THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME
In Difficult Places

*FREEEE*

The referee blew the halftime whistle at exactly 18:48. That was after adding three extra minutes to compensate for the time spent on set-pieces and goal celebrations during the first half.

Hearing the whistle, Zachary immediately started walking out of the field. His spirit flew high as he managed to make an assist again. He could not help but walk with a hint of arrogance in his steps as he could barely contain his excitement.

"ROSENBORG\, *tepuk*tepuk*\, ROSENBORG\, *tepuk*tepuk..."

"Zach-33-S... Zach..."

"Nicki Nielsen's... Nicki..."

Like a storm, waves of cheers and chants swept through the stadium as Rosenborg players approached the tunnel entrance.

Zachary's ears managed to pick the names of several players, including his name, from within the claps and rhythmic chants around the stadium. A smile adorned his face when he heard a loud noise from the excited fans. He enjoys the feeling of playing in front of a lot of people. This increases the stakes, making the game more interesting.

Cheers are the perfect catalyst to propel him into his best form, especially during home games. He appreciates hardcore fans who are passionate about it. So, he took a moment to wave at them before running to the tunnel entrance and proceeding to the changing room.

"It's good, man," Mikael Dorsin, Rosenborg's assistant captain, said to Zachary as soon as they entered the dressing room. "You were brilliant during the first half. The way you continue to connect with Nicki in the final third is incredible. You are the true definition of the most dangerous Troll Kid ever in the field." He grinned, patting Zachary on the back.

"Thank you" Zachary replied with a smile. “You are also good. You managed to completely block Emmanuel Ekpo, Molde's right winger, from sending even one cross into our box. And it happened throughout the 45 minutes of the first half. That's something incredible, especially considering how quickly the Nigerian got on the ball."

"That's not the case," Mikael said, shaking his head. "I'm really bored on the left wing. You guys in the middle have dominated the whole game and left nothing for us to do." He added jokingly.

Zachary continued to chat lightly with Mikael and several other teammates until Coach Johansen took to the stage to give a part-time briefing. The coach's face all smiled as he stepped towards the tactics board to begin his speech.

"It was a pretty good game" said the coach right after all the players calmed down and sat on the bench around the dressing room. “I was quite impressed with the way you controlled the tempo and controlled most of the ball possession during the first half. You're all very good on the pitch, and that's why we led with two goals. I'm pretty proud of you. . But for the second half, we need to add strength if we want to maintain our lead and go home with three points at the end of the game..."

Nonetheless, he also kept a small part of his attention on the coach. Since he did not want to miss any details, he continued to listen to the tactical briefing attentively.

Over the next seven minutes, the coach discusses everything from tactics, the individual roles of the players, and how to approach the game during the second half. He asserted, the players remain focused and play as well as possible despite winning two goals. He also urged them to try their best to avoid their habit of losing focus early in the second half before sending them back on the field to restart the game.

**** ****

Anxiety ran through Coach Johansen, like some sort of electrical storm churning in his brain as he followed the on-field process of the home team's technical area. It was 55 minutes, 10 minutes into the second half, but the game had not gone as planned.

Coach Johansen has never been a superstitious person in his entire life. But for the first time, he began to doubt the world, wondering if one of his players had recently pulled bad luck from elsewhere and passed it on to the team. He could not find a reasonable explanation for his team conceding a goal at the start of each second half.

For the match against Molde, his players have followed his instructions in writing and maintained a high level of focus right after the half-time break. The midfielders even managed to quickly build momentum by working closely with the attackers and wingers. Starting from the first minute of the second half, they managed to start a series of relentless attacks against Molde's goal.

In the first ten minutes of the second half, Coach Johansen's mood was good. His players played good football, exchanging passes with quick precision as they attacked Molde's goal. They were clearly the better team and beat Molde in all areas of the field of play. However, their lead was shortened to just one goal via a corner kick when the clock on the big screen just showed that it was the 50th minute. It was then that the situation on the ground started to turn in favor of Molde.

Although Rosenborg's players continued to create chances and dictate tempo due to their creative midfield, they continued to fail to finish in the final third. Thanks to that, Molde slowly started to get comfortable in the game and started to look more dangerous on the counter-attack.

And then, in the 55th minute, Coach Johansen felt like the whole world was working against his team after barely surviving another dangerous attack from Molde. The situation on the ground got worse in the next second. The blue-clad players had counterattacked three times, coming close to scoring twice during the previous five minutes of play.

What makes things worse is that the players no longer look as comfortable as they were during the first half. They have started making amateur mistakes during crucial moments of the game. Coach Johansen has yet to decide whether to make a change of players immediately or wait and hope his players will calm down as the game progresses.

"Maybe we have to include a central defender or an additional defensive midfielder to strengthen our backline" suggested Trond Henriksen, assistant head coach from the side. "As long as we manage to maintain our lead for the next twenty minutes, we will be on track to win. Based on our previous performances, it is very likely that we will score during the last ten minutes of the second half. So, in this moment, we need defensive-minded players on the pitch to help us get through the next dangerous few minutes."

"OK," Coach Johansen said, taking a deep breath and slightly tilting his head to observe his assistant. "I'll go with a defensive midfielder. So, you can go ahead and tell Ole Selnaes and Mix Diskerud to warm up." He added before returning his entire focus to the field of play. Although he disliked how his assistant kept trying to disrupt his management style, he still had to admit that he was right back then. Adding a defensive-minded player like Ole will most likely make it harder for Molde to hit Rosenborg on the counter-attack.

**** ****