THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME
Captain's Concerns

Mikael Dorsin, Rosenborg's acting captain, let out a frustrated sigh as he watched the Vlerenga players celebrate their goal on the sidelines. Just because of the mistake of one of his teammates, his team had already fallen behind at the start of the game. Lordy! He hates to lose. He could feel his emotions all over the place as he recalled his goal. He wanted to run into Christian, a player who made amateur mistakes, and give him a mouthful of what he felt. But he held back his frustration and turned to the technical area to observe Coach Johansen's reaction to Vlerenga's first goal.

But his eyes widened in surprise a moment later. He immediately realized that Verner Ronning and Ole Selnaes, two defensive-minded Rosenborg players on the bench, had already started warming up on the sidelines. He was confused and concerned by the coach's reckless attitude and impatience.

"The coach seems to be very angry" said Mike Jensen, Rosenborg's defensive midfielder, after walking towards him. "He even planned to make a change of players at the beginning of the game!"

"But we can't blame him" Mikael said, muffling his frustration. "We played badly on the defensive side. Most of us make simple mistakes that slowly lead to our downfall. If I were a coach, maybe, I would also think about changing players now."

"But of course you don't believe that the change of players at the start of this game is the answer to our problem" Mike Jensen said, shaking his head slightly. “We were only a little weak when we had the ball because we were playing away from home in a foreign environment. In addition, you should understand that the Valerenga fans did not make it easy for us to focus on the game. "

"I'm sure all of our players will soon progress into the game— and get used to this environment in the next few minutes" continued the defensive midfielder. “They will then start performing as usual, and we will score. Don't forget that we have Nicki, Pull, and most importantly, Zachary up front. They can create scoring opportunities at any time. So, I don't believe there's a need for a change of players now."

"I agree with you about that," Mikael said, stroking his chin while observing his teammates. "But why are you telling me all this? I'm not the coach."

"You can try to talk to the coach about this" Mike Jensen replied with a small smile. "He'll listen to you because you're the captain."

"Haha..." Mikael laughed bitterly. "Do you think I'm Zachary, Tore, or Nicki? You should know that other than them, all of us in the starting eleven are easy to sacrifice. So, I'm not going to bother the coach any further by telling him how to do his job."

Mikael is also quite worried about how it is progressing.

He also believes the change of players at the beginning of the game is not the best solution to overcome the weaknesses of Rosenborg players on the field. Changes in players can lead to more disorganization within the team, bringing more tactical difficulties. Even more so because they only conceded a minute ago.

So, Mikael was determined to prevent such a scenario from happening. But he won't achieve that by complaining to the coach. He has his own way of doing things using the passionate voice given by whoever has created the world.

"Friends," he shouted as hard as he began to move around the field— through the ranks of his team-mates. "Don't lose your spirit by one goal. Don't think about the fans and concentrate on stabilizing our game. We are a stronger team. We can definitely score goals if we play like always..."

Hearing Mikael's shout, Zachary immediately ran back to his position in the left midfield. He hopes the game can start again as soon as possible. He was eager to help his team get a goal soon— and bring the match back to a flat spot inside Ullevaal Stadium. However, Valerenga players took the time to celebrate the goal. They were obviously wasting time and delaying the restart.

Zachary is already feeling impatient from a long pause in the game. Nevertheless, he remained in his position waiting for the referee's whistle without any complaints.

He didn't want to be on the wrong side of Valerenga's fans who were so turbulent by protesting against the waste of time to the referee. To a certain degree, he was shaken by their intensity. He believes attracting their attention the wrong way is worse luck than waiting a few more minutes to restart the game.

Referees act harshly to resolve the crisis of time wastage. He showed a yellow card to two of Valerenga's players before sending them back on the pitch to restart after the goal. But the derision resulting from the two warnings was so loud that it flooded the other sounds in the stadium. Zachary could only sigh again and again at the intensity of the fans.

*FREEEE*

The referee blew the whistle and gestured the Rosenborg players to restart the game in the 24th minute. Nicki Nielsen, Rosenborg's star striker, immediately passed the ball back to Jonas Svensson in the right midfield.

Zachary reacted immediately when he saw Jonas, his partner in attacking midfield, holding the ball. He opened up by running further left into the empty space on the left wing— with a view to avoiding the reach of Christian Grindheim, the burly Valerenga attacking midfielder, who was quickly closing in on him.

To his relief, Jonas, another Rosenborg attacking midfielder, managed to find him soon. Without further ado, he releases the ball to him before the opponent can react.

Zachary felt his heart pounding with a mix of excitement and anxiety as he watched the ball approach the space in front of him. He felt anxious because of the scorn from the Valerenga fans. But at the same time, his spirit had already brightened since he was about to receive the ball.

He was in a messy state of mind that he did not like in the slightest. He prefers to stay level-headed and confident on the pitch. So, he forced himself to calm down as he controlled the pass in the middle of the sprint before continuing running towards Valerenga's half amid increasing jeers from their fans.

Kristofer Hastad, Valerenga's defensive midfielder, quickly approached him, blocking his running path. However, Zachary did not attempt to dribble. He immediately fed the ball to Tobias Mikkelsen, Rosenborg's left-hander, who had long since started running along the edge of the pitch. Zachary didn't stop his run. Instead, he avoided Kristofer and continued to push deeper into Valerenga's passage.