Greatest Of All Legends

Chapter 586: Why Are You Gae?

Chapter 586: Why Are You Gae?

Since VAR hadn’t been incorporated into International competitions in Africa yet, the referee’s decision could only be made at his own discretion and with the aid of the replay.

Immediately the replay stopped, some Nigerian fans already calling for the goal to be offside because it looked a lot like offside to both the trained and untrained eye, but because of how close it was, one could not immediately determine whether it was offside or not.

The Nigerian fans however thought differently as they did not want to lose their clean sheet and they called for offside.

The Benin Republic fans, as the opposing team, also called for onside as their team had finally gotten a goal in the game and were on track to making a dreamy comeback.

The referee took a few more seconds to consider, but then it did not take too long for him to make his decision.

{The goal will stand!}

{The scores are now 2:1}

{Where do we go from here?} the commentator shouted as the referee decided to allow the goal to the Benin team.

The Nigerian fans didn’t back down though.

Nigerians were strong minded people who would never shy away from a fight, be it vocal, physical, or mental and they reciprocated aura for aura, their grievances to the Benin fans, surprising them even though they were in the majority.

While there was an outburst in the stands, the game continued, and the Benin Republic players, fueled by their goal, began to play harder and more ferociously than ever.

They seemed to believe that an equalizer for them wasn’t too far away.

The Nigerin players were oppressed by their desperate opponents so much that they could hardly play their way out of their own half.

The Benin team had the momentum now, and they were not letting up for a single second, and it was getting harder and harder for the Supa Eagles of Nigeria to defend.

At this point, the fans of the two teams ignored each other and put their focus on the game as they watched the Nigerian team defending like their life depended on it.

They were clearly in dire straits, and it looked like the Benin team could score at any time.

Jason, who was watching from the bench, grimaced as this was the situation he had foreseen coming.

Since their team had chosen to not work too hard on the attack, they had given up momentum to their opponents for most of the second half and now that their opponents had finally gotten one back, the situation had changed.

With them only one goal away, they would feel that the equalizer was within reach and would pull out performances that were almost beyond them.

As for the Nigerian team who had given up their momentum, they wouldn’t be able to take control of the game easily and would begin to crumble slowly against their opponents’ attack.

It was a matter of confidence.

The only way out for the Supa Eagles now was if they could somehow hold out until the final whistle because Jason didn’t think they could take control of this game in the time that remained.

It wasn’t a matter of whether he trusted his teammates’ abilities, it was a very clear point.

Even if it was prime Barcelona or Royal Madrid that was in their shoes, the situation would most likely remain the same as long as their opponents were hungry enough for a win.

Jason could not help but blame the manager’s tactics in his head, but at the same time, he understood the manager’s reasoning behind his tactics.

Any manager would want security in their games.

In fact, most managers would prefer to win 1:0, instead of 5:4.

Exchanging goals with the opponents was very stressful for any manager, and their ability to deal with it usually determined their strategy.

Unfortunately for Rohr, while Jason, his teammates, and other professionals could understand the reason behind his tactic despite it backfiring on him, the simple-minded fans could not.

All they cared about was how their players were playing badly and struggling to contain an opponent that should not be giving them such a hard time.

Even worse was that this was not the first time they were fed this kind of extremely defensive tactic that had backfired against them, and sometimes they had even lost a game that they should have won by all means had the players continued pressing forward and searching for goals.

The fans could only grumble annoyedly while watching the game, with their hearts leaping into their throats every now and then as the Benin team edged closer and closer to getting an equalizer and getting five crucial chances to change the game’s outlook.

If not for the Nigerian players who were primed and alert and doing their best to keep the ball off target, the Benin team could have scored more than three goals within the time leading up to the ninety minutes.

Luckily for the Nigerian team, they managed to hold out even past the ninetieth minute and through the added time till the referee finally blew his whistle to call for the end of the game.

{It’s over, the Supa Eagles have held on to their lead and they can take all the three points that are up for grabs in this game}

{With these three points, they cement their place at the top of their group for the AFCON qualifiers}

{There is still one more match to go in the group, but win or lose, they will remain on top, and Benin Republic, on the other hand, have to try again next match to ensure their chances in the coming tournament}

{They worked hard today, but they weren’t able to stop the group leaders from taking the full three points}

{The Supa Eagles have their goalscorers to thank as well as their sublime defending to keep out their desperate opponents}

{Jason has once again put out a man-of-the-match worthy performance, and the highlight of the game is without a doubt his goal that put his team two up!}

The commentator did his job, giving closing remarks as the players slowly moved away from the field, shaking and greeting each other.

Jason had also stepped on the field to celebrate a little with the fans and with his teammates.

***

After the game, the players rested for the rest of the day at their hotel and headed back to Nigeria the next day to resume training.

The next game would be a home match, so there was no need for them to be outside the country anymore.

The next training session was spiced up with the arrival of a social media influencer who had come to an agreement with the manager to produce content with some of the players.

The concerned players had also been informed ahead of time, so they knew that he was coming, and they had acquiesced to the arrangement.

The influencer was a guy named Tobi, and he arrived on time as he didn’t have the whole day to shoot the content he wanted.

The players didn’t have time to spend their whole day looking pretty for the cameras after all.

Jason, Osimen, and Iwobi were the players who were the main players to be involved as the three of them had the most fame amongst the current national squad.

They first shot a little bit of their training session, and Tobi involved himself in the training with the Nigerian players.

Passing drills, shooting drills, agility drills, and ball control drills were done with the players and Tobi they compared their results with each other to see who did better.

After the parts involving drills, they moved to the part that felt like an interview, and Tobi asked the three players many interesting questions about their personal life, their career,s and a few other topics.

Soon enough, it was time for Tobi to leave.

“Finall,y here’s my favorite part, brain teasers,” Tobi said to the three players who were in front of him.

Jason, who was seated on a ball, had an eyebrow rise as this sounded interesting.

“So what we usually do is, you guys will give me a brain teaser. Maybe a question, or a joke, something fun and mind twisting.”

“If it’s a question, I’ll try to answer it, and if it’s not, we can laugh and learn something from it,” Tobi explained to Jason, Osimen, and Iwobi.

“Oh,” Osimen uttered thoughtfully, rubbing his chin as he tried to think of something that he considered a brain teaser.

“Since we all understand, then, uhm, let Jason go first,” Tobi decided and turned to Jason.

“Me?” Jason asked, a surprised smile on his face.

“Hmmm, okay. My brain teaser is not a question, but you might want to answer it,” Jason murmured as he remembered something he had thought about before.

“Fire away,” Tobi replied, sounding confident.

“If… I snap my fingers, you’ll forget that you were ever gay,” Jason said and snapped his fingers loudly.

*Snap!*

“I was never gay,” Tobi replied, confused.

“Exactly,” Jason replied.

“Wait, no stop,” Tobi said again.

“Yes,” Jason replied

“No, stop, you can’t, I was never gay,” Topi repeated, even more confused, but was now trying to defend his sexuality.

“Okay,” Jason shrugged as if he understood, but the confident smile on his face didn’t even twitch.

“No, wait… I was never gay,” Tobi repeated, now vehemently defending his sexuality.

“Sure,” Jason said, still smiling, but at this point, Osimen and Iwobi were already having the laugh of their lives and the cameraman that followed Tobi was having a hard time keeping the camera straight.

“No, you can’t just say something and snap your fingers and be like, so so and so,”

“I was never gay!” Tobi was now defending his sexuality like a lawyer in court but that was only making everyone laugh harder.

“If you say so,” Jason said half-heartedly, but was covering his mouth to stop himself from bursting out in laughter.

“I was never gay!” Tobi still hadn’t given up on defending himself, unaware that he was already stuck in the brain teaser.

“Why are you gae?” Osimen chose that moment to ask Tobi, making sure he sounded like a particular iconic south african reporter.

“I was never gay!” Tobi continued to protest.

“So who is gae?” Iwobi asked Tobi as well, joining in the teasing and also made sure he sounded like the reporter Osimen was impersonating.

“I DON’T KNOW, I WAS NEVER GAY!” Tobi couldn’t take it anymore and shouted.

“Okay I believe you,” Jason replied, but he was still smirking.

“I don’t. You are gae!” Osimen said and Jason finally burst into laughter and everyone else joined in, laughing at the poor reporter’s expense.