(Premier league:)
(West Ham – Fulham)
(Date: 14th April, 2024)
Located in the south of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is London Stadium, another of the iconic stadiums in England. The London Stadium's history was that it was built to host the London 2012 Olympics.
And now, it was the ho stadium of one of the elite teams in the English premier competition, West Ham United.
The 62,000-capacity stadium was one of the biggest in all of England, and this was the venue for Fulham's next challenge in the premier league.
It was an imposing and incredibly tough stadium to get a good result from.
After extending their winless run in the premier league by the stalemate against Newcastle United, Coach Marco Silva finally ca under pressure by the dia and the fans.
They seemingly forgot that he already led this team to win its first trophy in years, rather, all they focused on was the recent defeats and draws.
If Fulham extended the winless run by either losing or drawing to West Ham the next ga, threads of #MarcoSilvaOut popping out on social dia may not be too surprising.
This was the nature of football. You had to perform, and keep performing, that was the only way to stay in the good favors of the fans.
Once you start performing badly, you lose faith with the fans.
After the recent run of form, this was the situation that now plagued Coach Marco Silva, making their next ga even more important.
The buildup to the West Ham ga was intense.
After the Newcastle ga on the 6th, instead of the short 3-day break that separated the Nothingham Forest and the Newcastle ga, this ti, the Fulham players had a good 7 days to prepare for their next ga.
The players used this ti judiciously.
Playing 32 gas in a 38-ga season was no easy feat. The players were exhausted, but with the 7-day rest, they had enough ti to rest, reset, and refocus on their ambitions for the rest of the season.
And again, during this period of reset, Sam stayed diligent.
When Sam was younger, in the era of mobile gas, there was a mobile ga he once played called need for speed. In that ga of racing cars like asphalt, the main emphasis was speed, speed above everything else.
You have a fast car, you win.
You have a slow car, you lose.
You have a slow car and you want to win, you either upgrade your car or you save money to purchase a faster car.
At this mont, in the build-up to the West ham ga after the draw at ho against Newcastle United, only one thing rang in Sam's head that served as extra motivation for him, the need to win!
Fulham FC could not afford to lose another ga, nor could they afford to draw the ga; the only acceptable result for the West Ham ga was a win.
Forget about the collective, personally, Sam did not want to lose another ga. He could not afford it; after all, his system already struck again.
2 days earlier in the build-up to the ga, he got a new system notification.
~----~
[You have received a new system mission: Win!]
[Mission Description: Fulham FC is going through a rough patch of form, a winless streak, this is not supposed to be in the resu of a player aspiring to beco the next Football God!]
[Mission Objective: Win!]
[Mission Reward: Form Boost!]
>Form Boost: This is a system boost that randomly boosts 3 of your main attributes by 3 stat points for one ga<
…
[Penalty for mission failure: -5 decrease to one of your attributes!]
~----~
It was a very simple mission, with a very simple explanation.
In essence, the system was just telling him; win or suffer the consequences!
The system mission left Sam thinking. 'This unrelenting need for to win by the system, is it truly just to make improve? Why do I feel like the system gets sothing from becoming a better footballer?'
'Sotis, it's demands are not just for , it seems a bit more personal'.
The rational him wanted to prod more about this but Sam didn't care too much about it. 'Who cares? It wants to win, I want to win, that's all that matters!'
Instead of looking at it as punishnt by his system, Sam rather looked at it as even more motivation.
In the 7 days leading up to the ga against West Ham in the London Stadium, Sam trained like hell, giving about 150% every training session!
It got so intense his manager had to tell him to calm down a few tis.
Sam's obsession with winning felt overbearing in the build-up to this ga. Even as it scared his coach a bit, Marco Silva was also happy because this ntality of his star player seeped into the rest of his team.
Watching the young newcor who already beca a star do so much, putting so much effort even in his fa, trying to impress every ti, the other Fulham players could not help but be impressed.
And with being impressed, they also felt their bloods boil hot.
'This guy…'
'I won't let a newcor steal all of our shine!'
'I won't let his monopoly over coming first every training session stand anymore!'
'I want to challenge him!'
'Damn! I don't believe I'm less talented than he is!'
'Hehe! Sam, just watch, I'll prove to you in training!'
Not all the Fulham players thought like this but with the majority thinking like this, the Fulham squad as a whole was fired up as they trained like a beast.
In those 7 days, if Fulham FC was a ek Wolf before that was injured after the string of losses and draws, Coach Marco Silva watched as his team transmogrified from a Wolf to a Lion, and then to an angry Dragon.
Fulham FC was angry!
Fulham FC wanted to win!
And then, in the blink of an eye, it was D-day.
The Fulham team traveled to the London Stadium.
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