Mr. Brightside || João Félix

S I X T E E N

Wednesday, November 23, 2022

10:30AM

Today was the same routine as yesterday, and the day before: João and I woke up early to go practice, we practiced, came back to the hotel, showered and now we're waiting for it to be close to starting time to walk over to the stadium.

"I know you're repping Croatia today, let me borrow your Morocco jersey," Cooper says as he enters my room.

"Good morning to you too Cooper," I roll my eyes.

"Good morning my sweet Sofia," he walks up to me, gives me a big hug and a kiss on the forehead, "may I please borrow your Morocco jersey today ?"

"Yeah, it's in that bag," I say pointing to it.

"This is full of jerseys," he notices as he struggles to find the Morocco one "no, no, no, this is Spain, Spain again, what the fuck."

"Yeah that's my jersey bag, just dump them all out," I tell him, he gives me a look basically asking if I'm sure and I nod "they're all gonna be worn at some point."

Cooper and I both get dressed and once again meet everyone in the lobby. We make our way to the stadium and take our seats.

12:00PM   M O R O C C O   V S   C R O A T I A

The first half goes by like many other first halves so far... goalless. This is a very interesting situation, however, because Croatia is one of the strongest nations in football and they have failed to score against Morocco, not taking anyway from Morocco, they're a strong team, not stronger than Croatia though.

Everyone seems to be on the edge of their seats during the entirety of the second half, but like the first, it ends goalless. What a match, although the outcome was 0-0, the match was good.

S C O R E : M O R O C C O     C R O A T I A
                                 0                           0

"Croatia failed to score against Morocco," I say in a questioning tone.

"Croatia failed to score against Morocco !" A Moroccan fan exclaims.

"What does that mean ?" Cooper whispers.

"Croatia is a very strong team," João tells him.

"They won second place last World Cup," Cris adds.

"I mean It's still only group stages, so this draw isn't something to dwindle on, but, Croatia came in strong as ever, they couldn't get a single goal in, Morocco is coming in a force to be reckoned with, Morocco wants the World Cup, they're coming blood," I explain. "Like I said, it's still only group stages, so I may be reaching, but Morocco looks strong."

"You're not reaching, they played good," the Moroccan fan said and I smiled at him.

"Who wants to stay for the Germany game ?" Hugo asks. "I want food."

"Me !" Cooper says.

"Let's go eat then," Hugo says.

"Not this time," Cooper says " HAVERTZ, HAVERTZ, HAVERTZ," he chanted.

"Who is that ?" João asks.

"Kai Havertz, number 7 on the field, number 1 in my heart," Cooper says and I laugh.

"He's one of my best friends back in England, he plays for Chelsea," I explain. João nods in understanding. "Okay so do you guys wanna head out, do you wanna grab some food ?" I ask Hugo and João, "Cris, Coop and I are staying."