Showtime In London

'You know, contrary to all expectations Jim, this match has actually gathered a lot of viewers worldwide. A lot of people have assumed that Teesside are going to lose this match against London Blue, and to a lot of people, it's just a question of how many goals are scored'

'Yes Tim, it's a classic David versus Goliath, Bully versus Nerd, Underdog versus… Overdog? Classic movie scenario, but you know what Tim? David killed Goliath, the Nerd always gets the girl and the underdogs end up piping the overdogs. Let's see how today turns out'

'The only thing we're going to see happen today is a complete demolition of Teesside. They've barely got any senior players fit, they've had to call on teenagers and youth players to fill in for them at times. I just don't see how an injury riddled Teesside would manage to scam a win against a red hot London Blue'

'I don't think the injury crisis at Middlesbrough has been a bad thing Tim, look how many genius kids it unearthed. Omari Hutchingson, David Arkenberg and now, playing his first match in professional football, Ayanfe Adeogun'

'Still, they're just kids. What do they have against a bunch of stronger, faster, and more seasoned professionals?'

'And the players are coming out Tim, the match is about to get started!'

4'

Coming into the match, any sane person watching bar the family and friends of the Teesside players would probably feel that London Blue were the favorites to win the match. After watching the first four minutes of the match, they would feel like they were probably right.

After four minutes of play had passed, Teesside had zero possession of the ball. The London Blue players had just been passing the ball around with the hopes of finding space to penetrate Teesside's admirably compact defensive shape.

Right from when London Blue kicked off the match, the Teesside players fell back into a defensive shape. If one didn't understand the game plan any clearer, perhaps the fact that they started the game with seven defenders would scream it loud enough. They didn't have that many fit players so David had to play as a right back, a very defensive right back.

Teesside were playing a 7-2-1 formation, headed into the match. Michael's plan was to have a team that could easily transition from defense to attack. While out of possession, the team would play a 7-2-1 formation and transition into a 5-4-1 when going on the counter attack. It was a genius move from Michael, but there was only one small hiccup… The Teesside players actually had to touch the ball for the strategy to work.

As was mentioned before, London Blue were just lazily knocking the ball around, not playing offensive football at all. They were just taking their time, waiting for one of the Teesside players to mess up and open up a pocket of space.

Unfortunately for Teesside, that time came sooner than either of them would've expected. Cale Parlmer found a bit of space on the right, instead of making another lazy space, he ran into the box and set himself up for a shot.

By the time the two center backs had realized their error, it was too late, Cale Parlmer drilled the shot into the bottom right corner. The Teesside defenders could only watch helplessly as the shot curled towards the post and headed towards the-

'Oh my! What a save from Adeogun. Cale Parlmer just finding that bit of space in the right flank. He quickly pounces in on the space, about to punish the Teesside defenders for freeing up that much space but it looks like Adeogun is their savior on this one. This is surely going to be one of the highlights of his career, what a beautiful dive!'

'It's a rare thing to see this days, goalkeepers going at full dive towards the ball. Most of them just lazily jump towards the ball. Adeogun really got a hand to that ball, pushing it out of the goal and out of bounds for the corner. Great save from the teenager'

'One could imagine the amount of pressure he must be under, making his debut against a team like London in goal for a team like Teesside. So far so good, he seems to have handled it very well. Really good talent he is, let's see how he fares for the rest of the match'

Ayanfe's save however, turned out to be the most exciting thing in the first half. After that, it was chance after chance for London Blue who failed to convert any of them. One way or the other, they couldn't finish off some really brilliant chances. That being said, Ayanfe was brilliant between the posts. He made about seven saves in the first half to keep the match goalless.

Teesside had some great chances to go on the counter, unfortunately, their attack wasn't exactly rich in experience. One foolish mistake or another from their attacking players caused the counter attack to be naught.

At the end of the first half, both sides of players left the field frustrated. Both sides thinking that they should've done more with the chances they had.

No matter how frustrated any player was with himself, nobody could be as frustrated with themselves as Omari was. He was completely shut out from the game from the get go. The London Blue players didn't allow any pass to get to him at all. The number of touches he had could be counted on one hand.

"Fucking hell" Omari muttered to himself. Playing against a top team was way harder than he had anticipated. He heaved a small sigh as he walked back to the locker room with his teammates.