After Bongani finished laying out the game plan, their wristwatches suddenly rang. Bongani looked at the people standing in front of him and took a few deep breaths.
"Okay, let's go, guys."
Winston patted him on the back and offered him a few words of encouragement. "We'll be at the pitch rooting for you. Remember, you're skilled, and you deserve to be here too. Don't forget that."
Oswin smiled and looked at everyone before turning his attention back to Bongani. He patted him on the back as well.
"Remember, you've got everything to lose in this match," he added. "If you lose, you'll be placed at the bottom of Group D since you're currently ranked first. And Wis is waiting for you in Group C."
Hearing those words lit a fire in Bongani's heart. He smiled and quickly nodded.
"Yeah. I won't lose."
With renewed determination, Bongani and his teammates walked toward Instructor Smith's office.
Winston and Oswin looked at each other, satisfied. They nodded as Bongani's attitude changed, his confidence returning. He cheerfully said something to his teammates before they began walking toward the pitch where the match would be held.
As Winston and Oswin walked along the tiled walkway, they noticed a group of players heading in another direction. The two looked at each other with furrowed brows.
Oswin recognized one of the youths he had spoken to before and quickly stopped him.
"What's going on? Where are you all going?"
The youth looked surprised before answering. "Oh, there's another match happening on the other side of the pitch."
"Who's playing?" Winston asked, looking at the excited group of players.
"Oh, it's Kale and Drew," the youth replied. He anxiously glanced at his friends, who were waiting for him. "Kale stole Drew's girl and slept with her when they were at a party."
Winston and Oswin looked at each other, Oswin loosened his grip on the youth's shoulder and shook his head. "Whatever happened to bro code? You never take your boy's girl."
"This is childish. It seems like people have forgotten why we're here. We only have a few weeks before we start receiving scouting offers," Winston put his hands into the pockets of his tracksuit jacket and walked away.
Oswin shook his head and followed him.
They eventually found seats in the middle row of the stands. The pitch wasn't full, leaving plenty of empty seats. Winston looked around before slouching into his seat. Oswin, carrying two bottles of water, handed one to Winston. He twisted the cap off his own bottle and took a long gulp.
"Thanks," Winston said, he took the bottle and drank from it.
Then his ear twitched—his hearing expanded outward like ripples spreading across a pond. The sensation came in waves, each one separated by a few seconds.
"Wait," Winston muttered.
Oswin glanced at him. "What?"
Winston tilted his head slightly. "I didn't think this match would get this much attention."
"Who can blame them?" Oswin replied. "The stakes of this match don't exactly sound entertaining. A player from Group B is challenging a player from Group D. To most people, that sounds like a bully picking on someone weaker."
He took another sip. "And their history isn't as entertaining as some of the other matches happening around the academy."
Winston's enhanced hearing picked up another distant conversation.
"Can I ask why you're here watching this match?" one youth asked.
"Didn't you hear? The player from Group D is friends with Winston and Oswin."
The voices were far away, but Winston could hear them clearly.
"I want to see how he performs since Winston and Oswin are out for the week. If he plays well in this match, he'll probably come after us next."
"Oh, great minds think alike. I also wanted to see how he would play as well,"
Winston sat up straight, the two youths were nowhere near them.
They're that far away?
Intrigued, Winston shifted his gaze toward the right side of the stands and waited for another ripple of sound. At that moment, Bongani, Pirlo, and their teammates walked onto the pitch.
The players formed two lines and began shaking hands, Winston watched carefully.
When Bongani and Pirlo met, they shook hands, but the tension between them was obvious. Their eyes remained locked on each other until the referee stepped between them and moved them apart.
Once the handshakes were finished, the referee called for the coin toss.
Bongani won.
Bongani huddled with his team. After they were done, he looked toward the stands and saw his two friends, who raised their bottles of water in encouragement. With a cheerful expression, he nodded at them.
"It's nice to see Bo back to his normal personality. That Pirlo One-on-One Challenge really rattled him at first, but after our help, he's much more confident," Oswin said, placing his bottle of water on the empty chair.
"Tell me about it. It really is nice to see him back to himself," Winston said.
He noticed that the hearing ripple he had been sensing had faded. Disappointed, Winston sat back in his chair and twisted the cap back onto his bottle.
"That Pirlo player is about to be surprised by Bongani now that he's back to himself."
Oswin took out two lunch bars and nudged one toward Winston.
"Wait, when did you get these lunch bars?" Winston asked as he took one.
"When I was recruiting players, I started in the Group A dorm and grabbed the last few lunch bars before the thief took the rest." Oswin sighed. "I will find that thief."
The referee blew the whistle.
The match began with Bongani's forwards taking a laid-back approach. They exchanged short passes from the back, refusing to rush their buildup. Hickman acted as their anchor man, constantly scanning the field for players he could pass to.
Bongani's formation tactic wasn't supposed to fully activate until they had a grasp of the match or identified Pirlo's strategy. Before the match started, Winston had received a full overview of Pirlo's formation. He was playing a 4-3-3.
As Bongani and his teammates exchanged passes, Pirlo and his players didn't sit idle. They immediately began applying pressure. Thanks to Hickman's positioning as the anchor, the ball repeatedly found its way to him. From there, he pinpointed players positioned in the pockets of space between Pirlo's midfield and defense.
There was an intense atmosphere surrounding the match. Elijah moved into a midfield pocket and waved his arm. Hickman immediately spotted him and lobbed the ball toward him. Elijah trapped the ball with a controlled touch forward before passing it to Bongani, who was making a run down the wing. Just as Bongani had predicted, one of Pirlo's midfielders and the left-back closed in on him from both sides, boxing him in and forcing him to lose possession.
The ball went out for a throw-in.
Bongani's midfielder quickly took the throw and sent the ball toward Elijah.
Elijah flicked it over the Pirlo player's head, then used his skillful dribbling to weave along the center line before switching the play to the opposite flank.
"Wow, Bongani is truly a genius. He put a playmaker and an anchor in the midfield," Winston said, his eyes fixed on the match.
Oswin leaned forward anxiously. "He's really good at setting up formations. I need to go to him when I receive challenges from Group B players."
The winger receiving the ball sprinted down the flank and pushed deep into Pirlo's half. When he reached the byline, he attempted a low cross. One of Pirlo's defenders slid in and deflected the ball out for a corner.
Elijah stepped up to take the corner, he glanced toward the penalty box and spotted Hickman making a series of body feints as he tried to lose his marker.
Elijah delivered a sharp, curling cross toward the far side of the box. Hickman leaped and connected with a header, sending the ball toward the far-left corner.
Bang!
The ball struck the crossbar and bounced out, Hickman slapped his hand against his thigh in frustration at the narrow miss. Bongani jogged over to him, and the two quickly exchanged a low-five before returning to their positions.
Pirlo's goalkeeper restarted play by passing to his center-back. The defenders quickly exchanged passes among themselves. Their pressure began on the left side, Pirlo's tactic was becoming clear.
He wanted to draw Bongani's players toward one side of the pitch. Once they committed enough players to that area, Pirlo's team would quickly switch the play and attack the space they had left open.