Chapter 156: More Than a Game

Chapter 156: More Than a Game Chapter 156: More Than a Game October 24th, 2010 The air at Broadfield Stadium was sharp and chilly, filled with the smell of damp grass and the faint buzz of the floodlights overhead. But inside the stadium, something electric was happening. The place felt alive pumping with energy, hope, and raw emotion. Everywhere you looked, there was red and white. Flags waving. Scarves held high. It wasn’t just a crowd, it was a community, united and loud, standing tall against the odds. The chants ringing out weren’t just songs they were battle cries. They echoed with pride, with defiance, with the belief of a town that knew it didn’t belong on a stage this big but showed up anyway. Across from them stood a giant Fiorentina, a club with a proud history, their players draped in the deep, royal purple of Florence. A name that echoed through European football. But in that moment, none of it mattered. Not to the Crawley fans who had made this stadium their home, nor to the players who wore red and white with everything they had. This wasn’t just another match, it was a once-in-a-lifetime moment. Then the whistle blew. Kickoff: Fiorentina started with calm confidence, their passing smooth and precise. They moved the ball like they’d been doing this forever every touch was clean, every movement purposeful. Their midfield dictated the tempo with quiet control, like a conductor leading an orchestra. Crawley, on the other hand, looked tight. You could feel the nerves in every touch passes came off heavy, decisions just a second too slow. They were playing with heart, but the rhythm wasn’t there yet. The contrast was clear: one team played with the calm of experience, the other with the urgency of a dream they didn’t want to lose. Fiorentina began to turn the screws. Their forwards darted into spaces that barely existed, stretching Crawley’s defense to the limit. Each attack felt like a test quick, sharp, and smart. Crawley’s backline had to dig deep, holding their shape as best they could, bodies flying in to block, legs chasing shadows. But still, they didn’t break. Liam wasn’t wearing the captain’s armband, but in that moment, he didn’t need it. At the center of the defense, he was a steady presence loud, alert, unshakable. "Stay tight! Don’t follow them!" he bellowed, his voice cutting through the cold night air. It was raw, sure but it carried calm. Authority. While others around him looked tense, Liam was locked in, focused, holding the line. Then came the scare. Fiorentina’s playmaker threaded a perfect pass between Crawley’s defenders one clean, devastating through-ball. Their striker broke free. Time seemed to slow down. A hush swept over the stadium, every fan frozen, every heart in their throat. But Liam reacted. There was no hesitation or no panic. Just instinct. He threw out a leg and clipped the ball just enough to send it spinning wide of the post. The crowd let out a single, united breath. Relief. A small moment that felt huge. Liam locked eyes with the keeper, who gave him a quick nod. Nothing needed to be said. In midfield, Tom and James were doing the dirty work the kind that rarely makes headlines but wins battles. They chased everything, closed every gap, harried Fiorentina’s elegant midfield like it was personal. Breath steaming, legs screaming, they never stopped. "Don’t let ’em breathe, Tom! Don’t let ’em settle!" Jamal shouted, voice ragged. They weren’t here to impress. They were here to fight. And that fight messy, scrappy, relentless was keeping Crawley in it. As the first half wore on, the tension slowly bled from the Crawley team. They began to find their feet, to remember the fire in their bellies that had brought them this far. A sharp tackle from Tom, perfectly timed, won the ball back in the middle of the park. He immediately looked for an outlet. He found Jamal, who flicked a pass out wide to the wing, and for the first time, a collective roar rose from the stands as Crawley pushed forward. Dev had been quiet, almost invisible for much of the half. He was still in his own head, chasing a ghost of a decision he had yet to make. The weight of his agent’s words, of the opportunity to leave for something bigger, was a physical thing, a chain around his ankle. He felt heavy, slow. The game felt like a stage, and he was just a prop, going through the motions. But as the ball came down the wing, his muscle memory took over. He started to move, not with the frantic energy of a man under pressure, but with the quiet purpose of a predator. He cut inside, pulling two defenders with him, creating a pocket of space in the middle. The ball was played back to him from the wing. For a second, he looked up, and for the first time, he saw the pitch as a landscape, not a cage. He received the pass, the ball settling under his foot with a familiar ease. The world felt like it was moving in slow motion. He saw a glimmer of space, a fraction of a second when the Fiorentina defense was out of position, a gap that was only there for an instant. He didn’t think, he just acted. A one-two with Pogba was perfectly executed, a blur of movement and sound. "Go on, Dev!" Pogba’s voice was a whisper in the wind. Then, with a turn so fluid it seemed effortless, he broke free. The world narrowed to a tunnel, the roar of the crowd becoming a single, high-pitched note of anticipation. He saw the goalkeeper charging out, a wall of purple and white, but his eyes were on the goal, the back of the net a beacon of light. He struck the ball, a clean, powerful shot that sliced through the cold air. The net rippled. A silent, universal moment of disbelief hung in the air, then the scoreboard changed to Crawley Town 1-0 Fiorentina. For a moment, there was silence, a collective gasp of disbelief, and then the eruption. It was a sound that shook the foundations of the stadium, a tidal wave of joy and relief that washed over everyone. The players didn’t just run to Dev, they collapsed on him, a pile of jubilant red and white. They were a team, a single, joyous unit. Liam gripped his shoulders, his face a mask of fierce pride. "That’s it, Dev! That’s it!" On the sideline, Coach Niels raised his arms to the sky, a fierce, proud smile on his face. He knew. This wasn’t about money or fame. It was about people. Halftime. The whistle blew for halftime, and the stadium hummed with excited energy. In the cramped, simple dressing room, the players collapsed onto benches, their chests heaving. The air was thick with the smell of sweat and liniment. Everyone was grinning, a shared look of awe and exhaustion. "One-nil, lads. One-nil against Fiorentina!" Tom said, still catching his breath, a disbelieving laugh escaping his lips. Coach Niels walked in without a word, the noise from the stands still echoing faintly behind them. He didn’t need to shout. His presence was enough. The players, still catching their breath, looked up. He scanned the room, meeting their eyes one by one. "You earned that," he said, his voice low but steady. "Every single one of you. That’s what it looks like when you play for each other." He let the words settle, then continued. "Now listen. They’re going to come at us. Hard. They’ll be angry, sharper, more desperate. That doesn’t change a thing. We stay compact. We stay disciplined. We defend as one." He turned toward Dev. "You’re the outlet. Hold the ball, give the midfield time to push up. Buy us seconds every second counts." Then to Jamal and Tom: "You two set the tone again. Win that midfield. Make it ugly if you have to." He paused. "It’s not about scoring another. It’s about protecting this one." Then he clapped his hands, sharp and loud. "Forty-five minutes. Just forty-five more minutes, for history." The Second Half The second half began with a ferocious intensity. Fiorentina, stung by the first-half goal, came out with a vengeance. Their passing was quicker, their movement more precise. They were a whirlwind of purple, circling the Crawley box, looking for a weakness. Crawley Town’s defense became a wall. Liam, a general on the battlefield, organized the backline, pushing players into position with quiet authority. There was a moment when a Fiorentina striker, with an acrobatic shot, sent the ball rocketing towards the top corner. The keeper Adam, a blur of movement, flew across the goal and tipped it over the bar. It was a heart-stopping save that earned a thunderous cheer, a roar of pure relief from the crowd. The minutes ticked by, each one feeling like an hour. Jamal and Tom were everywhere, sliding into tackles, intercepting passes, and clearing the ball with desperation and purpose. They were a pair of exhausted, grimy heroes, refusing to give an inch. Dev, up front, found himself doing more defending than attacking, chasing down balls, holding up play, and providing a crucial outlet when the pressure became too much. Then, in the 85th minute, it happened. A through-ball found a Fiorentina forward in space. He was through, one-on-one with the keeper. The stadium held its breath. The shot was low, and it looked like a certain equalizer. But the ball hit the post with a sickening thud and bounced wide. A collective, stunned gasp filled the air, followed by a prayerful cheer. The luck was with Crawley. The referee’s arm went up. Three minutes of added time. The final minutes were an eternity. The clock on the scoreboard seemed to have stopped. The crowd roared, willing the team on, their voices hoarse. Dev, with a last burst of energy, chased down a loose ball near the corner flag and won a throw-in. He held the ball, taking precious seconds off the clock as the Fiorentina defenders swarmed him, their faces a mix of frustration and disbelief. Then, the final whistle blew. The sound was almost drowned out by the roar of the crowd. It wasn’t just a cheer, it was a release. The players dropped to their knees, their bodies heavy with exhaustion and their minds light with triumph. Dev stood for a moment, looking out at the roaring crowd, a wide, genuine smile on his face. The weight he had been carrying, the burden of a decision he had to make, was gone. It had been replaced by the weight of a different kind of purpose. The purpose of playing for something bigger than himself. Fulltime: Crawley Town 1-0 Fiorentina.