Free Web NovelChapter 22: [22] "The Goalkeeper Who Never Blinked" Part 1
Stade de la Beaujoire was not what one might imagine.
The site was industrial, brutalist and old. The type of stadium that was constructed to scare, not to entertain. Forty minutes before kickoff, the Nantaise faithful were already inside, stamping their feet against the cold concrete terraces, a low rolling hum pressing against the walls.
SC Valois arrived aboard a tiger balm, quiet dread scented bus.
Luc was seated in the back of the bus with his eyes closed. All breathing was a silent, measured one with his taped ribs. It was exactly ninety minutes before, on Juliette’s orders, that the painkillers had been administered. He had two hours before they wore off.
He was going to need them all.
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The away dressing room was cramped and had a wet concrete odor.
Henri got the tactical board ready before the players had made it to the room. His suit was, in seven different places, furled and his eyes had the determined expression of someone who has been already been put down three times already in his head before warm-up.
Henri moved his marker over to the board, "Nantaise play out of the back. Their keeper is the best outfield player, Guillaume Saez, 6-foot-4, 31 years."
From the bench, Mateo growled quietly. "So, we get it in the box"
"Their box is a graveyard," said Henri. "There are two big center-backs who are everything in the air, you go to cross it, you’re giving it back to them."
Everyone avoided talking in the room after that was said.
"But they defend deep," said Luc. He hadn’t opened his eyes. "They provide opportunities to pressure, they let you expend energy building and they start their attack on the second ball."
Henri looked at him. "Yes."
"So we don’t construct," Luc said. He opened his eyes. "We play direct but we play smart; two touches max in our own half; we push Saez’s feet."
Henri frowned. "Luc, he’s good with his feet."
"Everyone looks better when they don’t have to work, nobody is good under pressure," Luc said straight out. "We push his distribution. We push the long ball. Their man is in the area without a ball, we defend like that and we attack like that."
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[System Notification]
[Objective: Score from outside the penalty area]
[Reward: +1 Goal Instinct (permanent)]
[Penalty: Fontaine might take his lead further]
The keeper was the one who is never beaten from range, Luc thought to himself. "Of course."
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The whistle rang out in the cold, crisp morning air. Thirty thousand Nantaise fans came to a stand.
SC Valois was having some problems after just 12 minutes.
The pressing plan was good in theory. Nantaise was so well organised on the defensive side of the ball that Hugo was unable to exploit it. All lanes were blocked. Each of the second balls was in contest and someone twice his size was winning it.
Minute 21. A Nantaise midfielder was cut down by Demirci in the SC Valois half. Free kick. Ball was picked up and thrown to near post.
Blažek came for it. Slashed his way through the mob. ƒreewebɳovel.com
The rebound went to a Nantaise winger at the edge of the box. He fired it down and hard and it bounced off Jonas Ekberg’s shin and into the corner.
1-0.
The stadium roared. Flares went up. The Nantaise were off to a flying start.
Luc was standing in the center circle.
He didn’t curse. He didn’t pay attention to the scoreboard.
He looked at Saez.
The goalkeeper was clapping his hands behind the goal, still facing outfield, holding a water bottle in his hands, handed to him by a ball boy. Watching his team. Comfortable. Already at his own pace.
He was a man who had been told, from distance, no one could score against him. And he believed it. That was dangerous, Luc decided that he seemed too comfortable.
And comfortable men assumed wrongly.
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Minute 34.
Hugo had begun to pick out some room between the Nantais. Nothing glamorous. Take a short poke at the ball here, a half-turn there. However, the geometry was changing.
Mateo tackled an ugly grinding tackle in the middle. He looked up. Luc was 20 yards behind the Nantaise defensive line looking away from goal, his back towards Saez.
Mateo hit Lacombe first. Long diagonal ball, that skimmed the surface.
Noé Lacombe laid it off to Luc’s chest nullifying any offside, Luc then passed it to the left channel back to Lacombe. Immediately ran off.
Not toward goal. Away from it. A circular movement to the right side.
The center-back followed. Naturally. Instinctively.
That was the error.
Lacombe sliced the ball back over the head of the area. Hugo was late, but right on target, hitting it toward the upper right of the goal.
It was palmed to the crossbar by Saez.
The stadium was waiting.
The Nantaise Center back was hit with the rebound and it went for a corner.
Saez spat on his gloves. Completely unshaken.
Luc was standing close to the penalty arc with his jaw clenched.
The keeper wasn’t lucky Technically there was no equal to him. His measures were all right. His positioning erased the corners without any visible effort. Each time the ball approached him, he made it look smaller. freeweɓnovel.cøm
You cannot beat this type of keeper with power and accuracy in the traditional conventional approach.
You trick him on your way to beating him.
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Halftime. 1-0 to Nantaise.
The dressing room was a tense situation. Lacombe had his head in his hands. Blažek did not make eye contact with anyone.
Luc stood with his arms across his chest, no one talking to him but he thinking everything.
He made a decision in his mind. The arc. Twenty-three yards, outside the D. The distance at which a goalkeeper takes up his set position, his weight distribution and his depth off the line would all put him at a set angle.
If he hit a late-curled shot, one that only made its way clear in the final 6 yards, he believed Saez’ body would let him down.
His motor memory would go on strike for the wrong destination.
All it took was one moment.
