Pokemon - The Apex of Time

Chapter 6 - United in the Crisis

“Definitely unique.” Sam nodded.

“Seems pretty cool to me.” Torch gave me a thumbs-up.

Darragh wrote down the starting eleven in private, and then gave the receptionist the form, along with all the official documents that had been signed.

“Excellent.” He smiled. “I trust you know where the stadium is? The changing rooms are marked on the way in. You also have tactics room in your half. Have fun, everyone.”

“Right, it's time.” Darragh turned and addressed us again. “Let's go.”

“Yeah!” Came the shouts. My team-mates walked past me as I stood, still shaking a little bit. Nelly shuffled up to me and kissed my cheek, before taking my hand.

“Come on, let's go.” She smiled.

“O... Ok...” I nodded.

When we made it to the changing rooms, Nelly and Holly separated off into their own room, whilst Darragh took Alexis, Bonnie and Maruki into the tactics room. There was talk and hustle all around me as we all rushed about to get our kits on, but the noise was drowned out in my ears as I pulled out my goalkeeper top from my bag. The purple colour filled my eyesight, and I held it out to see the number one. “Number one...” I thought to myself. “It's a big responsibility to wear this...”

I must have looked a bit off, because Jake came up to me. “You ok, Toby?” He asked.

“Uh, yeah, I'm fine... I just... Um... Jake, you've got your shirt on the wrong way round...”

The number sixteen was displayed on Jake's chest, and he looked down at it and laughed. “So I am.” He chuckled, putting it back on the right way round.

“Well, at least some things don't change.” I thought.

When we were all changed, we moved into the tactics room where Darragh had a large whiteboard set up. There were chairs lined up for us, and I sat on the edge of the front row, with Nelly beside me. My gloves were on my lap – a fresh pair, specifically for the game. I held Nelly's hand as everyone settled down and her dad began to speak. “Firstly, I want you all to enjoy yourselves out there.” Darragh said, sliding his glasses up the ridge of his nose. “Of course, I want you to give your all, but remember, no matter what the result is today, I'll be proud of you all.”

He picked up a pen and drew eleven circles on the whiteboard, each one representing a player in our formation. “We're playing a four-three-one-two.” Darragh explained. “The formation is narrow, because our strengths are with our passing, whether it be short or long balls over the top. Now, I'm going to tell you the starting eleven.”

Darragh wrote a name inside each circle, showing who was playing where.

“Obviously, we have Toby in goal. Our starting centre-backs will be Jake and Gray, with Harry and Jamie at right-back and left-back respectively. The three midfielders then – Skyra in the central role with Holly to the left of him and Xene to the right. You three will produce a lot of attacks from the centre, hopefully. Finally, we have Ethan, Sam and Nelly as our forwards. Ethan and Sam will play as flat-out strikers, and Nelly will act as a centre-forward, just behind, providing extra passes as well as fire-power. That leaves Torch, Gazelle, Nick, Etienne and Max on the bench. You'll all be introduced into the game at some point, though. Any questions?”

A few of us asked fair questions regarding set pieces and general play tactics.

“Skyra will take corners on the right, and Xene will take corners from the left. Try to aim for the tall players.” Darragh outlined. “As for free-kicks and penalties, you can decide amongst yourselves who takes what. Just don't forget to keep communication with each other.”