'There's still ti to make my mark'.
FWEEEE!
Imdiately after the referee's whistle went off, restarting the ga, Sam used a familiar mantra to calm his nerves as he jogged about the pitch.
For this ga, he replaced Pereira as the attacking midfielder of the team while Alex Iwobi had more of a defensive midfield role.
As soon as the ga restarted, with fresh legs, Fulham FC increased their intensity, dominating possession even more than before.
Entering this ga, Sam was determined to do just one thing, make his mark but he didn't rush about it.
A season and a half of playing in the NPFL for Enyimba FC already taught Sam a lot of things, and one of these things was to not be rash.
He still had a vivid recollection of his first ga for Enyimba FC where due to his overenthusiasm to make his mark, he cost his team a goal. Though he made ands later in the ga, that mont haunted him for a long ti.
This was why for the first few minutes after entering the pitch, Sam seed to turn into Xavi Hernandez reincarnated.
Just like the Barcelona legend, for 10 minutes, he played tidy and effective football, boasting incredible stats of a hundred percent pass completion rate.
With his tidy passes, setting up his teammates to take the risk, Sam helped Fulham FC dominate the possession even more for the final minutes of this ga, thoroughly killing the Rotherham montum.
After 10 minutes on the pitch though, with only 5 minutes remaining till the 90th minute, Sam finally decided to be adventurous a bit.
Receiving the ball in the middle of the pitch, just like before, the desperate Rotherham players expected him to pass sideways to the nearest teammate as they pressed aggressively, blocking his passing lanes while rushing towards him.
They expected to intimidate him with their aggressive press but Sam was not impressed. At that mont, he decided to switch it up.
'Let's leave a mont for the fans to rember'.
Bam!
Flicking the ball with the tip of his boot, he raised it above the first Rotherham player's outstretched leg, easily skipping past the first challenge.
The second challenge ca from the right.
With his spatial awareness, Sam knew that this was the closest player to his position. Feeling mischievous, he decided to take more risk.
As the player charged in, he took a heavy step, staggering slightly as this player was destabilized by it, reacting by staggering backward unsteadily.
When the Rotherham player realized that it was a feint, he beca even more aggressive, charging forward again and that was when Sam did him dirty.
Shifting the ball with the outside of his boot, Sam took the ball closer to the Rotherham player and just as this player stretched his leg out to steal the ball, Sam smoothly switched from the outside of his boot to the inside, cutting the ball back.
He deleted the Rotherham player with the elastico dribble. Enjoy new stories from empire
It was executed so silkily that it almost seed like a snake's bite, and the aftermath was the Rotherham player collapsing to the field on his butt.
"Oh my!" The comntator exclaid, laughing. "The new guy is feeling cheeky! What a move!"
"And oh…, he's played a pass, what a pass!"
"Jinez is one on one with the goalkeeper!"
Imdiately after skipping past the 2 challenges in the middle of the pitch, space opened up in the Rotherham formation. That was when Sam spotted Jinez, the striker who was subbed into the ga alongside him and Alex Iwobi make a run.
He did not hesitate, playing an inch-perfect defense splitting pass.
Raul Jinez charged past the defenders, calmly controlling the ball before shooting it at goal with his second touch.
The Rotherham goalkeeper who was already charging towards him made his body big and unfortunately for Jinez, the ball hit the goalkeeper's leg, rebounding back into the 18-yard box as players scrambled for it.
In the end, one of the Rotherham players got there first but due to the urgency, he executed a flawed clearance of the ball, shooting it high into the air instead of clearing it upfield.
The ball descended in the midfield where Alex Iwobi lurked.
A Rotherham player tried to win the aerial duel from the Nigerian international but outmuscling the opposition player, Alex Iwobi calmly won the ball before taking a look up the field, spotting a few options.
There were others in better positions but at this mont, Alex ignored all of them before threading a pass to Sam who just entered the 18-yard box.
A Rotherham player slid on the pitch, trying to intercept the ball but it just slipped past his outstretched leg.
The ball was an inch perfect pass in Sam's running path.
Sam took the ball in his strides, pushing it forward slightly and setting himself up before unleashing a whipped ground ball towards goal.
The Rotherham goalkeeper was rooted to the spot, only watching as the ball rolled through the ground with speed towards the bottom left corner.
He watched the ball all the way till it nestled into his net.
"Goalllll…!" Sam pumped a fist in celebration before turning, pointing at Alex Iwobi as he jogged towards the Nigerian international.
Alex Iwobi turned around, letting Sam jump on his back to celebrate.
"What a goal!" The comntator scread.
"What a debut for the young Nigerian player".
"He started the move, it didn't pan out, and yet sohow, he still ended it!"
"What a debut performance!"
"It's a dream debut for him".
In the 86th minute of the ga, Fulham FC scored the 2nd goal of the ga through Sam, dooming Rotherham to a damning loss.
After that goal, the Rotherham montum truly dissipated completely as Fulham FC fully dominated the rest of the ga, coming close to scoring a few more tis mostly through Jinez.
Fulham FC did not get the 3rd goal though.
After additional minutes by the referee, the ga finally ga to an end.
Fulham FC won 2-0.
[Author's NOTE: Congratulations to and us on 100 chapters! Wow!]
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