THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME
Final Night

Thursday, 23 February 2012.

ADO The Hague is scheduled to face Tottenham Youth in the third-place race that afternoon. But surprisingly, coach Johansen instead scheduled a light training session for the NF Academy squad at the Olympic Sports Center.

Zachary and his teammates warmed up by running around an indoor artificial turf field at the Olympic Center. He felt a little tense from the expectations that came with the build-up to the final. He was surprised to learn that he could still be nervous on the day before the Youth Cup final despite having experienced so much in his past life.

Zachary was relieved when the coach called up the squad for a last-minute training session that afternoon. This session will help calm his nerves. It was better than lounging in his hotel room, waiting for the match.

Exercise always relaxes him. With just a little sweat, he can achieve the calmness he needs to play his best. That's his therapy.

He ran along the track with robot— precision and organic fluidity, step by step, nailed perfectly, leaving his other teammates in the dust. Sweat stuck to his skin as freshly melted snow crystals, making Zachary feel as if pressure was emerging from his skin with every molecule of water.

After eight laps, he felt stress-free and ready for the training session. He added a few more laps to his tally at the coach's request before joining the others for a stretching routine.

Squads go through neck circles, shoulder rolls, arm circles, hip rotations, and other simple exercises to stretch their muscles before starting the training session.

As soon as they finished the warm-up, Coach Johansen blew his whistle, gesturing for them to return to the centre circle. He looks happy.

Zachary has noticed that his unbridled confidence has made him home in his features since the NF Academy's semi-final victory.

"Tomorrow is the day of the final" said Coach Johansen, letting his sights wander around the players.

"We will face VfB Stuttgart. They are not easy opponents. They're a better team—at least on paper. To win against them, we have to take advantage of every chance we get in the game to score."

“We have to be clinical in our attack and make use of our dead balls. We have to make sure every corner and free-kick we win threatens their goal. We have to defend this during the game. . That's how we'll keep pressing them and scoring."

He stopped, smiling at the players before continuing. “For free kicks, we are protected. We have Zachary, who has a good record with them. He will make the most of the dead balls we get. However, we still lacked area. did corner kick." He sighed, shaking his head.

"A corner kick can be a source of great frustration at all levels of football" Johansen continued in a somber tone. “As I mentioned in our previous practice sessions, they can help you win or encourage you to lose. It depends on how you handle it. In the semi-final against ADO The Hague, we conceded a goal from a corner kick because we defended against it badly. We're here to make sure we don't repeat the same mistakes tomorrow."

"Today, we will have the corner kick training we trained before coming to Riga again. We will concentrate primarily on good delivery, on a timely run to confuse the defence, being first to have the ball, and hitting the target. We'll also work on the signal for communication when taking a certain type of angle."

"For example, before a short corner kick, anyone who picks it up can raise one hand or finger to signal the other to get ready."

"At the end of this session, I want everyone to understand their role when doing corner kicks. For example, we would choose our four best air players to always attack the ball directly when taking a corner kick. As we did at the back.in Trondheim, they would split their runs, attacking different areas to increase our chances on goal. We will also select the person responsible for pressing the goalkeeper, who targets the rebound, etc. We will try to pass as many corner kick variations as possible to maximize our chances tomorrow."

"It's quite the theory" Coach Johansen said. "Let's start corner practice right away."

The players practice attacking and defending corner kicks for the rest of the afternoon. For a bit of an attack, they ended up perfecting just five angles of picking up the routine. However, Zachary was satisfied with the results of the training session. Their chances of winning have increased thanks to their hard work on set pieces.

After the training session was over, they took the bus back to the hotel. They immediately cleaned up, had dinner, and headed straight to one of the conference rooms for Coach Johansen's pre-match briefing.

"Tomorrow," he started after all the players sat down. "We're going to play a completely different system. We'll play with a 4-2-3-1 formation instead of the 5-4-1 system we've used so far."

"But before I explain it, I will mention the squad tomorrow. Then, we can learn the tactics and discuss the game plan." Coach Johansen said, moving towards the board.

"The "Starting line-up is as follows:

Goalkeeper; Shirt No. 1 Kendrick Otterson,

Centre-back; No.4 - Lars Togstad, No.5 - Daniel Kvande,

Left-back; No.3 - Robin Jatta, Right-back; No.2 - yvind Alseth,

Middle line; No.6 - Magnus Blakstad, No.13 - Simen Giaaver, No.8 - Zachary Bemba, Poland,

Right Wing; No.7 - Paul Kasongo, Left Wing; No.15 - Paul Otterson

"You all have to have a clear understanding of your position in a 4-2-3-1 formation because we trained quite a lot in Trondheim" he said. "But, I will go ahead and explain it again if anyone forgets or falls asleep during the training session before the Riga Cup."

The players laughed at that.

Coach Johansen waited for them to calm down before continuing. "We'll split into four groups on the pitch tomorrow. Our defensive unit will consist of two standard centre-backs and two wing-backs. Two defensive midfielders will sit in front of them, screening them as the next unit. They will play as double shafts on the field to ensure no exploitable space is left in front of our defence." He returned to the board, circling the second position of the midfielder.

"I don't need to tell you how lethal the attacking midfielder VfB Stuttgart is when left with plenty of space in front of the defence. You watched their game against Tottenham." His tone turned grim.

"So, Simen and Magnus," he paused for a moment, first directing his gaze to the corner of the room where the two were sitting. "As our defensive midfielder, you have to work hard and do your best to keep Kimmich and the other midfielders out of our box."

"Are we clear?"

"Yes, coach," the two answered in unison.

Coach Johansen nodded, pointing back to the board. “In front of our two defensive midfielders, we will have Zachary playing as a central attacking midfielder and our two wingers Kasongo and Paul Otterson on the wing. The three of you will complement our midfield along with Simen and Magnus.in every space in the middle of the field to block their quick passing ability."

"Are we clear?"

"Yes, coach," Zachary replied, nodding along with the others.

He is delighted that the coach has considered his advice and brought in a second defensive midfielder off the bench. If the winger counted, NF Academy would be able to play with a total of five midfielders. Such an arrangement would make the agile midfielder VfB Stuttgart easier to control.

Coach Johansen continued his talk for the next hour, explaining the placement of the entire squad. He set the role for each player in the starting line-up, highlighting what he expects from them on the pitch the next day. The coach even encouraged Zachary to try to win as many free-kicks as possible in front of the box, even though it involved some theatrics. When he finished explaining the game plan, he answered questions from the players and released them for the night.

"I heard that Tottenham destroyed ADO The Hague 4:1 in the race for third place" Paul announced to Zachary and several others who walked with him. They climbed the stairs to the second floor of their hotel.

"They managed to get four goals past ADO The Hague!" exclaim Zakaria. He could not hide the shock in his voice. The Dutch side have given them a tough time during the semi-finals. However, Tottenham, the team that lost 3:1 to VfB Stuttgart, managed to beat them with a score of 4:1. Zachary could begin to imagine how strong the Stuttgart VfB team was.

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Simultaneously in one of the Riga AC Hotel conference rooms...

Coach and player VfB Stuttgart just finished discussing some tactics for the final. Unlike in other teams, the German pushed for independent thinking among his players. He often lets them give advice during pre-match briefings to shape their tactical prowess on the field.

Usually, they quickly make a game plan. However, on that day, they were still debating how they would handle one of the players on the NF Academy side during the finals.

“I say we mark it using the same tactics we used against other creative attacking midfielders in Germany,” advises Joshua Kimmich. He sat in the front row of the room. "Only marking man-on-man in a textbook is enough."

There was a murmur, most agreed while some disagreed, around the room.

"Wait, let me explain" Kimmich continued in German. “If we allocate our two players to guard it, we will leave a gap in our formation. That gap will have a negative impact on our style of play. We will find ourselves in situations where we cannot pass the ball quickly. If that happens, we won't be able to create many chances to score up front. And, that's unacceptable."

"In addition, the tactic of marking it with more than one player has been ineffective in the past." Kimmich smiled slightly at his other team-mates. "Zenit, ADO The Hague, and Riga—all tried to double it in their game against NF Academy. But he always manages to outwit his mind and score valuable goals. Since most of their attention was on him, they could not free players to go forward and support their attacks. That's why they failed to score many goals. And, that's how NF Academy managed to win against all those teams."

"But we don't have to do the same. We can and should 'just' concentrate on our style of football playing. We have to focus on scoring goals rather than keeping one player."

He continued, his voice rising. "If he scores three goals, we score five. If he scores four, we score seven. That has to be our style, and we must not change that because we undoubtedly have the best attacking power in this tournament."

Coach Ilija Aracic decided to stop the discussion at the time. He has achieved his goal of making the players think independently before an important game. "Kimmich has a point" he said, smiling at his players.

“We will stay true to our style of play and focus on attacking and scoring in the final tomorrow. We'll hand Zachary over to Philipp. He will be responsible for keeping him throughout the game. If he makes it past Phillip , the defence has to react quickly and stop him before he reaches our box. The rest will play as usual and try to score as many goals as you can. That's the best way to play against weaker teams."

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