Greatest of All Legends

Chapter 434: A Bet III

The ball flew at Sczesny who spread himself wide as he lunged at the ball, but despite being able to get a touch to the ball, he wasn’t able to get enough hand on the ball to deflect it from it’s intended path and the ball bounced off the underside of his arm before rolling into the back of the net.

“Whoooo!” Jason shouted as he jumped up and punched up the air in a little celebration after scoring.

He was happy that he was skills were enough for him to perform well even on a stage with players of the Uventus team’s caliber, but at the same time, he also knew that beginner’s luck was also part of it.

For starters, the Uventus players probably had their guards lowered when he had begun moving at them so he was easily able to punish them for that. That it was a training match also helped as it meant that the players couldn’t be too physical in their tackling so as to prevent injuries, otherwise, he would have been swept off the floor before he could take the shot earlier.

However, despite all that, the fact still remained that he had been able to dribble past the Uventus defenders and score and that was a good enough start for Jason.

He wore his happiness on his face as he began jogging back to his teammates.

While Jason wasn’t very vocal about his excitement, the Uventus players didn’t care to mimick that and were openly expressing their excitement and feelings about Jason’s impressive run and goal.

As Jason headed back, Ronaldo flashed a smile his way and gave him a thumbs-up, his behavior making Jason think that he had forgotten about their earlier bet.

On the sidelines, Pirlo nodded to himself, happy at what he was seeing from Jason and already thinking of how Jason would fit into his plans for the rest of the season.

While the manager, the training exercise continued and Jason soon found out how much harder it was to get past the Uventus defenders when they were switched on to his danger and willing to do whatever they could to stop him from getting past.

If he tried to run past, they grabbed him by the shirt and held him back.

If he tried to brush them off the ball, they inserted themselves between him and the ball and held him away until the ball rolled out of range.

If he tried to do tricks, they stayed unmoving till he moved and in the off chance that he managed to confuse them enough to get past, they didn’t mind kicking his legs till they swept him off his feet.

If Jason could classify it according to game difficulty level, then the defenders in the Primera Liga were “Professional” difficulty level while the Uventus defenders were “World-Class” or “Legendary” depending on the defender he was facing off against.

He was slowly getting used to playing in these conditions, but he was a ways from being able to errantly run across the field, dribbling everyone he came across and wistfully creating a chance whenever he wished.

He could only afford to be patient and only move when required, otherwise he would end up on his back.

Jason was quickly learning to rein himself in, otherwise he would be railed out of the way by the tank-like defenders.

The good news was that the defenders were his teammates, however considering that there were defenders of this level almost all over the Serie A, that didn’t count for much, however, at least he was learning to handle those kind of defenders from training.

Another piece of good news was that it wasn’t that he wasn’t able to match up at all, all that he needed was a change in tempo and he would be able to display enough of his capabilities.

This showed during the training session as he was still able to perform enough to send a cross Ronaldo’s way which ended up as an assist for him as Ronaldo didn’t disappoint and sent the ball past Sczesny after taking to the air domineeringly and meeting it with his head.

With that, Jason had two goal contributions while Ronaldo only had one.

Jason was enjoying his victory as he watched the time of the training scrimmage slowly run out when Ronaldo who had just received the ball almost ten yards outside the box from Bentacur did the most ‘Ronaldo-like’ thing he could do.

Without a hint of hesitation in his movements, he put his head down and just hit the ball with all the power he could muster, sending a rocket of a shot at the goal.

Needless to say, Sczesny wasn’t able to keep the ball out and the ball smashed into the back of the net, sending the net flying as it struggled to keep the ball within its grasp.

“What the fuck!?” Jason’s mouth dropped open as his hands flew to the top of his head in absolute disbelief.

In that single moment, Jason understood what it felt like to be the normal person on the team.

Everyone was playing a normal training match, passing the ball around like normal people and trying to score like normal people and out of nowhere, Ronaldo just goes ahead and does something completely unbelievable like scoring a goal from 32 yards out.

“Come on mannn, how?”

“Just how?” Jason couldn’t stay silent after witnessing Ronaldo score a Puskas-level goal in training for absolutely no reason.

“How?” he asked with his hands out as Ronaldo came running back in celebration with all over his face.

“That’s two-two now,” Ronaldo laughed at the flabbergasted-looking Jason.

He was enjoying this more than the normal training session as it had been quite a while since anyone had challenged him directly like Jason had.

The training session soon continued and Jason threw away his reservations, no longer bothering to stay patient while waiting for a chance to get past his man.

Once he had the ball, he ran at the other team’s defense as now that he and Ronaldo were on a similar scoreline, his confidence was nowhere to be found.

He couldn’t trust that Ronaldo wouldn’t suddenly score an unimaginable goal out of nowhere so the only way to regain his confidence was by taking the lead in their bet again.

Ronaldo was also doing the same.

They were both on the same team, but they were competing against one another and this was slowly becoming a hell for the opposing team who were being made to run round in circles because of Jason and Ronaldo.