Greatest Of All Legends - Chapter 757

Capítulo 757: Guess The Footballer VI

“Next up is a round we call touch and shoot,” Josh began talking about the next round.

“Contestants 1 and 2 who are out of the main contest will pass the ball to you and have to control the ball with one touch, preferably into the marked area,” he said, pointing to a square area on the pitch inside the penalty box that had been marked by four cones at the four corners of the square.

“One touch to control and one touch to shoot. You have two chances,” Josh finished and stepped away from the field, allowing the contestants to once again take to the stage.

Sofia, the third contestant but the first contestant for this round stepped up and received the first pass from Paul, the original first contestant.

Sofia instantly tried to control the ball, but despite getting a good touch to take out the power from the pass, she didn’t manage to get the ball to stop in the marked area, but she still whipped the ball powerfully at the goal.

The ball flew powerfully but narrowly missed the outside of the left post and flew harmlessly past the goal.

The second pass to Sofia was made by Elena and once again, trying to control, she managed to stop the ball, but her touch was worse this time and the ball stopped almost two meters from the left side of the marked area.

Not good with her left and not wanting to spend too much angling her body, Sofia hit the ball with the outside of her feet, trying to curl it around back to the top left of the goal, but her attempt at goal was smoothly handled by the goalkeeper.

It was clear that she wasn’t very familiar with the move she just tried to pull off.

After Sofia, the other three contestants also had a go at the drill, each coming out with varying results.

Each of the remaining three managed to score one goal from the two chances they had, but only Derulo and Eric managed to get the ball to stop once in the marked area.

After the drill, the players once again lined up in front of the judges for the next round of questions.

“You want to ask them any questions?” Kenny asked, turning to Jason who seemed to be deep in thought.

Not sure what to ask, he just thought of a random question, “How many years did you say you’ve been at Lewes?”

“I didn’t say it before. This is my second year,”

“Oh, okay. If you have a match against Yeovil town at… let’s say 7:15 pm tomorrow, what time would you guys leave Lewes for the match?” Jason asked, a smile appearing at the corner of his lips as he had was surprised at the question he himself had asked.

“Uh, Yeovil town-…” Sofia began but Jason cut in.

“Actually, scratch that, tell me what you think is the difference between youth level and pro level football? Things you noticed?” Jason asked, scratching his head.

“Oh, okay. Er-… I’ll say the pace of the game. It’s a lot faster, tougher. It’s like a whole new difficulty level,” Sofia replied after about a second of thought.

“Alright,” Jason nodded and was about to turn to the next person.

“Is that a good answer?” Josh turned to Jason.

“Yes, it’s a pretty good answer. It doesn’t cover all the bases since physicality is a major difference. In youth leagues, hard tackles are especially frowned upon as they want to avoid major injuries to the players in their formative years, but she’s right in that there’s a difference in pace,”

“… I’m not really the person you should be asking this though, as technically, I only ever played one youth game,” Jason shrugged.

“So how do you know that then?” Josh asked as Jason’s words weren’t ‘technically’ making sense but Jason just shrugged again with a wry smile.

“I don’t even care about that. Why did you change your initial question?” Kenny asked, interested in something else.

“Oh, that. I asked that because at the professional level, the major leagues especially, clubs try to avoid the players travelling for more than two hours right before a game,”

“Any trip that would be longer than two to three hours are usually done the day before so that the players can relax and stretch their muscles that could have become stiff during the trip. These things have to be regulated that much to reduce the risk of injuries,” Jason explained.

“Ohhh!!” Josh and Kenny exclaimed.

“If she had given any other answer than the day before, she would have been the one I would vote out,” Jason smirked and Sofia couldn’t help feeling a shiver run through her, knowing she was very close to being exposed.

“The reason I stopped her though is because at lower leagues where there is much lesser financial strength, the situation might be different.”

“Lower league clubs wouldn’t pay for an extra night at a hotel if they can help it and Lewes isn’t exactly a top team with plenty of funds backing them,” Jason further explained.

‘Not to mention that it’s a female team,’ he didn’t say this part out loud as some people might find it offensive.

It was the truth however that the female teams didn’t have anywhere near the financial grossing capacity of the male teams. Some people just liked denying the truth even though it was in their face and would change the topic to Jason’s words being offensive instead.

Thinking to himself that he didn’t need the drama that could arise if he spoke out of turn in the name of expressing himself, he kept his thoughts to himself.

“Anyway, you…”

The remaining players were questioned in turn by Josh and Kenny, with Jason pitching in for some more clarity on certain topics.

In the end, despite the judges having concerns that the contestants seemed overly prepared for the questions, no one made any clear blunders so now Jason and the two judges had to make a judgment based off what they had heard.

“I’m not convinced by number three. Her story’s too identical to contestant two that we let go of earlier. Her skills have been okay but they don’t seem that much up to par either, plus her explanation of the difference between youth level and pro is too flat,” After some thought, Jason gave out his thoughts.

‘Also, I don’t like her name,’ he added internally, a bit annoyed by a flashing memory.