Open Play: Ladies, Goals, The Everything System in-between

Leo pulled his massive frame out of the sludge. He offered a grim, apologetic nod toward Luc and Henri on the touchline before beginning the long, lonely walk down the tunnel, dodging the debris raining down from the stands.

SC Valois was down to ten men. There were still fifty-two minutes left to play in the freezing rain.

The tactical reality of the situation washed over the squad like a bucket of ice water. The immediate objective wasn’t just to hold the 1-0 lead, it was to survival.

Henri stood on the edge of his technical area, the rain plastering his thinning hair to his forehead. He frantically signaled to the bench. He had to plug the gaping hole in the center of the defense.

The fourth official hoisted the electronic board.

Bachra Goza’s number flashed red. Amadou Fall’s number flashed green.

Ekberg started alongside Leo in defence.

The nineteen-year-old winger, who had barely managed to string two consecutive dribbles together in the mud, trudged off the pitch, his shoulders slumped in understandable frustration. Amadou sprinted on, immediately slotting into the vacant center-back position alongside Ekberg and the remaining defensive line.

"Four-four-one!" Henri screamed, holding up four fingers on each hand, then pointing a single digit directly at Luc. "Drop deep! Two banks of four! Luc, buy us any chance!"

The mandate Valérie Laurent had issued in her warm, dry executive office...to secure a comfortable two-goal lead and rest the franchise star...was officially dead.

There would be no early substitution for Luc.

There would be no protecting his legs for the grueling March schedule. Luc was the only pressure-release valve the ten-man squad possessed. If he came off, Dijon would simply park ten men in the Valois penalty box and batter them until the dam broke.

He had to stay on, and he had to fight.

---

The referee blew the whistle to restart the match with the Dijon free kick. The delivery was whipped into the box, dealt with by a towering header from Amadou Fall, and the grueling war of attrition officially commenced.

For the remainder of the first half, the pitch tilted towards the Valois goal. Dijon, infused with the rabid energy of their numerical advantage, poured forward in relentless waves. Hugo Blanc, stripped of his wide passing options, was forced to operate as a secondary defensive midfielder, throwing his slight frame into tackles and hacking clearances away just to clear their lines.

Every time Valois managed to boot the ball out of their defensive third, it sailed aimlessly toward the halfway line, where Luc stood alone agains defenders.

The physical taxation was quite a lot. Whenever the ball approached, Luc had to establish his stance, calculate the drop, and engage his core. The Physical Anchor passive prevented him from being easily shoved off his spot, but it didn’t negate the blunt-force of a heavy shoulder

He was acting as a human punching bag up top, trapping the wet ball on his chest, shielding it for three precious seconds to allow his teammates to breathe, and inevitably getting fouled or dispossessed by the sheer volume of bodies collapsing on him.

By the time the referee mercifully blew the whistle for halftime, Luc’s lungs were practically burning. His back throbbed with a deep ache that wrapped around his ribs.

He walked down the tunnel, his boots feeling like they were cast in cement. The ambient temperature inside the stadium corridors offered little relief from the biting chill outside.

---

Exhausted silence persisted in the away dressing room. Players peeled off soaked, mud-caked jerseys, tossing them onto the floor. The medical staff rushed around with thermal blankets and hot tea, trying to raise core body temperatures before muscles locked into rigid cramps.

Henri stood in the center of the room. He didn’t bother with the cold. The rest of the match had been reduced to fundamental survival.

"Listen to me," Henri said, his voice unusually calm, devoid of his typical frantic pacing. "They are going to throw everything at us in the next forty-five. They will overlap their fullbacks, they will cross from deep, and they will try to force a chaotic scramble in the box. Klaus, Amadou, Baini. You are the hardest workers. Nothing gets through the center."

Henri walked over to where Luc was sitting. The manager crouched down, placing a hand on the American’s knee.

"I cannot take you off, Luc," Henri said quietly, the apology evident in his eyes. "If I put Idriss up there, he will lose the ball. We need you. We need you to hold the play. I am asking you to suffer for another forty-five minutes. Can your legs take it?"

Luc stared at the floor. He thought about the Endurance Surge consumable sitting in his TES inventory. He had the safety net, but he couldn’t deploy it early. It only lasted thirty minutes, and activatable from the 60th minute onward. He had to survive the opening fifteen minutes of the second half purely on his own organic, deteriorating stamina.

He lifted his head, "I’ll hold them off, Coach. Just make sure the backline clears the ball high enough for me to get under it."

"Drink some fluids. Change your boots. We go back in a few minutes," Henri commanded, clapping his hands once to break the fatigue.

---

The second half began.

Dijon Métropole didn’t bother with intricate build-up play. They pushed their defensive line all the way to the halfway line, compressing the entire match into the SC Valois defensive half.

The relentless barrage of crosses was terrifying. Amadou Fall, Ekberg and Klaus Becker formed an impenetrable aerial wall, heading away delivery after delivery. But the frequency of defensive actions was draining the ten men at an alarming rate.

Minute fifty-five.

A Dijon midfielder unleashed a vicious shot from twenty-five yards out. The wet ball skidded across the turf, moving dangerously. Tomáš Blažek dove at full stretch, getting strong fingertips to the leather, pushing it wide of the post for a corner.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!