9
BACK TO WORK
There are few things that Anderson didn't like about football but one of them was definitely the turnaround time. He had just had probably the best day of his life and less than a week later he was already preparing for the next game.
The coach was at the front of the room, briefing the team about their next game.
"We got lucky in the last game. You won't have the crowd to push you through this time. So you have to work harder…"
Nearly at the back of the room Anderson clenched his fist tightly. He was disappointed, no angry. The coach had already released the first eleven and he wasn't in it. Seriously, what more did he have to do? He was basically man of the match last time out, he had trained well this week. He deserved it. He clenched his fist even tighter, he had to work harder.
"We're playing Eskisehirspor tomorrow at their stadium. The advantage you had last time… now it's on their side. Their fans are loud, not loud as ours but they are loud. So I need you all ready, we cannot start as slow as we did last time out. Theyre known for their suicide attack style. They do not care, their aim is to outscore their opponent so you'll have to dig in mentally. We're going to get a few chances to counter. It means some of the starters might get tired so the bench needs to be ready."
Anderson could feel the manager's eyes on him. Did he know that he didn't deserve to be there? Was he trying to console him? Why not just start him then?
Anderson tried to drown out the noise and listened on as the manager went further into his tactics.
…
The players began to leave slowly after the manager finished up with his briefing. The manager and his coaching team had left a few minutes ago. Anderson was looking for Batalla so they could do the same when he felt a touch on his shoulder.
He turned expecting it to be Batalla but to his surprise it was Cimsir.
"You expected to start, didn't you?" he said with a laugh, "I told you I have seen many like you and they all end up the same way, role players." Then he left.
"What the fuck is his problem," Batalla said coming towards him with laugh. Cimsir had already walked away.
"Seems he picks up on all newcomers, did i ever tell you he did the same to me too."
"Really?"
"Yeah, and I was like wtf man, we don't even play the same position to make it worse, we're both new!!"
Batalla's exaggeration earned a laugh out of Anderson.
"Forget about him man, on to important matters. How is she?"
"Get ouuut!" Anderson said, pushing him away.
Batalla had ended up joining Anderson's debut party proudly proclaiming it was his debut too but Anderson suspected it had something to do with his cousin who he had been asking about since.
"Ok ok protect her then, you can't do it forever, come on let's go."
"Go where?"
"To the pitch, I want to work on free kicks you up for it?"
"Of course," Anderson got up, Batalla was right. It was time to get back to work.