八字万年历

Chapter 169: Liga NOS is Back IV

By going straight at the Familicao penalty area, he would even have the chance to take a long-distance shot if it was impossible to make it through all the defenders.

Of course, the disadvantage of going through the center was that there would be more players to deal with, but Jason wasn’t the kind of person to allow that to stop him, and would rather find a way to turn that into an advantage.

Having made up his mind, Jason quickly moved, his pace increasing with every step until he stabilized at a speed that wouldn’t make it too difficult for him to dribble or change directions midway.

Soon he came across the the first player in his way, but he did not change his pace, instead, his shoulder dropped towards the right making it seem like he was going to change his direction and try to skip past the right side of the player.

The Familicao midfielder reacted immediately he noticed Jason’s intentions but at that moment, Jason’s whole body shifted back to the right and Jason’s right leg pushed him towards the right while he used his left leg to take the ball along with him as moved past the defender who was still leaning towards the right.

Just after getting past the first player, Jason noticed that one of the center backs had been approaching ever since Jason had faced off the earlier player and was already only about a yard away.

Jason quickly stretched out his right leg, poked the ball between the legs of the approaching defender, and quickly ran after the ball once again.

At this point, he had already made his way through two Familicao players but there were still three players in his way, making him wonder If he should just hit the ball with as much power and accuracy as he could manage.

He still felt that it was a bit too far for him to ensure enough accuracy and power to make it past the goalkeeper, so he could only try to get even closer.

With this in mind, he kept moving, and two defenders came at him, realizing that coming at him one by one was not going to do anything, thus they came at him at the same time, arranging themselves across each other.

Seeing that the defenders had spread themselves out and seemingly left a space in between them, be understood what they were trying to do.

By spreading themselves, out, if he tried to go around either of them, he would waste time and even if he managed to get past them, he would be at an odd angle where it would be hard for him to take an accurate shot, but if he tried to go through their middle, he would be double teamed and would probably end up losing the ball.

Considering his options, Jason made his decision and moved, not pausing his movements all throughout the thought process.

Jason turned towards the defender on the left and did a couple of step-overs, but the defender didn’t move as he believed that the only option a sane person would make was to take on one person alone, but then Jason suddenly changed directions and tried to accelerate through the space left between the two defenders.

The two defenders were stunned by Jason’s audacity as they couldn’t believe that he had chosen the most difficult way out, but they were only stunned for a split second and they reacted in the next second and closed in the space.

Jason also reacted quickly and tried to jump in between them after pushing the ball through, but he only managed to get past the first defender before he was knocked to the ground by the other Familicao defender.

*Fweeeeeee*

The referee’s whistle went off immediately Jason went down and the referee ran over, pulled out a yellow card from his breast pocket, and booked the defender who had brought Jason down.

Fabio Viera also headed over and pulled Jason up while Telles took up the ball, intending to take the free-kick.

Jason took Viera’s hand and stood up, feeling disappointed that he hadn’t been able to make it through the defenders.

‘Seems I still wasn’t agile enough and gave away my intentions too quickly,’ he thought to himself, trying to dissect his failure and learn from it so he could avoid such a situation when next he came up against this tactic.

The spot where Jason had fallen was about 27 yards away from the goal but was a bit on the left side of the Familicao 18-yard box.

“Hey Jason, come over,” Telles called over to Jason who was already moving away.

Hearing Telles call him, Jason walked over, wondering what Telles wanted from him.

“I want you to join me for this free-kick, I want to cross the ball into the box, but I want you to run at the ball like you want to take the free-kick directly,” Telles whispered to Jason while making a hand signal to the other players who were arranging themselves inside the penalty area.

“Oh, okay,” Jason muttered, glancing at the Familicao goal, before going to stand behind the ball as if he was the one to take the free-kick, while Telles stood a bit on the right.

The two of them waited while the players arranged themselves, but every now and then, Telles made a few hand signals at the players which they understood and arranged themselves accordingly.

*Fweeeeeee*

The referee finally blew his whistle for the free-kick and Jason started moving towards the ball while keeping his eyes on the wall, but to his surprise, the players who were arranged as the wall didn’t move at all as if they already knew that he wouldn’t be the one taking the free-kick.

The reason he was running over the ball was to confuse the Familicao players into thinking he would take the free-kick, but it seemed that the plan had failed because almost everyone knew that Telles was the dead-ball specialist for the Porto team.

It had also not helped that Telles had been giving all sorts of hand signs since earlier which was almost as good as telling the Familicao team his plan directly.

The Familicao players had probably guessed by now that Telles probably wouldn’t take the shot directly, because if he was going to take the free-kick directly, then who was he signaling to?

‘Why would one signal to his teammates if he was going to take a direct free-kick?’ Any sane person would ask this question.

At this moment, Jason could already tell that their plan had been seen through, and he didn’t like it.

He had worked extra hard to get the ball this close to the box and had already failed at getting a goal the first time… he was not going to fail again.

If the Familicao players thought of him as harmless, then he would make them pay for underestimating him…

‘Hopefully, this works, or Alex is going to kill me during the break,’ Jason thought to himself with a wry smile as he changed his motion mid-step and swung at the ball instead of stepping over it.

Everyone on the field was stunned and couldn’t react in the slightest as the ball took flight and curled beautifully over the players who stood as a wall.

After going over the wall, the ball dipped slightly and continued unhindered until it slammed into the top left corner of the Familicao goal.

The Familicao goalkeeper could only watch the ball fly past him in surprise as he stood there rooted to the spot.

{GOAL!!!}

{Stunning! Absolutely stunning!}

{A wonderfully taken free-kick, a beautiful curler, and a stunning goal!}

{Who would have imagined?!}

{He’s kept his fangs sharp, added more skills to his arsenal, and unleashed them at the opportune moment} The commentator went wild as he spoke.

On the pitch however, Jason had a smile on his face as he watched the ball go in, but he turned around with his hand in surrender with an apologetic smile towards Telles.

He may have ended up scoring the goal, but he had literally deceived even his teammates and wasted all their efforts at preparation.

Their plan may have already gone awry, but what did it matter anyway, he had to at least look apologetic, but his teammates didn’t overthink as much as he did.

Telles was even the first to throw his arm around Jason’s shoulder while holding out his other hand for a high-five.

“Nice kick, man,” Telles said with a happy smile, not having the slightest negative feeling since Jason had already scored from the free-kick.

He wasn’t even planning to score the free-kick directly so what did it matter if another member of the team had scored a direct free-kick?

The other Porto players also surrounded Jason to celebrate the goal.