Rise of a Football God

FWEEEE!

The Manchester City domination continued.

The Fulham players did everything in their power, trying to force their way into the game but the Manchester City players were just not letting it.

By the 70th minute, both teams already started making changes. For Man City, the likes of Gundogan, Foden, Grealish, and Akanji were eventually replaced by Walker, Stones, Doku, and Matheus Nunes.

For Fulham, Muniz, Reiss Nelson, and Castagne were introduced in place of Alex Iwobi, Lukic, Pereira, and Raul Jimenez.

The Fulham striker, Jimenez had a reasonably great game but at this point, Coach Marco Silva just wanted anything, a miracle probably.

Your journey continues on empire

Did he believe in miracles? Yes.

Did miracles happen often against the champions? No.

It was a crazy gamble, Coach Marco Silva had no idea if it would pay off or not, he just wanted any change to switch the game on its head.

The game did change, but not in the way he expected it to.

After toiling hard all game to keep the score line from turning ugly, a moment of individual genius from one of the Man City substitutes curtailed the game completely from Fulham's fumbling grasp.

Receiving the ball in the left, Jeremy Doku, the silky Man City winger bravely took on his man, going on an explosive run.

With his trademark skill, he exploded with speed and power, leaving Castagne for dead and eventually Tete before shooting towards the right side of the post. Leno dived but again, it was just not enough.

Things were not going Fulham's way today.

"Another goal to Man City!" The commentator roared.

"And it's the electric Jeremy Doku again, what a player!"

While Jeremy Doku danced towards the corner flag in celebration, the Fulham players divulged into arguments, accusing each other for not closing the winger down fast enough, letting him shoot.

On the sidelines, Coach Marco Silva also raged as he threw his bottle of water to the ground before stomping over to the bench, visibly frustrated.

Surely, the game was already out of Fulham's grasp by now.

Surely, they were already done and out.

Surely, they no longer believed in miracles at this point but a certain player on the pitch never stopped believing, not even once.

In the desperate moments was when that spirit rears its head in him again, that mamba spirit, that never say never spirit.

'Win!' 'Win!' 'Win!'

The mantra already started in his head.

Sam's whole body already turned into a conduit to channel victory. His eyes dilated in focus, body brimming with adrenaline, he was in a state of ultra-instinct at this moment as sheer willpower became a drive for his physical body.

Doku's goal for Man City came in the 82nd minute, pushing Fulham to despair with only 8 minutes remaining till fulltime but Sam was undeterred.

In the desperate moments was when the monster in him roared in defiance.

FWEEEE!

When the game started again, the Man City domination continued. Willpower could only do so much when the opposition team had so much quality and was playing at such an elite level.

Man City today played at their best.

They toyed with Fulham, until a mistake in the 88th minute of this game allowed Muniz to steal the ball.

A steal inside the 18-yard box…, a fatal mistake.

Instantly after stealing the ball, Muniz turned with it, beating his man before unleashing a low shot at goal that beat Ederson.

"And woah! A consolation goal!"

"Surely, Fulham are not back in this are they?"

Muniz rushed into the net, picking the ball and rushing back to the halfway line as he pumped his fists, motivating his teammates. "Come on!"

For Sam in the last few minutes, the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak as Man City relegated him to mostly a defensive role this game.

But this time, Sam had help.

Muniz bailed him out when he needed it the most, giving his team some much needed infusion of momentum. Momentum that Sam gladly took advantage of, riding it as if he was a surfer surfing a giant wave.

After the 88th minute, Samuel Moses came to life!

Not in a flashy way, not in a samba way, but in a simple, pound-for-pound, warrior style as Sam chased after the ball like a Hound.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Man City started kick-off but with him chasing so relentlessly, they could only pass around, toying with him.

It seemed demeaning; the Man City players were clearly toying with him.

It was prime meme material, but it only remained meme material till it ceased to be meme material…

Swoosh!

Sam stole the ball…, just outside the Man City 18-yard box!

It was a poor pass from Matheus Nunes as he became complacent due to his team toying with the young Nigerian midfielder. He never expected Sam to read his intentions like a telepathist, jumping on a sliding tackle just after he passed.

Bam!

As soon as Sam stopped the ball, his whole body surged to life, tingling from the sensation of all electrons in his body entering an excited state.

Truly, he was in a state of ultra-instinct, the zone state.

After losing the ball, Matheus Nunes rushed forward immediately to redeem his mistake but rushing an ultra-instinct Sam was a big mistake.

Bam!

One push of the ball and it rolled in between the legs of the onrushing midfielder as Sam nutmegged him, redeeming himself for how they toyed with him since but restoring his pride was not his goal.

As soon as he nutmegged Matheus Nunes, Kovacic charged in but pushing the ball to the left, Sam shrugged off this midfielder's press with his physicality.

He charged to the left where Rico Lewis camped in right back for Man City.

Sam didn't want to go through the middle where the stalwart figures of Ruben Dias and John Stones were, his instincts warned him against it.

And since Man City had the ball before, the ageless Kyle Walker was caught out of position, leaving Rico Lewis to cover for him.

Kovacic charged after Sam again, pulling at his shirt.

Sam's running momentum was killed, but instead of falling down and settling for a foul, he simply slowed down, letting Kovacic overtake him, then…

Bam! Bam!

A lightning-fast maneuver of the ball.

In a slick move, Sam used the la croqueta skill in his repertoire to obliterate the Croatian international as Kovacic collapsed to the ground.

With that maneuver, the ball moved a bit further from him than he expected.

Sensing weakness, Rico Lewis charged in but Sam was faster.

Arriving first, Sam trapped the ball but Lewis was already on him. For a brief moment, Sam's brain froze as he was unsure of the correct move to make to escape out of this situation, he could not afford to lose the ball!

And as Lewis charged in, Sam's instincts took over.

He did something he had never done on the professional stage before.

Lewis was too close to use his normal tricks, so Sam simply put his body forward, wrapping both of his legs around the ball behind him, then he flicked…

"Uhhh! A rainbow flick!"

"Such a silky move from Sam! He's gone past Lewis!"

The young Rico Lewis was left tracking the ball back, staggering till he also collapsed on the pitch.

Sam got to the ball, pushing it away from Rico Lewis who was already on the floor and then, he dashed into the 18-yard box.

John Stones finally reacted but just as this player stuck out his leg, Sam flicked the ball to the right, setting himself up in the box, and then he took his shot.

Bam!

But Ruben Dias reacted, jumping on a desperate block.

…but Sam expected this, Ruben Dias was playing too well this game not to react to such an obvious shot from him.

This was why it was not a shot, but a feint, a fake shot.

With that fake shot, Sam cut through the 2 Man City central defenders but he was still not safe. This was because the pacey Kyle Walker already recovered and was closing in on him, not giving him time on the ball.

"…!" Sam's brain froze again.

Ruben Dias was already recovering too; he would soon close him down.

He had no time to settle down and take a proper shot with his right foot after faking the ball back to the left, and he didn't have enough confidence in his left foot, bringing the dilemma.

But in desperate situations, Sam thrived.

'If I can't shoot with my left, and I'm not positioned to shoot properly with my right, I must improvise!'

'I must make my own luck, create a miracle!'

And Sam did just that.

BAM!

Sam took his shot but it was not what Ederson expected.

Instead of taking the risk to shoot with his left foot, he used his right at that awkward angle but it was a special type of shot.

Wrapping the outside of his boot around the ball, Sam tried a shooting technique he had never used before in the professional stage, a trivela shot.

"…!" The Etihad stadium became as silent as a graveyard.

Holding their breaths, tens of thousands of fans in sky blue watched as Ederson reacted late to the trivela shot.

He dived but it was a late dive, the ball already went past him.

Time seemed to slow down as they watched this ball curl to the right and just as it seemed like it would go outside for a goal kick, it snuck into the very edge of the top right corner of the net.

It was a goal!