God Of football

Chapter 1024: Deemed Unworthy!

"Good evening and welcome once again to the Atlanta Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, for what promises to be a fascinating evening of World Cup football.

I’m Peter Drury, alongside me tonight is Alexandre Moreau, and we have Spain versus Saudi Arabia in Group H."

"Thank you, Peter. And what a group it has been so far. One game in and the narrative has already shifted considerably from what most people expected."

"It really has,"Peter Drury said with what felt like a smile in his voice.

"Now with that, let’s remind everyone of where things stand,"he continued after a moment.

"Uruguay currently lead Group H with four points. They won their opening game against Saudi Arabia and then drew with Cape Verde in what was, by most accounts, a result that surprised a great deal of people.

Below them, Spain sit second with three points after that extraordinary six-nil dismantling of Cape Verde in this very stadium six days ago. Cape Verde themselves are third with one point, after that draw against Uruguay, and Saudi Arabia, Spain’s opponents tonight, are bottom with no points after the loss to Uruguay."

"So the mathematics are relatively straightforward. Spain win tonight, and they are through, and Saudi Arabia need a result here to keep their tournament alive. There is no ambiguity about what both sides need from this game."

"And though it might seem decided, there have been major upsets before in this tournament!. Nothing is set in stone yet!"

On the broadcast, the camera swept across the stands, and the sound that came back through the speakers for those watching outside the stadium needed no description.

The Spanish sections were in full colour with red, navy blue and gold filling the lower bowl on one side while chants and flags filled the other side.

The Saudi supporters were behind the opposite goal, and their numbers weren’t any smaller than the Spaniards.

For a moment, before the game could start, both sides could say they were evenly matched.

"The fans are ready. The stadium is ready. And the players are making their way onto the pitch now."

The two sets of players emerged from the tunnel, and the noise shifted as usual while the cameramen on the pitch followed from behind as the players stepped onto the grass and made their way towards the area where they would be lining up.

"And Peter, there is the talking point of the game in the absence of Izan Hernandez," Moreau said after the camera cut to the coaches of the two teams shaking hands.

"Yes. You cannot look at that Spain starting lineup and not address it immediately. Izan Hernandez Miura, with his three goals and one assist against Cape Verde, is not in the starting eleven tonight. He is on the bench," Drury confirmed.

"Luis de la Fuente has made the decision that this game does not require his captain, at least, not from the start."

"And it is a fascinating call," Moreau said.

"On one hand, you understand the logic. Spain have a significant points advantage and, on paper, are much better than Saudi Arabia, who are without a point, and managing Izan’s minutes across a tournament of this length is not an irrational thing to do.

On the other hand, and I think this is the conversation that will dominate the build-up tonight, what does it say to Saudi Arabia? What message does it send?"

"A question, Alexandre, that I suspect Saudi Arabia’s players are already asking themselves," Drury took over as things progressed further on the pitch.

On the pitch, the handshakes were moving down the line with players meeting players in a brief grip and then moving on to the next.

The Saudi captain, Salman Al-Faraj, moved along the Spain lineup until his eyes drifted to the bench.

He didn’t stop walking, but his gaze found Izan sitting there in his training top among the substitutes and seeing that, he couldn’t help but scoff.

They don’t think we’re worth it, he thought as he moved to the toss.

There, he called tails, lost, shook the referee’s hand and turned back toward his teammates after shaking hands with Rodri too, where he met them in a huddle.

Al-Faraj looked around the faces inside it, some young, some old, but all of them there because they’d earned the right to be there.

"Nothing is impossible," he began.

"We know that. This sport has proven it more times than I can count."

"If you need a reminder, we won against Argentina the last time we met, even when people didn’t believe," he said as he glanced toward the Spain bench briefly.

"To be honest, it bothers me that he’s not playing. I won’t pretend it doesn’t. Because it means they looked at us and decided we weren’t worth bringing their best."

"But you know what that also means? It means the pressure tonight is entirely on them. They’ve made a statement before the game has started, so we also have to make ours."

"Let’s play for every person who came here tonight. Let’s play for everyone watching at home, and let’s play like the scoreboard is blank even when it isn’t."

"Let’s go," he said as he straightened before the huddle broke.

After that, the players of the respective teams spread across the pitch and found their positions while the referee’s whistle cut across to bring things to order, and things picked up once more on the broadcast.

"Saudi Arabia is kicking us off here in Atlanta. And whatever the mathematics say, whatever the lineup decisions suggest, football has a habit of making fools of assumptions. Ninety minutes and everything still to play for."

When the whistle sounded and the ball moved, Saudi Arabia came out like the result against Uruguay had never happened.

They were a side without a point, needing a result and facing a Spain team that had left a few of their starters on the bench.

Instead of sitting deep and making it difficult from behind like most, they pressed.

Their press required genuine collective belief to sustain because it was physically expensive, tactically risky, and if Spain decided to forcibly play through it, dangerous.

Knowing the passing ingenuity of their Spaniards, their press would fall apart in seconds if they established some sort of pattern.

And so Spain tried to play through it.

For the opening exchanges, it was frantic as both sides refused to let the other settle.

There were bodies everywhere.

The ball was moving quickly under pressure, and neither team was getting a clean moment to breathe.

After playing through the press but without any result, Spain’s first instinct was the ball over the top, looking to release Lamine on the left or Fermín on the right into the space behind the Saudi defensive line, which had pushed almost to the halfway mark.

But that didn’t work.

They tried more than four times, but each time, Saudi Arabia’s fullbacks tracked every run.

Each time Spain looked like breaking through, they got back with a discipline that suggested they’d spent a significant portion of their preparation specifically on this, on not letting pace beat them in behind.

Lamine got to the ball once and was immediately closed down, and Fermín the second time, but the angle was gone before he’d controlled it.

And so Spain stopped trying the long balls.

"Saudi Arabia have answered one of the key questions early, and that is that they are not going to be beaten in behind. Whatever Spain find tonight, it won’t be that," Peter Drury noted as Rodri sent back to Cubarsi.

"And you can see the Spanish players adjusting already, Peter. The ball is coming back, they’re recycling, looking for a different way in as Saudi Arabia’s shape holds up."