faced him. "This is just the first half yet you lot conceded twenty five shots already, and it's not as if they've been playing their best football as of late… They're fucking in tenth place in the English League!"

As soon as Michael made his last statement, everyone opened their mouths to talk but swallowed their words. After they thought about it for a bit, they realized that Michael was right to be angry at them.

London Blue weren't playing their best football currently, they were in tenth place, in other words, they were a mid table club. If it was Birmingham Villa that they were playing against, they would surely have put up more of a fight.

Simply speaking, they weren't afraid of the quality of their opposition, they were afraid of their reputation.

"Remember… Dare to dream!" Michael said, instantly creating enthusiasm between the Teesside players. "Hutchingson!" Michael called out. "What's up with your body language on the pitch? You've been looking salty all match. Even if you're unhappy, hide it with a smile, do you hear me?"

Omari stared blankly at Michael for a few seconds before slowly nodding his head.

"One more thing" Michael already started walking out of the locker room. He turned towards Omari when he reached the door. "If the ball isn't going to you… you go to the ball!"

Omari was in a daze for a few seconds before realization dawned on him. He looked at Michael and nodded again, this time though, there was a bit of gratitude in his eyes when he looked at Michael.

He realized the problem now. He had been positioning himself rather high up the field, waiting for the ball to get to him. There was no way the London Blue players didn't notice this hence, they already knew to cut off whatever passes was sent his way. If he really wanted the ball, he needed to delve deeper into his own side of the pitch… he needed to actually start the counter attack.

Not up to five minutes later, the two set of players walked outside and assumed their various positions, waiting for the second half to commence.

The referee blew his whistle and Middlesbrough resumed play. They passed the ball deep into their own half and sent a long ball to the left, towards Omari.

When the ball was a couple of meters from Omari, he saw a midfielder moving to intercept the ball. Seeing that the pass wasn't guaranteed to meet him, he did something that he should've been doing all game, he ran towards the ball.

Omari was a lot faster than the midfielder that moved to intercept the long ball so he got there first. The ball bounced on his head and went over the midfielder. Omari wasted no time and ran towards the ball.

As soon as he got past the midfielder, the London Blue right back made his way towards the ball.

Omari stuck his right foot out to try and trap the ball which was still bouncing. Unfortunately for him, his leg didn't make the right kind of contact with the ball. As a result, the ball spilled slightly out of bounds

"Shi- Oh" Omari's accidental which caused the ball to spill away ended up passing between the legs of the London Blue right back. Seeing this, Omari ran towards the ball, the London Blue right back.

Omari barely got to the ball ahead of the right back and kicked it out of his reach. After getting past him, Omari was introduced to a wide amount of space in the middle. He decided to take his time in order to draw other London Blue players out when they attempted to fill the space.

The London Blue players disappointed him though, they didn't break formation, they maintained a compact space, and the light sound of footsteps behind him told him that the London Blue right back was fast catching up with him.

"Fuck it" Omari muttered under his breath. Without warning, he changed the direction of his run, catching the right back off guard. He cut in towards the box and found himself face to face with a center midfielder.

Stepover.

Omari's legs flashed over the box, and without even waiting for the space, he moved further into the box, sticking out his hand to try and keep the center midfielder at bay. It was a wistful dream however, the center midfielder nearly shrugged him off the ball. He only managed to keep his balance at the last second, his legs connecting to the ball accidentally.

"Shit- Oh! Pinpoint finishing!" Omari muttered under his breath. He watched as the ball sailed in the air and arched down before bouncing off the top of the steel post of the goal.

"Fucking hell" Omari muttered under his breath.

'What an attempt from Omar Hutchingson. He manages to get past the right back, maybe a bit of luck there, he audaciously dribbles into the box and manages to get a shot away while he was off balance. With the kind of position that he was in when he made the shot, it's already impressive that he managed to get the shot close to the goalpost'

'Top talent he is, Omari. He just gave us a glimpse to what he can do. Even if it's against a big club, he's not shying away from taking on defenders and trying to get into the box. He's going to be one to watch in the future'

'Definitely Tim, some of the supporters from London here applauded his effort just now. He was very good just now'

A/N: Sorry for the lack of updates, wasn't a hiatus at all. I was on vacation and didn't have access to internet (foreign country and all). Not to worry though, I have a lot of chapters stocked up so we're seeing a two chapter a day update for at least a week.