The thing about moving up levels is, people's mindset is different. One thing I have observed at U15 and U17 is that player politics are not a thing.
If someone plays better, kids accept that they deserved it and either they accept their fate and move on or work extra hard to prove that they're better. That has been my experience. I have seen it with Oscar and Diego as well. They weren't starters initially, but they worked really really hard to get back into the team, yet the ones who lost their places to them never made a scene. They didn't make a fuss about it behind the scenes either. There is a camaraderie.
Things took a different turn at the U20 level. We could see the difference immediately in the first practice session after our victory. I thought that we would be welcomed more after our impressive performance during the last game. It had the opposite effect. There were subtle digs taken at Diego and I when the coaches weren't around. The defensive "pushes" became more aggressive. Tackles were hard. From subtle taunts to a couple of them went outright hostile.
While we were playing 5 a side, the midfielder next to me named Matheus, casually said "Do you think you're a hot shot? We play as a team and in a system, do you newbies want to come show off and put us in a bad light? Stick to the brief"
He didn't even wait for me to talk to him later. I spoke to Diego about this and he said the same. Players were being hostile towards him as well apparently.
I frowned at this.
Every instinct told me to deal with this immediately as I had a hunch that it wouldn't do good to let people develop resentment towards us.
We could go to the coaches but that would make things worse, it goes against the team spirit. So, it would be better to deal with it internally.
There is another part of me that kept screaming to ignore the noise. I had a very bad competitive side to me. A stubborn side. A part of me wanted to escalate things on the field, I wanted to show these people how football is played.
I will wait a bit more and speak with Diego about this. It is important to handle this the right way. Since Moraes was the U17 captain, and he had a level head on him, I thought it would be good to tell him about this as well.
I also thought that not everyone would be against us. The more we play well, and the more we get others to play well, even their performances would improve. Take Adriano for instance. He said some nice words after the game. He is quicker than me. He has very good instincts as well. So, with me and Diego feeding him, he would do very well.
We just need to deal with the bad characters and get to the root of their issue. Jealousy. Insecurity. Some of them have been here for a while and here we are playing flashy aggressive football and their place would be in jeopardy. Numbers will always matter and it wouldn't help their cause if we end up putting better numbers and contributing to wins.
Two weeks went by like this. We were trying our best to not raise to the bait and we kept ignoring the jabs. We would try to play our normal way. Moraes said that it wouldn't do well to raise the issue, and that we should be our usual selves and play to the coach's instructions. They would be observing everything and they would notice things as well. So, we stuck to our group in practice, interacted with the others who were nicer to us, and kept practicing.
February 6th came along and it was time for the second leg.
Once again, we were on the bench. This time Moraes joined us on the bench. He had impressed everyone with his intensity in training and the defensive work of his really impressed the coaches. He was an absolute unit and he deserved it.
We observed the match very intensely. Based on our previous performance, they have made an adjustment. They played quicker, sharper, more forward passes and we were on the backfoot from the beginning. We, on the other hand, didn't learn from the last time. We just stuck to the plan and just played solid, boring football. It was really frustrating to watch. After 30 minutes, it was very very obvious that we are not going to be the ones scoring first. Even Adriano has to join in the defensive efforts. You could see that he was frustrated as well.
And the dreaded moment came in the 34th minute, after knocking on our door for so long, they pieced together a beautiful attack and it was an anticlimactic simple tap in for their forward.
1-0.
We looked towards the staff, especially Moraes, he was frustrated as well. But, they were calm. No changes to the play style yet. They were waiting for the perfect moment to break and launch a counter.
The only problem with that is that there has to be people making that initial forward pass. Adriano is very quick, but he needs to be fed the ball for the counter to happen. That is not going to happen from what we have seen.
They came at us in waves and it was relentless. 42nd minute. We conceded again from a free kick. They rehearsed the routine clearly, and the goalkeeper was beaten by a header from 10 yards out.
2-0.
The captain of the team tried to rally them on and tried to play a couple of good passes, but the others started going back once they were under pressure. And no one wanted to take on their players. We stitch 4-5 passes together, they press, we pass back immediately, and repeat.
Thankfully half time came and we went for a huddle. The coach mentioned that we were not being active and that we were waiting for them to make a mistake instead of pushing. So, it isn't an instruction from the coaching staff to be so passive. Huh! Then why are we playing like this? He comes across as contradictory. He says that we need to be active, but his team selection, his own players are very very passive.
Surely he must know how they play, and what their strengths are. Within 3weeks of just practicing, we could figure out how they play. And it isn't completely the players, it is the instructions, how we play in practice, more effort is put into being solid in a formation and defensive tactics instead of letting players express themselves and develop.
I bit my tongue because it was too early to pick a tactical fight, we just listened to his drivel about coming out sharper in the second half and to score fast.
The game restarted and for 5 minutes we looked like we would change our ways and go on the front foot. Adriano latched onto a loose ball and was quick to launch a counter, but no one made a run to support him and he tried his best, but the shot was directly at the keeper. He was so frustrated, he looked like he was going to lose it any moment.
Diego and I immediately looked at each other. We knew what we would have done. Even Moraes would have made a run even if he was the DM. Not to beat our own drums but we played differently at U17. We had more freedom and we always went for it. Coach Martinez was strict about the system and being defensively strong, but he played to our strengths. He knew that Oscar, Diego and I thrive on freedom and we were given the permission to find creative passes and to break their defense.
Here, we are asked to play in a system, play strong defensively, stick to a formation, but no one seems to find the forward passes. Off the ball movement is also a problem. People are playing like they are afraid to make a mistake. This is not how a usual youth team would or should play.
During the 54th minute, they scored from a corner. 3-0. They're leading the tie 3-2. This is not going to be easy if we want to go through to the round of 16.
Finally,we caught a snippet of a conversation where the assistants said something to the coach, reminding him that Diego and I should be put in so that we could score a goal at least. The away goals still counted and one goal was all we needed in 30 minutes to go through.
So, he made the change. He took off two midfielders who were the ones who had been hostile to us. The guy didn't even shake my hand when he came off, he went directly to the bench. I raised an eyebrow at that. 20 years old and acting like a kid. Pathetic.
I didn't care about that much. When Diego and I went in, I went to Adriano and told him to make runs and we would find him. He nodded at that. We could tell that he was happy inside.
The game restarted after the subs, and they brought on fresh legs as well. And it is very obvious that they have prepared for us. They were man marking us. They were like shadows and were not giving us any space. Our passing was disrupted and our movements were hampered.
After a tense 10minutes of play, I escaped my marker with a feint and executed a Marseille turn to skip past the next player. I was through into space and I took off. Seeing this, immediately Diego took off to the left into space, and Adriano took one glance and he ran into the centre. They had markers on them, but we were waiting for the moment. I was at the edge of the box and I was about to shoot, when I felt a pull on my shirt that threw my balance off. I went ahead with the shot anyway even when I heard the whistle, it went into the stands, but I went down. It was a clear foul and the referee agreed. We had a free kick at the edge of the box. I argued with the referee that it was a yellow card, but he didn't give the card.
Now, I am not the free kick taker. I didn't have confidence or experience with it. My stats were also low. Accuracy in the high 70s is not something I would feel confident of. But, Diego was excellent with them. But, he was also shy. He didn't want to ask the captain if he could take the free kick.
So, I took it upon myself and I told the captain that Diego is excellent and if he could take the free kick. The captain said "No, we have an order here. If wants to take free kicks, he should prove it in practice and get ahead in the order"
And that was that. He took the free kick, didn't even hit the target, it went way off. A chance wasted. I was disappointed.
In the 78th minute, another chance came our way. We had an opportunity for a quick counter after their corner. I got the ball at the edge of our box, and immediately 3 people were on me. But, the moment I got the ball, I saw that Diego and Adriano were making the run. I couldn't pass it to either of them, so I passed the ball to our captain, who was ahead of me and I ran into space on the right immediately. I expected a pass back, it was such a good opportunity. He could see that two people were running ahead, and that I was getting into space asking for the ball. But, he didn't pass to any of us, he wasn't under much pressure, he took a couple of touches and slowed down the play.
I threw my arms in the air, visibly frustrated. We were getting kicked and pulled and things got very physical for the next 10 minutes. And we had nothing to show for it. They came fully prepared and they shut us down. And it didn't help that our team doesn't play forward passes more. It was so disheartening.
While I was passing by the dugout, I could see a smirk on Matheus' face. This jerk is enjoying this. That lit a fire under me. I cannot let this idiot be happy that we couldn't make a difference. I took matters into my own hands and I went very aggressive. With everything I got, I went for pressing and trying to intercept a pass. Diego caught on and he did the same, with both of us doing it, Adriano joined in as well.
The one mistake they made was that they were trying to keep the ball instead of being aggressive like they were before. They were trying to protect the lead. That was all the invitation we needed. For 5 minutes we were relentless and finally, I got hold of the ball just inside our own half. My markers were on me, but I didn't care. I felt a tug on my shirt but I didn't stop. I was tumbling but I kept control of the ball and dribbled through 3 players. And then from just about the half way line, I pinged a diagonal ball bypassing their entire defense hoping either Diego or Adriano would make the run. I didn't have time to look where they were. I just made an instinctive pass as to where they should be.
Adriano with his insane pace, was my saviour and he was able to reach the ball first. He took it in stride, didn't even slow down and kept going at the goal. Two defenders made their way into the box trying to close him down, but he kept his composure and this was his moment. He took his time, dribbled past one defender and hit a perfect shot into the bottom corner.
GOAL! 89th minute. Number 9, Adriano. Assist: Number 22, Kaká
3-3.
He let out a roar out of pure anger and all the frustration from the past 90minutes came out. I joined in on the celebration with the team.
While jogging back to our positions, I was next to the dugout, took one look at Matheus and couldn't help myself. I mouthed "Did you see that?" to him. I didn't care. I just wanted to taunt him.
I could hear his teeth grinding and the anger in his eyes.
For the next 5 minutes of the injury time, it became a battle. I knew that realistically we wouldn't see the ball again, and I lost all hope of an attack, so I put in all my efforts into defense and we waited with baited breath for the final whistle.
We held on to it by the barest of margins, the goalkeeper had to make a save from the corner, but we held on.
3-3. We were through on away goals. Fantastic!
On the way back, Adriano joined Diego and I. We were dissecting our performance and we were discussing the final run of his. He said that he was paying attention to our passing in practice and that he understood that we had the quality to make those kinds of passes and he ran based on a hunch. I told him that he should join us more after practice and we could perfect these runs.
We told him about our U17 sessions, about how Oscar, Diego and I would practice these kinds of plays.
We heard a snort from behind us and it was Matheus and his gang. He was talking to his friends
"It must be delusional to think that a lucky pass was talent"
He was taking a dig at me clearly. But I didn't want to confront him now and here. The time will come soon, when I start and he doesn't, that would be the day I think it will escalate. I'll just wait and watch.
I don't have anything to gain from the conflict. I already know that he knows that I am superior in terms of skill. So, him trying to lash out like this is expected. If I could just keep my head down and find goals and assists, I could move on to bigger things. He wants a place in the U20 team so badly? He can have it. I will take the place in the first team.
I shook my head with these thoughts. That look on his face in the end when I asked him if he saw that pass, that was enough for the petty side of me.
Author's Notes:
Not everything is peachy for the MC. Jealousy said "hold my beer" and entered the story.
I wanted to write some of the petty player politics, and there will be more of that later when agents get involved and PR is involved.
For now, it is just silly stuff about starting lineups.
Please let me know what you think in comments.