THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME

"Are you guys going to watch the match between Stuttgart and Sturm Graz?" Paul Otterson asked, looking curiously at his flatmates.

"Of course," Zachary, Kendrick, and Kasongo replied more or less in unison. They were in the dressing room changing out of their match attire into dark blue tracksuits, having just completed their quarter-final face-off against Zenit.

"Then we'd better hurry," Paul said as he slipped his feet out of his boots. "The match will start at exactly 5:00 PM."

Kendrick sighed audibly. "I would have liked to head back to the hotel first and clean up."

"That's a bad idea," Kasongo chipped in. "There won't be any bus returning to the hotel any time soon. The coaches will also stay to watch the match. I'm sure they are expecting us to do the same and delay our return to the hotel. That's why they got us snacks right after the match." He said, pointing to the covered silver plates placed on a table in the dressing room.

Paul smiled, changing the topic of conversation. "We'll be facing one of the teams from the morning quarter-final matches. Have any of you seen their results?"

"Not yet," Zachary replied while unfastening the laces of his boots. "Coach Johansen prohibited us from looking at the other team's results before playing our match. But, I intend to go to the noticeboard and check them out before watching the Stuttgart match." He packed his jersey and walked out of the dressing room, followed by his friends.

They trudged along, carrying platefuls of snacks through the brightly lit corridors, all the way to the noticeboard area, close to the gate of the stadium.

When they arrived, Zachary started going through the freshly pinned posters on the large noticeboard. On the board's top right corner, he found the group results of the tournament.

****

Group A

(1) Genoa FC Youth (Italy) 7 Pts

(2) NF International (Norway) 6 Pts

(3) JFC Riga (Latvia) 4 Pts

(4) BK Frem (Denmark) 0 Pts

Group B

(1) Zenit сшор (Russia) 9 Pts

(2)Tottenham (England) 6 Pts

(3) Atalanta (Italy) 1 Pts

(4) AIK Stockholm (Sweden) 1 Pts

Group C

(1) VfB Stuttgart (Germany) 9 Pts

(2) Skonto Academy (Latvia) 4 Pts

(3) Viimsi MRJK (Estonia) 4 Pts

(4) FC Olimpiki Tbilisi (Georgia) 0 Pts

Group D

(1) ADO Den Haag (Netherlands) 7 Pts

(2) SK Sturm Graz (Austria) 6 Pts

(3) HJK Helsinki (Finland) 4 Pts

(4) Jagiellonia (Poland) 0 Pts

****

Zachary let his gaze roam to the sheet pinned right below the results of the group stages. The tournament's organizers had already updated it with quarter-final results of that day.

****

Tournament Schedule and Results

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Skonto Hall

#Quarter-final 1 - 8:00 AM

->ADO Den Haag 3:2 Skonto Academy

#Quarter-final 2 - 11:00 AM

->Genoa FC Youth 3:3 Tottenham

(Tottenham win on Penalties 4:2)

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Skonto Hall

#Quarter-final 3 - 2:00 PM

->Zenit сшор 0:1 NF International

#Quarter-final 4 - 5:00 PM

->VfB Stuttgart -:- SK Sturm Graz

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Skonto Hall

#Semi-final 1 - 11:00 AM

->ADO Den Haag vs. NF International

#Semi-final 2 - 2:00 PM

->Tottenham vs. Winner QF4

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Skonto Hall

#3rd Place Play-Off - 3:00 PM

->Loser SF1 vs. Loser SF2

Friday, February 24, 2012

Skonto Hall

#Finals - 3:00 PM

-> Winner SF1 vs. Winner SF2

"So, we'll be facing ADO Den Haag in the semi-final then," Paul observed from his right side. "I can't believe they managed to come this far in the competition."

"No one believed that our team would be in the semi-finals either," Kendrick chipped in, smiling. "I guess this will be a fight between underdogs."

"I wish you wouldn't call ADO Den Haag an underdog," Kasongo replied, taking his gaze away from the noticeboard. "The Dutch academies have always been among the best in the world. I wouldn't be surprised if some players from ADO Den Haag ended up in top teams as star players."

"I seriously doubt that," Paul shook his head. "If they possessed such talent, we would have heard about them already. Look at Zachary, Werner, and the other Stuttgart players, for example. We've heard a lot about their achievements even at this stage of the tournament."

"You do have a point." Kasongo nodded. "I see here that Werner is ahead of Zachary by a goal on the top scorer's list," he said, pointing to a poster on the top left corner of the noticeboard.

"He's already reached nine goals," Kendrick chipped in, sighing. "If he manages to score in today's game, he will be the undisputed favorite to take the golden boot at the end of the tournament." He added, stealing a glance at Zachary.

Zachary didn't bother to comment. He had decided not to focus on individual accolades, such as the golden boot, for the meantime. He could still earn a considerable amount of Juju-points from winning the tournament, even without scoring more goals in the remaining matches.

"I'm surprised that Tottenham managed to defeat Genoa," Paul commented. "I thought they would win for sure against the seemingly weaker Tottenham squad."

"Either way, they won on penalties," Kendrick noted, glancing back at the noticeboard. "I really would have liked to watch that match."

"We should go watch the Stuttgart match," Zachary intoned, taking his gaze off the results. "It's almost five," he added, leading the way to the stands.

Zachary and his friends made it to the stands—just before the referee blew the whistle indicating the start of play. The other NF Academy players were already in their seats since they hadn't bothered to check out the noticeboard. They feasted on snacks as they watched the players on the pitch taking their positions.

Zachary exchanged a few words with them before sinking in a seat next to Magnus. The tall defensive midfielder nodded at Zachary with a smile before returning his attention to the field.

The match turned out to be a highly intensive one. Both VfB Stuttgart and SK Sturm Graz utilized the 4-3-3 formation, mounting attack after attack, on their opponents. They both used grounded passes and counter-attacks, making the match quite the spectacle. The fans cheered at the top of their voices from the stands as the two teams took turns attacking each other.

Zachary was surprised by the performance of SK Sturm Graz in the early stages of the match. Despite being outplayed in the opening minutes, the Austrian team took the lead through one of their strikers. He powered a shot past the Stuttgart goalkeeper in the 16th minute after the defenders failed to clear away a dangerous cross into the box.

But, the goal looked like it had poked a hornet's nest. The Stuttgart players played with more vigor, continuing to mount more pressure on Sturm Graz's defense. Shortly before the end of the first half, the referee awarded them a penalty after one of the Sturm Graz defenders handled the ball within the box.

Timo Werner, VfB Stuttgart's number-9, stepped up to score the penalty and level matters at half time.

In the second half, VfB Stuttgart started right where they had stopped. Six minutes after the break, Joshua Kimmich bagged another goal, giving them a 2:1 lead.

VfB Stuttgart's midfielders were on fire, playing Tiki-Taka style soccer. Not long after, they set up Timo Werner to score the third goal in the 60th minute.

Sturm Graz's disappointing evening ended with an own goal in the final minutes. They went on to lose to the German team four goals to one. Timo Werner had managed to bag two more goals, bringing his total tally to eleven. He was a step closer to sealing his position as the top scorer of the tournament.

"We'll need to impair the mobility of their midfield to win against them," Magnus commented from beside him right after the final whistle. "The combination of Philipp Förster, Timo Werner, and Joshua Kimmich makes for the strongest attacking midfield in the tournament."

"That's true," Zachary replied, nodding. "Their teamwork is as good as that of a professional team. They are the strongest team on paper and main contenders for the trophy."

"The bright side is; they put little focus on their defense," Zachary continued. "If we manage to score early enough, we might be able to surprise them and possibly clinch a victory."

"Hahaha," Magnus laughed, turning to look at Zachary. "You do realize we're discussing a team we could only possibly meet in the finals. We should focus solely on the semi-finals for the moment."

"We'll be facing ADO Den Haag, a Dutch team on Tuesday," Zachary said, shaking his head. "I have a feeling we'll win that match. VfB Stuttgart, on the other hand, will be our main obstacle. So, we need to start thinking about how to beat them."

"You're that confident?" Magnus inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"I can't be a hundred percent certain about the results," Zachary replied. "But, I have to be an optimist. I'm thinking like a player on a team making a serious attempt at winning the trophy. I can already see myself playing in the final, even before the semis have begun."