Ignoring my thoughts about the start of Manchester's downfall I refocused on the game again. Although the match seemed a little slower than the occasional ones, I witnessed in my past life it was still a remarkable sight. It felt like the attackers had a lot more presence in the team. For example, Nani who came on in the second half for Ronaldo is like a whirlwind once he gets the ball.
At some point, it felt like he had a personal grudge against his defenders. He ended up nutmegging the same defender twice in one run towards the goal. He did end up missing the final shot, but his dribbling was a remarkable sight. He looked like he was on a mission to create goals with every possession of the ball. I did however notice that he did come back to defend when the opponents had possession.
He was like a hungry beast staying close to the halfway line lurking for an opportunity to attack. I did notice that he came back to put pressure on the opponents by staying in the zone that made it difficult for them to turn back. Although I had yet to witness him going for a tackle, he did however get in between the passing lanes making it hard for them to string passes together.
"Hey Dest if your winger comes back as Nani does, would it be easier for you to win the ball from the opponent?" I spoke up wanting to confirm my conjecture first-hand by hearing the opinion from a wingback. The boy next to me seemed to really think about my question taking a while before he finally answered me.
"I guess it would be easier, it would defiantly give me more confidence to go all in for the challenge if I know that my winger is there for backup," he told me sounding serious about his answer.
"Alright good to know, what about that overlap thing that Evra kept doing in the first half of the game?" I asked him again wanting to find out what kind of wingback he was. During the game, I've seen a variety of them some that simply did their defensive jobs and others that actively attacked.
"If I had to choose, I'd like the freedom to attack since I'm quite fast and have a decent dribble" He answered me almost instantly. his eyes visibly glowed as he started talking about his love for attacking football. He loves the idea of scoring as a defender and not just being there as a shield against attacks from the opposition.
Listening to him ramble on and on about his preferred style of player got me to start thinking about my preference. For one I liked attacking football for sure as I get to see more of the ball during the game. I noticed today that whenever we were under pressure and had to defend it took way too long till I got a touch of the ball. I almost got bored at some point until I remembered my horrible performance and had to force myself to focus.
At the end of the game, I got to know that the type of style we were playing is called counter-attacking football. Which I hate now since it basically meant that my team wasn't good enough to keep control of the ball for extended periods of time. In the end, I realised I'm what you would call a ball hogg. The longer I can keep the ball the happier I am so I will have to become good enough to keep possession under high pressure.
We spent the next hour or so analysing the game and talking about what we would do in that situation. It felt more like a class session than us just watching a recording from a game, but it was quite engaging. What helped us is the fact that I was seeing the game from the perspective of an attacking player, and he was seeing it from a defensive standpoint.
"Alright let us go to the pools now I've studied enough for one day," I told him as I got up from the bed and went to my bag to grab a towel. Dest didn't protest as he followed me out of the room after grabbing his things.
It didn't take us long to get to the pools. It wasn't anything like the pool we had at home, this one was massive. It's the swimming pool used by the university swim team which probably explains why it's so massive. Right now, the giant pool was a field with loads of kids playing around in the pool.
Quickly hopping into the changing rooms, we quickly got changed into our swim trunks. It didn't take us long to locate our friends, as Yunus was easily one of the loudest kids here. The group was in the middle of a volleyball game in the water trying their best to keep the ball up.
"Hey, we got the next game," I shouted at the group getting their attention as the both of us sat on the sideline dipping our legs into the water. My shout was effective in distracting Yunus as the ball ended up hitting his face.
"You two finally decided to join us" Giovanni called out to us as he swam towards the two of us.
"Yeah, needed my afternoon rest to recharge my energy," I told the boy as I hopped into the pool submerging under water. The water was nice and cold which felt quite refreshing with how warm it was during the day.
"We are playing doubles find a partner and you can play next," Yunus said as he also arrived in front of us. His face was slightly red from the impact of the ball, but he seemed to have recovered from the impact.
"We will partner up then," Dest said as he tried to throw an arm around my shoulder trying to indicate that we were a duo.
"Nope brother but you are almost as short as me, Hey Ben we are partners let's destroy everyone," I told my delusional roommate before swimming off in the direction of the friendly giant. Ben was just chilling at the side of the pool enjoying the atmosphere so when I reached him, he looked rather heartbroken that I ruined his peace.
"Hey that was mean I'm still taller than you" Dest shouted at me just as I had reached Ben's side seemingly having processed my word. However, I didn't bother paying attention to him as I dragged Ben to the net.
"Don't look at me like that it's more fun than just sitting at the side?" I told him as we got to one side of the court. On the opposite side of the court, Yunus and Giovanni had lined up with the ball getting ready to start the game.
"Yo bro you about to lose big time," Yunus said as he showed a thumbs gesture as if he was holding up a weapon.
"Young padawan you've got a way to go before you can be a worthy match for me," I told him as I looked off into the distance trying to seem wise. That was a mistake though as the ball that was in his hand had somehow ended up hitting in the back of the head. The impact sent me flying into the water swallowing a bunch of it.
"You are a dead man now," I shouted at him as I jumped up from the water. Not wasting any more time I threw the ball into the air before hitting it across the net. Giovanni was fast to react as he hit the ball into the air. Yunus was close to it quickly getting underneath it and setting it up for his friend. The latter quickly jumped up and smashed it over the net.
Ben used his long arms to stop the ball's flight path knocking it into the air. Seeing the ball fly across the net, I jumped up with all my strength before casually tipping it over the net. My little trick seemed to have caught them off guard as they didn't expect my actions. They could only watch the ball hit the water on their side of the net.
"That's one down my friend" I called out to them as I high-fived Ben who had a rare smile on his face.
"You just got lucky well defiantly score the next one," he said as he picked up the ball looking to restart the game.
"I told you that you've got a way to go before you can be a worthy match for me," I told Yunus as we sat on the side having just finished the game. The match was fun but with Ben's basketballer-like build, we ended up dominating the game. To Yunus's dismay, we ended up winning the game by eleven to four.
"What are you so proud of Ben basically carried you throughout that match," He answered me sounding salty about his loss. It had been about ten minutes since his loss, but he was still moping about it.
"Yes, Ben is like Shaq, and I was feeling like Kobe in the game so the perfect team-up," I told him sending him a bright smile. My happy mood seemed to annoy him as he shoved me into the pool.