Chapter 176: Road to Liga NOS Champions 2019/20 III


    The assistant referee held up the boardandon it, the number 7 was in red while the number 21 was green.


    Beside the referee stood Jasonwhowas pouring some water on his hair while waiting for Luis Diazwhowas theowner of the number 7 jerseyte to the sidelines.


    Soon enough, Jason high-fived Luis Diaz, threw his bottle to the side, and ran onto the field, nodding at the teammates he came across as he took position on the field.


    The Porto fanswhowere viewing the game from their homeseitheron their TV or on their other devices, cheered a bit, hopeful that Jason could do something to change the game, especially given his run of form in thest few days.


    They were already displeased before the match started when they realized that he wasn’t a part of the line-up, considering that his performance for the team had been influential in all thest few matches, but nowthat they were losing to a team like Desportivo das Aves, their fury had been truly incensed.


    The fans could only hope that there was still enough in the tank of the Porto yers to try and make aeback or at least equalize.


    As Jason ran unto the field, thementator did not stay silentandhesoon started singling out the new threat to the Desportivo das Aves.


    {There hees, his picture one of determination and a beacon of hope for the current injured dragons} {Ever since he joined the team, his performance has been phenomenndhis form in thest few games has disyed that this kid is going ces}


    {The manager may be looking to him to lead the team to aeback here, but we’ll see whether he is up to the task or not, wouldn’t we?}


    ‘This guy needs to learn to shut up sometimes,’ Jason thought to himself as he noticed the look in the eyes of the Desportivo das Aves yers around him change and heard the opposition team’s manager shouting orders to the yers to make sure he was never free.


    While waiting for the referee to blow his whistle, Jason closed his eyes and started whispering to himself,


    “You want to be the best, right?”


    “Well, you are not the best… but you’ll be the best,”


    “To be the best, you must win, and to win, you must score,”


    “… and no one is going to be able to stop me,” whispering these words to himself to psyche himself up, his eyes shot open and gleamed withposure and intent.


    It seemed like a monster had awoken and was hungry.


    Luckily, there was prey right in front of him.


    *Fweeeeeeee*


    The referee blew the whistleandthe Porto team kicked off immediatelythe whistlewas blownandthe ball started moving around between them at a quick pace.


    The Porto team attacked boldly because they had their back to the cornerandthe only way out was through the Desportivo das Aves team.


    It didn’t take long before Jason got his first touch on the ball, receiving a grounded pass from Telles, Jason quickly turned and fed the ball past his marker before elerating past the Desportivo das Aves yer to chase after the ball.


    Reaching the ball, Jason elerated past the halfway line and sent the ball to Sergio Oliveira before making a run out towards the left while his marker chased hard after him.


    Sergio Oliveira did not bother trapping the ball and just sent the ball back into Jason’s path as he ran down the left of the Desportivo das Aves 18-yard box.


    Stretching out his leg to catch the ball, Jason trapped the ball with his first touch, but before he could move, his marker mmed into him from behindalmostsending him off bnce.


    Barely managing to stay on his feet, Jason dragged the ball along with him as he cut into the Desportivo das Aves’s 18-yard box while holding off his marker with his right hand.


    Due to how tightly he wasbeing pushedfrom behind, Jason could not even attempt dribbling the yers in front of himsohe did the next best thing and crossed the ball immediately,justbarely managing to swing at the ball.


    The ball flew intotothe Desportivo das Aves’s 18-yard box and across the goal and the yers in the box jumped at the ball.


    Moussa Marega fought off his marker to jump for the ball, but the yer managed to hassle him enough that he missed the headerandthe ball flewpast everyone and went down the right wing.


    Luckily for the Porto team, Jesus Corona wasjustarriving at the right side of the Desportivo das Aves 18-yard boxandhe stopped the ball from going out, trappingthe ballbefore turning to the opponent’s 18-yard box and moving towards it.


    Jasonwhohad been freed up a bit by his marker since he was no longer with theballstarted moving towards the center of the Desportivo das Aves 18-yard box to be able to receive a pass from Jesus Corona.


    Jesus Corona saw his intentionandthe moment he saw Jason be free enough, he immediately sent the ball at him.


    Jason watched the bapproach,and readied his body for the shot, his body already going through the motions to meet the ballfirsttime, but justas the ball reached him and he was swinging at the ball, somebody mmed into him from behind causing him to miss the ball and sending him to the ground.


    As Jason fell to the ground, he saw the ball get cleared by a Desportivo das Aves defender while his teammates called out to the referee for a penalty as everyone had seen him get mmed into from behind.


    “Ref! Ref!” Moussa Marega called to the referee while gesturing at Jasonwhowas still on the ground.


    Shockingly, the referee’s whistle stayed silent despite theobviousfondy continued.


    Jason slowly stood up, surprised that the referee wasn’t giving a penalty foran obviousfoul, and he wasn’t the only one.


    Sergio Conceicaoonthesidelineswas having a hard time staying silentandthePorto fans were raining curses down on the referee from their homes because everyone had seen that the foul wasan obviouspenalty.


    The Desportivo das Aves yer who had sent Jason flying was the same yer who had been hassling Jason roughly when he started the attack earlier, yet evenback then, the referee hadn’t called for a foul, nor had he even given an advantage to the Porto team.


    ‘Wellthat sucks,’ Jason thought in annoyance as he moved back to the left side of the midfield.


    Ifthat penalty had been given, then the Porto team was already almost guaranteed a gondthat meant they would have been a step closer to equalizing the game, but the referee had decidedto notcall for a foul.


    A minuteter, the ball went out of yandJason went to the referee toin about the earlier incident, but thereferee waved him off,not interestedin listening to Jason’s opinion.


    ‘Who is this kidthat’strying to tell me how to do my job?’ the referee thought with annoyance.


    Seeing that his words were not going anywhere near the ears of the referee, Jason stopped talking and walked away, not intent on speaking to someone who didn’t want to listen.


    ‘There’ll be other chances,’ Jason consoled himself as hewent backto his position.


    #64thminute…


    The Desportivo das Aves team had tried to start an attack and had the ball stolen from them by Danilo Perreirawhohad sentthe ballto Alex Telleswhowas in the middle of the field.


    Thus a lightning fast counter-attack began as Alex Telles sent the ball to Jesus Coronawhowas already running down the right side of the field.


    Seeing the attack, Jason made use of his high eleration and pace to burst past his markerandthen he decided to move towards the center instead of running down the left wing.


    This would help to make it easier for the ball to reach him, not to mention that he was faster than the two strikers and wasobviouslythe only one who could receive a through pass from Corona at that moment.


    Quickly making it to the middle of the park, Jason reduced his pacetill he was matchingthe Desportivo das Aves defense line, making sure that he wasn’t offside.


    Jesus Corona immediately got the message when he saw Jason’s run and sent a through ball behind the Desportivo das Aves defendersandJasonimmediately increased his pace, edging past the defenders andjustbarely escaping their attempts to stop him from going after the ball.


    After escaping the defenders, Jason caught up to the ball,butheimmediately noticed the Desportivo das Aves goalkeeperwhohade off his goal line and was charging at him.


    Immediately, Jason’s body arched as if he wanted to take a shotpromptingthe goalkeeperto immediately get down and spread his hands wide, but Jason just faked the shot instead and fed the ball past the goalkeeper’s left while the goalkeeper could only crash to the ground while watching Jason run past him with the ball..


    With the goalkeeper out of the way, Jason hit the ball with the side of his right foot and sent it into the back of the, a brief smile lighting up on his face as the ball rolled past the goal line of the Desportivo das Aves goal.


    {What a goal! What a goal!}


    {Could this be the start of aeback?}


    {A beautiful set-up counter attack that ended with a rarelyseen,but ssy finish}


    {Hewas brought onwith hopes that he could leave his prints on the gameandhehas done so, getting on the scoreboard in just barely ten minutes since he hase on}


    {With a goal this early in the second half, therejustmight be time for one mooh wait, what’s this?}


    {The referee assistant’s g is upcould it be?} Thementary from thementator was cut in by the referee’s whistle going off.