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Chapter 115: First Start VIII

They had watched the review process and also the replay of the goal and they knew it was a very close call, which to them automatically meant that it shouldn’t be allowed as it wasn’t their team that scored the goal so hearing the referee give a call that was the opposite of their expectations provoked their unhappy reactions.

The Porto players and fans, on the other hand, were joyous that the goal had been given and their celebrations immediately resumed, but the celebrations didn’t last for long as the referee wanted the match to be resumed as soon as possible.

Thus a few seconds later, a Santa Clara player was standing over the ball in the center of the field to kick off the game once again in the 74th minute of the game.

After kicking off, the Santa Clara team players surged forward with reckless abandon, they knew that at this point, it was almost impossible for them to gain anything from the game as they were three goals behind, but they still weren’t planning to give up.

They hoped to at least decrease the gap between the two teams.

Unfortunately for them, while reckless attacks without any regard for defense could aid their team in its attacking endeavors, it also made them vulnerable to attacks from an opponent that wouldn’t waver in the sight of such a situation.

Porto was such a team and they found it even easier to break through the Santa Clara team’s defense… but they forgot one thing as well.

In the 78th minute, Jason received the ball from Otavio and immediately tried to start up a run down the right wing, but before he could even take a few steps forward, he felt a sudden sharp pain in his legs as his legs were pushed off the floor by a Santa Clara player who had slide tackled him.

Jason was sent tumbling to the floor where he rolled over in pain, his hand grabbing his ankle tightly as if it could alleviate the pain.

The Santa Clara player who tackled Jason stood up to see the referee holding back Otavio who was coming at him with an angry look on his face.

After managing to hold Otavio back, the referee immediately pulled out a yellow card that he showed the Santa Clara player.

Otavio and Wilson Manafa went to check on Jason, but Jason was already sitting up. They pulled him up and Jason rotated his ankle, trying to check if anything felt wrong, but other than the slight pain from the tackle that was already fading away, there was nothing else that hurt other than him feeling a bit winded.

Seeing that nothing was out of place and that Jason didn’t need any medical attention, Otavio and Wilson Manafa headed back to their positions.

Jason picked up the ball, intending to take the free kick, and placed it where the referee had pointed at.

It was just a bit after the halfway point of the field so there were no objections to him wanting to take the free kick.

Jason took a couple of steps back and immediately he heard the referee’s whistle, he ran up to the ball and swung hard, sending a cross toward the left side of Santa Clara’s 18-yard box.

The ball flew high undeterred and reached the zenith of its climb, before finally heading down into the Santa Clara penalty box where a couple of players were waiting.

Luiz Diaz had been running for the ball and jumped to catch the ball with his head and directed the ball towards the center of the box where it was met first time with a thunderous shot by Moussa Marega.

Unfortunately, Moussa Marega added a bit too much elevation to the shot and the ball flew just over the crossbar and into the stands.

Though disappointed at not being able to get another goal, the traveling Porto fans still cheered wildly for their team, well aware that they were annoying the home fans, but then, that was kind of the whole point of their cheering, so they increased their volume as they noticed how much they irritated the home fans.

The Santa Clara goalkeeper collected a ball and sent the ball back into play with a hastily taken free kick, as there was no point in wasting any time if they hoped to gain anything from the game.

The ball flew into the air and dipped towards the right side of Porto’s half of the field where Jason happened to be.

Seeing a Santa Clara player nearby, Jason knew that he could not try trapping the ball on the ground so he jumped at the incoming ball, planning to send the ball back into Santa Clara’s half of the field.

That happened to be a bad idea as the moment he leaped for the ball, the Santa Clara player went through the same motions, but instead of jumping for the ball, it seemed he had jumped at Jason instead.

Before the ball even reached Jason, the Santa Clara player’s right grabbed Jason’s neck while mid-air and in that moment, the Santa Clara resembled a WWE professional instead of a footballer as he all but executed a perfect R.K.O smackdown on Jason.

Jason could not even express his surprise before he hit the ground and for a split second everything turned black before they regained their colors once again, but as an after-effect of the ‘smackdown’, Jason’s head was ringing loudly and he felt as if someone had decided to give his good ol’ brain a lap dance.

Manager Sergio Conceicao who was on the sidelines did not even wait for the referee to take action as he immediately barked at Jesus Corona who was doing a few warm-up routines to stretch his legs since he was feeling a bit stiff,

“Hey, Jesus, get ready to come on, you have thirty seconds,” the Portuguese manager barked loudly while inwardly thinking,

‘I don’t know whether they’ll be taking that kid out on a stretcher or in a coffin if receives another hit like that.’