Trials 3

The two subs Leonardo Andrea and Daniel Paul were both warming up and ready to display their talents.

"So Johannes Tim and Miché Mikael are both coming off, both of you! Go to the bench and cool down." Coach Johan said, creasing his brows. "Hurry up. We need to give a chance to those who take the trials seriously."

**** ****

A short man who sat in the stands observing the match while rubbing his chin intently said to his counterpart "I would love to see more of that Alex boy in the second half, the body language of the boy indicates that he's good"

"I beg to defer," the old man smiled, sitting back down. Unlike the other scouts who had moved to the tracks, they were still seated within the pavilion.

"Have you noticed that the other players on his team were isolating him?" The short man asked.

"What has that got to do with anything?"

"In trial matches, players will only isolate their teammates in two scenarios," the short man said. "One is when the player is too good and able to overshadow the others and reduce their chances of catching a scout's eye. The other is when the player lacks skills and will waste the team's chances."

"My dear Gareth," the grandpa smiled. "Under which category do you think this Alex falls?" He asked.

Gareth couldn't help but raise his head to observe the player who was ambling dejectedly into of the pitch. He was a bit buff and tall for his age, close to five-nine by his estimations.

"I can't tell at the moment," he replied. "I will evaluate the boy's talent only when he performs on the pitch." He added.

"We should also go for that Laurato boy" the short man stated.

"That boy, Steven also has that body language of a good player but as I said earlier I would see how he performs" Gareth , opening the file he was holding once again.

Hendrik Pieter is the head scout of Ajax, he was supposed to go to Brazil or Africa. But he decided to stay and see talents in tge Netherlands himself.

******

Alex started observing the positioning of every player on the pitch. The body language of both his opponents and teammates was captured in great detail in his mind.

*FWEEEEEE!*

The opponents kicked off and the ball started circulating round the field.

Albrecht Klaus held the ball and whipped it towards Jan Jeffrey deep in the red team's half. Warren Francis, the defensive midfielder of the red team, jumped high in the air and headed the ball back to the other half. He had won a header against Jan, the right winger in green.

Paul Jose controlled the ball on his foot and immediately passed it to Alex without even looking up.

He controlled the ball beautifully with his right foot before turning and dashing towards the green team's half. He had already lost the player responsible for marking him. He had a few yards to run freely with the ball since no one was close to him.

Alex sprinted at his fastest speed and penetrated deep into the opponent's half in just seconds. As he moved with the ball, he looked towards Ben Tamarapreye, the center forward, dashing towards the right side of the opponent's 18-yard-box. He seemed to be drawing the attention of the defenders in green away from Steven Gerben on the right.

Alex then pushed the ball forward and soon enough the right back of the green team came upon him. He didn't waste time and passed to Paul Jose who opened for him. Paul passed to him quickly and Alex has already had his back facing the defender.

At that moment he threw his legs over the ball in a flash and moved to his left. The defender just sat on the ground thinking what went wrong.

Alex looked up and squared the ball to Steven. Steven controlled the ball with his chest and brought the ball down to do a chop and went past the defender marking him.

He then sent the ball with a curler to the top corner where the keeper's hands couldn't reach.

*FWEEEEEE!*

The score was 2:1 in favour of the red team.