THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME

Mikael Dorsin, the acting Rosenborg captain, sighed with frustration as he watched the Vålerenga players celebrate their goal on the sidelines. Just because of the mistake of one teammate, his team was already on the back foot very early in the game. God! He hated to lose the most. He could feel his emotions all over the place as he recalled the goal. He would have liked to run to Christian, the player that'd committed the amateur mistake, and given him a mouthful of what he felt. But he swallowed down his frustration and instead turned to the technical area to observe Coach Johansen's reaction to Vålerenga's first goal.

But his eyes widened with surprise a moment later. He instantly noticed that Verner Rönning and Ole Selnæs, two of Rosenborg's defensive-minded players on the bench, had already started warming up on the sidelines. He was baffled and concerned by the coach's rashness and impatience.

"The coach seems to be quite angry," Mike Jensen, Rosenborg's defensive midfielder, said after walking up to him. "He's even planning to make a substitution this early in the game!"

"But we can't blame him," Mikael said, tamping down his irritation.  "We played poorly on the defensive end. Most of us are committing simple mistakes that are slowly causing our downfall. If I were the coach, maybe, I, too, would be thinking about a substitution right now."

"But surely you don't believe that substitutions this early in the game is the answer to our problems," Mike Jensen said, shaking his head slightly. "We're only a bit lax when on the ball because of playing at an away ground in an unfamiliar environment. Moreover, you've got to understand that the Vålerenga fans aren't making it easy for us to focus on the game."

"I'm sure that all our players will grow into the game soon—and get used to this environment within the next few minutes," the defensive midfielder continued. "They will then start performing as usual, and we'll score. Don't forget that we have Nicki, Tarik, and above all, Zachary upfront. They can create goal-scoring opportunities at any moment. So, I don't believe there's any need for substitutions right now."

"I concur with you on that," Mikael said, caressing his chin while observing his teammates. "But why are you telling me all this? I'm not the coach."

"You can try talking to the coach about this," Mike Jensen replied, smiling slightly. "He'll listen to you since you're the captain."

"Hahaha..." Mikael gave a bitter laugh. "Do you think that I'm Zachary, Tore, or Nicki? You've got to know that aside from them, the rest of us on the starting eleven are easily expendable. So, I'm not going to irritate the coach further by telling him how to do his job."

Mikael was also quite worried about how things were progressing.

He also believed a substitution that early in the game was not the best solution to combat the laxity of the Rosenborg players on the field of play. A change in players could lead to more disorganization within the team, bringing about more tactical difficulties. That was even more so since they'd conceded a goal only a minute ago.

So, Mikael was determined to prevent such a scenario from happening. But he wasn't going to achieve that by complaining to the coach. He had his way of doing things using the vibrant voice that whoever had created the world had given him.

"Guys," he shouted at the top of his lungs as he began moving around the pitch—through the ranks of his teammates. "Let's not lose morale because of a single goal. Let's not mind the fans and first concentrate on stabilizing our game. We're the stronger team. We'll surely be able to score if we play like usual..."

****    ****

On hearing Mikael yelling, Zachary immediately jogged back to his position in the left midfield. He hoped for the game to restart as quickly as possible. He was eager to help his team get an immediate goal—and bring proceedings back to a level ground within the Ullevaal Stadion. However, the Vålerenga players were taking their time celebrating the goal. They were clearly wasting time and delaying the restart.

Zachary was already feeling impatient from the long pause in the game. Nevertheless, he remained in his position awaiting the referee's whistle without any complaint.

He didn't want to get on the wrong side of the highly volatile Vålerenga fans by protesting against the wastage of time to the referee. To a certain degree, he was rattled by their intensity. He believed catching their attention in the wrong way was a fate worse than waiting a couple of more minutes for the game to restart.

The referee acted harshly to resolve the time wastage crisis. He showed yellow cards to two of the Vålerenga players before sending them back to the pitch for the restart after the goal. But the booing that resulted from those two cautions was so loud that it flooded out any other sound in the stadium. Zachary could only sigh again and again at the intensity of the fans.

*FWEEEEEEE*

The referee blew the whistle and motioned for the Rosenborg players to restart the game in the 24th minute. Nicki Nielsen, the Rosenborg star striker, immediately passed the ball back to Jonas Svensson in the right midfield.

Zachary reacted right away on seeing Jonas, his counterpart in attacking midfield, control the ball. He opened himself up by running further left into space on the left flank—with the intention to escape the reach of Christian Grindheim, the stocky Vålerenga attacking midfielder, who was quickly approaching him.

To his relief, Jonas, the other Rosenborg attacking midfielder, managed to spot him right away. Without any dilly-dallying, he relinquished the ball to him before the opponents could react.

Zachary felt his heart palpitating with a blend of excitement and anxiety as he watched the ball approaching the space in front of him. He was feeling anxious because of the booing by the Vålerenga fans. But at the same time, his spirits had already brightened since he was about to receive the ball.

He was in a messy state of mind that he didn't fancy in the slightest. He preferred to remain cool-headed and confident on the pitch. So, he forced himself to calm down as he controlled the pass mid-sprint before continuing to run towards Vålerenga's half amid the rising booing from their fans.

Kristofer Hæstad, the Vålerenga defensive midfielder, quickly closed in on him, blocking his sprinting path. However, Zachary did not attempt to dribble.  He immediately fed the ball to Tobias Mikkelsen, the Rosenborg left-forward, who'd long started making a run along the touchline. Zachary didn't stop his run, though. Instead, he circumvented Kristofer and continued to push on deeper into Vålerenga's half.