In the dressing room, the mood was a perfect blend of confidence and focus.
"I just saw the space," Emre said with a humble shrug, but he couldn’t hide the proud smile on his face.
"And my run," Jacob Sørensen added, a rare, wide grin on his face. "Did you see my run? Like a majestic, slightly-slow gazelle."
The room filled with laughter.
Ethan stood before them, a feeling of deep, satisfying pride washing over him. "That was brilliant," he said.
"The goal was a moment of genius. But more importantly, we didn’t lose our heads when they tried to kick us off the park. We stayed calm, we played our football, and we were the better team. The second half, we do more of the same. We keep the ball, we make them run, and we will find the winner. Don’t get arrogant. Don’t get complacent. Just be us. Go finish the job."
The second half began, and for five glorious minutes, Apex United was a footballing symphony.
They passed the ball with a slick, one-touch rhythm, the Burton Albion players chasing shadows, their aggressive tactics from the first half completely nullified.
Then, in the 52nd minute, the universe decided to have a laugh.
It started with a simple, harmless-looking pass back to Ben Gibson.
The stand-in captain had all the time in the world.
He could have passed it to the keeper, to his defensive partner, to the fullback.
Instead, for a reason no one in the stadium could possibly fathom, he decided to try and dribble.
He took one touch, then another, ambling out of his defense like a man taking his dog for a walk.
A Burton striker, who couldn’t believe his luck, jogged over and simply took the ball off him.
He was one-on-one with the keeper and coolly slotted it into the bottom corner.
A stunned, horrified silence descended upon
Ben Gibson just stood there, a look of profound, existential confusion on his face, as if his own feet had just betrayed him.
"Well... I... I am lost for words," the commentator stammered, his voice a mixture of shock and pity. "Ben Gibson, the veteran, the rock at the back for Apex United, has just... gifted a goal to Burton Albion. An inexplicable, calamitous error, and the visitors are back in front! I can’t believe what I’ve just seen!"
Ethan stood on the sideline, his mouth hanging open. It was a stupid mistake.
A freak moment. But his players would bounce back. They had ’Steely Resolve’.
They did not bounce back.
The calm, confident, passing team of the first half vanished, replaced by eleven individuals who looked like they had never met each other before, let alone played football together.
In the 55th minute, Jonathan Rowe, on the right wing, received the ball.
He had acres of space to run into. Instead, he stopped, turned, and tried a 40-yard, no-look backheel pass towards his own goal.
The ball, naturally, went straight to a Burton midfielder, who shot just wide.
"JONNY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Ethan screamed, his voice raw with disbelief. Rowe just gave him a confused shrug, as if the idea had been beamed into his head from another planet.
It was contagious. It was a meltdown.
In the 58th minute, Apex had a corner.
Emre Demir, the genius, the magician, swung it in. It was a perfect delivery.
Grant Hanley, back from suspension, rose high and met it with a thunderous header.
But he had headed it... at his own goal.
The ball flew towards the top corner, forcing Angus Gunn to make a spectacular, panicked, diving save to stop his own captain from scoring a world-class own goal.
"This is turning into a farce!" the commentator was now howling with laughter. "Apex United have completely lost the plot! They’re passing to the opposition, they’re shooting at their own goal! I’ve never seen anything like it! It’s like watching a team being controlled by a toddler who’s just found the controller for the first time!"
Ethan was in a state of pure, helpless agony.
He was yelling instructions, but his players were moving with a strange, dream-like logic of their own. His tactical commands were disappearing into a void of beautiful, self-destructive chaos.
The third goal for Burton, in the 60th minute, was the masterpiece of the disaster.
Apex had a free-kick, deep inside their own half.
Kenny McLean, the experienced, sensible veteran, placed the ball down.
He saw Viktor Kristensen making a run. He saw Jonathan Rowe in space. He saw a dozen simple, logical passes.
Instead, he turned and, with all his might, passed the ball directly into the back of the referee.
The ball ricocheted off the poor, unsuspecting official and fell perfectly at the feet of the Burton striker, who was standing in an offside position but was now, thanks to the deflection, perfectly onside. He took one touch and smashed the ball into the net.
The referee, looking deeply embarrassed, had no choice but to award the goal. The Burton players celebrated, looking almost guilty.
Their manager was just laughing, a look of pure, disbelieving joy on his face.
The fourth goal, moments later, was a simple long ball that the entire Apex defense just stood and watched. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ noⅴelfire.net
The fifth goal was even worse.
Angus Gunn, under no pressure, tried to dribble the ball out of his own box, fell over his own feet, and the Burton striker was left with a simple tap-in.
The final whistle blew on the most bizarre, inexplicable, and utterly humiliating 15 minutes of football ever witnessed. The home fans, who had been roaring with pride an hour ago, just sat in stunned silence, not even bothering to boo.
Ethan just stood on the sideline, his mind a complete blank.
He wasn’t angry. He wasn’t sad. He was just... empty.
He had seen his perfect, table-topping team, his creation, devolve into a circus act in the space of a quarter of an hour.
As the players trudged off, their faces a mask of shame and confusion, a single, clinical, blue-colored notification appeared in Ethan’s vision.
[SYSTEM ANOMALY DETECTED]
He focused on it, his heart pounding with a new, dawning horror.
[Your squad has triggered a hidden ’Team Complacency’ modifier. This is a negative feedback loop that can occur when a team with high morale and low ’Professionalism’ faces a significant, unexpected setback.]
[Modifier Effect: For a temporary period, all player ’Decision-Making’ and ’Composure’ attributes are reduced by -50%. Players will favor high-risk, low-percentage actions. Managerial instructions may be ignored. Your team has, in essence, ’tilted’.]
[Recommendation: A significant squad overhaul focusing on players with high ’Professionalism’ and ’Leadership’ attributes is advised to prevent future occurrences.]