The following Monday Ethan woke up as an official member of Crestwood FC. He had just accomplished the first step of his journey to the top of the football world. Ethan was excited but also a little nervous as this is his first official day of training at his new home. As his mom drove towards the training ground, the surrounding sights became more familiar, but it still felt intimidating. Some of the boys had started to make their way to changing room with a bunch of buzz while others were silent. As soon as Ethan entered the changing room he recognized a few faces that he saw at the trial. The first boy he recognized was a bit taller walked up to Ethan and introduced himself as Callum Reid. Ethan remembered that Callum's technical abilities was one of the best that he saw at the trial. Ethan also recognized the bigger boy that shoved him during seven-a-side that Callum told him his name was Mason Archer. "You don't want to mess with him" Callum told him.
A man with a clipboard stood in the front of the changing room called for silence. "You lads might already know me, but for those that don't, my name is Adam Warren, but you can call me Coach Warren," he said. "I am the head coach for the U14 side here in Crestwood. A few things you need to know before we start training. First off we train 3 days a week and have matches on Saturdays. We expect professionalism both on and off the pitch as you now represent Crestwood FC everywhere you go. In training, I expect to see maximum effort and for you to respect your teammates otherwise you'll be sitting on the bench next to me. Now go out there and show me that you deserve to be starting this Saturday against Hartwell Town."
Training was mostly a set of fitness drills that left every player with hands on their knees trying to catch their breath. The next set of drills worked on passing combinations and movement in which Ethan was the best player at. At the end of training Ethan was completely spent, training back in Eastfield was nowhere as intense as this.
Coach Warren blew his whistle, and all the players gathered around him. "Nice work today gentleman, I saw some really good stuff. You will find out when you arrive in the changing room on Saturday which of you'll be starting and where. Don't get discouraged if you find yourself on the bench, it's a long season and there's plenty of time to break into the starting XI."
Matchday
Ethan was putting on his new Crestwood FC kit, which is red and black, when Coach Warren wrote down the starting XI on the whiteboard. He was ecstatic to see he made it into the starting XI and in his natural position as an attacking midfielder. Callum also made the starting lineup as the striker, and they gave each other a high five. Suddenly Mason walked past them and told them, "You boys better not mess this up for me." Ethan looked at the whiteboard again and saw that Mason was the starting midfielder.
"This may only be a friendly, but don't let me catch any of you slacking off, or you'll be headed straight to the bench," Coach Warren said.
The match began, and immediately Hartwell started pressing and challenging for the ball. In his attacking midfield position, Ethan found it hard to carve out space between Hartwell's midfield and defense.
In midfield Mason was doing well breaking up the Hartwell moves, but he got frustated by Ethan's lack of usefulness and started barking, "Don't let them close you down!"
Up front Callum was asking questions of Hartwell's back line but he wasn't getting any service to punish them.
After the first ten minutes, Ethan finally found his rhythm and dribbled past a defender before hitting a perfect through ball towards Callum. Callum latched onto the ball and launched a shot just inside the 18-yard box wide of the goal. The first big chance of the game for either side.
The next five minutes were tense, with neither side finding a breakthrough, but in the 18th minute Hartwell scored from a corner after a scramble in the box to take the lead. In the 27th minute Mason passed the ball to Ethan, who spun around his defender and fired another perfect through ball to Callum, who didn't make the same mistake and leveled the match at one all.
The second half was even more tense, with both sides trying to find their second goal. In the 62nd minute the ball fell to Ethan 30 yards out. Ethan turned and saw the keeper off his line so he chipped it over the keeper and into the back of the net to take a 2-1 lead. The Crestwood touchline erupted in cheers and Callum sprinted over to him to celebrate. Mason even slapped him on the back and told him, "Not bad for a kid from Eastfield."
The rest of the match Hartwell tried to find the equalizer, but Crestwood defended beautifully and managed to hang on and win 2-1.
Ethan walked off the pitch exhausted but smiled as he realized this is only the start of something special.