Chapter 67 - 65 - The Red Number I

Chapter 67: Chapter 65 - The Red Number I

Rafael changed into the clean Metz top, pushed his match shirt into his bag and followed the communications employee out of the dressing room.

The broadcaster had taken a small section near the mixed area. A reporter stood in front of the competition backdrop while the cameraman adjusted the frame, and by the time Rafael reached them, they were nearly ready.

"Rafael? Hi."

"Hi."

"Good game. This’ll be quick."

Rafael stepped onto the mark he was shown, waited for the cameraman’s signal and looked toward the reporter when the microphone came up.

"You came on with Metz a goal down, and you and Renaud combined almost immediately for the equaliser. How comfortable did it feel playing together?"

"We’ve done it before, so it wasn’t completely new. Renaud gives us somewhere to play when a defender’s tight to him, and if I come asking for the same ball, we’re making things easier for them."

"The equaliser probably shows that. He comes short, you go beyond him and eventually find him again."

"Caron does a lot before that as well. Once he carries through midfield, their centre-backs have to decide whether they’re staying with us or going to him."

The reporter nodded and moved on to Rafael’s goal, which took less time. Rafael mentioned Caron’s pass, admitted he enjoyed the finish and left it there.

The reporter shifted his grip on the microphone.

"You and Renaud have spent most of the opening weeks competing for one position. Does today make you think Metz can use both of you more often?"

Rafael took a second.

"We were chasing the game, so having another striker helped us. We caused them problems, but they had space when we lost the ball as well."

"So you’re leaving the tactical decision to the coach."

"That’s probably safer."

The reporter smiled.

"And between you and Renaud? Does playing together change the competition?"

"We both want to play. That doesn’t disappear because we spent half an hour on the pitch together."

"But you showed you can help each other."

"We did today."

The cameraman lowered one hand from behind the lens, and the reporter wrapped up the interview before the conversation could go any further.

Rafael thanked them and returned toward the dressing room.

The clip reached school by Monday, although it barely survived lunch.

A boy from another table stopped beside Rafael long enough to mention seeing it and asked whether Renaud was now his strike partner.

"We played together for half an hour," Rafael said.

Lucas looked up from the worksheet beside his tray. "So yes."

Rafael ignored him.

Maxime tapped the paper with his pen. "Can we finish this first? Who’s doing the introduction?"

Lucas immediately looked away.

Rafael pointed at him. "There you go."

"I didn’t volunteer."

"You just did."

The boy who had asked about football laughed and moved on to his own table, while Lucas began arguing that speaking should not legally count as volunteering for anything.

By the end of lunch, the interview had disappeared completely.

Tuesday put Rafael beside Renaud again for a reason that mattered more.

The senior group worked on one of the larger pitches at Frescaty, with Caron behind the two strikers and only one central midfielder sitting underneath him. Perrin and the opposite winger began wide, although the assistant moved both several steps inward before the exercise started.

"If we lose it, get back inside first."

The players reset.

Metz worked the first attack into Renaud, who received with a centre-back already pressed into his back. He protected the ball and set it toward Caron while Rafael stayed away from the traffic.

As Caron advanced, the defensive line shifted toward the ball.

Rafael went the other way.

Caron found him breaking behind the far centre-back, and Rafael reached the area facing goal with a full-back recovering inside. He took another touch before striking low across the goalkeeper, who got down in time and pushed the shot around the post.

Another ball came into play before Rafael had made it back.

The next few attacks were less clean. Perrin had a cross blocked, one pass toward Renaud was cut out and Rafael lost possession after receiving with his back to goal.

That turnover opened the pitch immediately.

Rafael turned, but he, Renaud and Caron had all been caught beyond the ball. The lone midfielder underneath them moved across to cover one runner and left another free through the centre.

Perrin was sprinting inward from the right when the pass went around the midfielder and reached the defensive line.

One centre-back stepped out, the ball was moved beside him and the resulting shot climbed over the bar.

The coach whistled once.

He walked forward, moved Caron several metres deeper and pointed Perrin toward the space he had been trying to recover into.

"Again."

The next turnover looked different. Caron was closer, Perrin had already started inside and the opponent receiving through midfield had to turn toward the touchline instead of running directly at Metz’s centre-backs.

Training continued from there.

Renaud still gave the side a reliable central pass. Rafael still found spaces around him. Sometimes Caron could join both of them and sometimes he held his position because the players behind the attack had not recovered yet.

One later combination sent Rafael down the left, where he cut the ball back toward Renaud, only for a defender to stretch across him and clear.

The opposition collected the loose ball and attacked again.

Nobody stopped the exercise.

By the end of the block, the grass across Renaud’s knee and the sweat running down Rafael’s back mattered more than any conclusion the session might have offered.

The coaches were already changing the pitch for the next exercise.

The rest of the week moved toward Red Star.

Metz spent more time working against pressure, and the first successful pass rarely bought much relief because another defender was usually closing the next receiver.

Rafael’s four free attribute points stayed where they were.

The System stayed quiet.

What changed was the group around him.

On Thursday, Rafael spent most of the opposed work through the middle with Caron and Perrin. Renaud led the other attacking unit.

Friday looked much the same.

By Sunday’s final tactical session, there was little left to interpret.

Rafael stood at centre-forward with the probable starters while Renaud worked against them. After the second set-piece sequence, the coach checked his watch.

"Same starting group tomorrow. One more from the left and we’re done."

Rafael was already walking back toward the box when he realised he was smiling.

Perrin passed on his way to the corner and glanced at him.

"What?"

"Nothing."

The cross came in before Perrin could say anything else.

Rafael attacked it.

Stade Bauer sounded almost entirely like Red Star.

There was no travelling section answering the home crowd, and with part of the ground closed, the noise from the occupied stands seemed to sit even closer to the pitch.

Rafael took his place between the centre-backs.

Renaud was on the bench.

The referee blew.

Metz moved the kickoff backwards, and Red Star pressed before the third pass.

Their striker curved his run toward Metz’s right centre-back, taking away the easy switch and pushing play toward the touchline. The moment the full-back received, a winger closed him while a midfielder stepped toward the pass inside.

Metz went backwards.

They switched across the defence and found the same pressure waiting on the other side.

Rafael adjusted between the centre-backs while the ball stayed thirty metres away.

Metz beat the first line on their next attempt, but the midfielder receiving the second pass barely had time to turn before another Red Star shirt arrived from behind him.

Backwards again.

A longer pass finally came toward Rafael.

The centre-back leaned into him as the ball dropped, and Rafael managed to glance the header toward Caron. Before he could turn properly, a home midfielder had already attacked the loose ball and taken it away.

Red Star came forward once more.

The next few minutes told Rafael enough.

Winning the first action wasn’t buying Metz much. Even when somebody escaped the initial pressure, another red shirt was waiting around the next touch.

Rafael stayed against the defensive line rather than coming farther and farther toward the ball.

Eventually, Metz played through them.

The right centre-back ignored the obvious pass toward the full-back and drove the ball inside. The next touch moved it first time toward Caron, who finally received facing forward before another opponent could reach him.

Rafael began centrally, then moved toward the right channel.

The nearest centre-back followed.

Caron carried straight through the space that movement left.

Perrin stayed outside, keeping the full-back from stepping inward, while the opposite winger occupied the other side of the defence.

Still nobody reached Caron.

He arrived outside the box and struck low through the gap between two defenders.

The goalkeeper saw it late.

By the time he pushed off, the ball was already inside the bottom corner.

Caron turned toward the sideline with both fists clenched.

Rafael caught him near the corner before Perrin arrived from the other side, and the three of them were barely separated before the referee started calling everybody back.

"Come on," Caron said as they jogged away.

RED STAR 0–1 FC METZ

Red Star put the ball back into play and went straight back to what had been working.

Metz escaped once, only for the next receiver to be forced backwards. A few minutes later, Rafael won another aerial duel and directed the ball inside, but the red shirts underneath him reached the second ball before Caron.

The home side began spending longer around Metz’s half.

Rafael saw less of the ball.

Then Caron turned with space again.

Rafael held between the centre-backs until the nearest one stepped toward the advancing midfielder, then burst through the gap he left.

The pass came quickly enough.