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One month quickly went by without warning. June and July were always the fastest months of school with excitement of summer break, conversations about what country and where people were going to hangout during summer. Life was unknown for Joe as he committed to training with Eric during the summer, but he obviously didn't know how he would improve to get even better. 

With nothing to do during summer, a week into the summer break. Joe would frequently lay on his comfy firm bed, scroll through his phone and listening to music with an audible sigh once in a while, go downstairs to eat the leftovers in the fridge by warming it up using the microwave. 

The humidity of the house decreasing drastically and obviously nothing to do, Joe decides to head over next door to Rubens house to pay a visit. He knocks the door with light strength just enough to be able to be heard by anyone within the house, which does eventually get the acknowledgement of Rubens mum who opens the door to a inquisitive Joe who was notably  looking for Ruben to hangout with.

''Hello Joe''

''Is Ruben in?''

''No he went over to the training ground, you should be going over there too''

''Oh okay, I'll see maybe''

With nothing to do and bored, Joe of course wanted to head over to the training ground to check out what's happening. 

''Alright then, oh Joe bring Ruben over his lunch that I made''

''Oh will do Ruben's mum''

''Bye have a good day''

Joe casually strolled over pass the vibrant emerald park again where there were great moments and obviously horrible moments as well for him remembering both made his state of mind dwindle down even more.

But...

Joe was around the radius of the training ground, hearing familiar voices. There seemed to be four people training currently at the training ground with the coach. There was of course Ruben, Joe's best friend the star player of the team, Eric the exchange student with exceptional amounts of technical skills, Austin the target man the main scoring force for the team and finally John the captain one half of our rock solid defence.

Joe peeked at all of them from the side of the training ground behind a medium sized bush, without any of the four acknowledging him at all. As Joe wore green as well it camouflaged perfectly with this bush, Joe felt like a Russian spy on his own friends. People did walk pass him with weird looks.

The people who walked by Joe, their thoughts

''Why does he look so suspicious'' 

''Is he planning to attack those people''

''I should call the police'' 

With weird looks, Joe felt kind of awkward now...

Joe did eventually wonder off over to the entrance of the training ground, where he got looks from the coach who has this angry death stare straight at Joe, looking like he was planning to go rogue on Joe. 

''I told you to fucking practice'' Coach spoke with annoyance 

''...''

''What have you been doing for the past week''

''...Nothing''

Coach face palmed right after Joe admitted that he'd done nothing for the past week of the summer holidays. Coach breathed in and out to calm down for a bit telling Joe what they've been working on.

''So we are still working on our passing and specifically our link-up-play to be able to distribute the ball easily to each other'' Coach giving a talk to Joe about what's going on ''Go over to the other half of the pitch and examine the play''

Joe goes over to the other half of the pitch to warm up and examine the link-up-play starting with Eric playing the ball over to Ruben going through the middle, with Austin turning his back anticipating for Rubens pass for that turn around John to strike into the back of the net.

Joe could see the simplicity of the link-up-play as it could be done with a minimum of three players. When done perfect it could be a obvious game changer, with a large amount of possession kept by the team through the use of fundamentals... passing. 

Passing the ball around is one of a key part of the game, to be able to keep possession of the ball by manoeuvring it on the ground to advance the ball further up the pitch. Players who have perfected the craft of passing can normally play pass their prime and still be a effective player, even through the player has gotten much slower with age... as a pass is still considerably faster than a run.   

Joe witnesses Eric playing the central mid role in practice instead of his regular right back role, Joe stared heavily at Eric for his pin-point technics especially the passing, usually kept grounded rolling with constant speed unlike English players passes which have at least a bit of height to the passes that are slightly slower and easier to control.

This type of passing that Eric utilizes is incorporated with tiki-taka that utilizes the short pass with accuracy and speed, needing movement to be able to receive the ball with the right timing as well.

...

Joe went over to give the lunch that Ruben's mum made for Ruben, as Ruben filled with excitement for lunch even through it was just a couple of sandwiches that his mum prepared. 

''Thanks mate for grabbing my lunch''

''Nah it's fine''

Session continues as Ruben finished eating his sandwiches...

This continuous repeating play continues for the three of Eric, Ruben and Austin to be able to perfect it so that they are confident with using it in games. Joe still training on the other half of the pitch with his own ball and a couple of cones that coach set up a drill for accurate passing.

''Why are my passes still have air time to them?''

''How does Eric do it?''

Coach seeing that Joe obviously is struggling with keeping his pass down on the ground, coming over to give some advice...

''Joe go over to the side and pass against a wall''

''Why? I can do basic wall passing'' Joe spoke with irritation 

''Listen to me, you keep rushing the passes fucking them up, go back to the basics''

''No I'm not doing that I'm going home'' 

Joe stormed out of the training ground infuriated, as coach told Joe to go back to the basics which pissed him off. Joe lied about going back home as he still wanted to learn and get better so he went back over near the bush that he hid in before and sat on the bench next to it. 

''Yeah I need to inspect Eric's movement''  Joe thought out in his head ''How is he so calm'' 

Eric's movement was pretty minimal it didn't require much stamina to complete the types of turns were simple, Eric's calmness on the passes makes them grounded as he doesn't rush them like Joe does, with a slight push of the ball with the side of his feet there also wasn't much power to the passes that Eric was doing.

This seemed like a daily routine for Eric just like brushing teeth or eating lunch just doing it casually without any trouble with chill, calm style of play. Also clocking out Ruben's where about on his runs like it's nothing big. 

If anyone were to witness this training session the standout player would be Ruben for them with making the runs to pass accurately to Austin to score the goals, but pros of the game would look at Eric doing confident direct grounded passes without any effort as the main... 

Highlight

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Characters in Highlight

Main Characters

Joe (CAM/CM)

Ruben (RW/RF)

Eric (RB)

Side Characters

Austin (ST)

John (CB)

Coach

Ruben's mum