Chapter 431: Season Opener against ChievoVerona

Saturday, August 30, 2014.

Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi, ChievoVerona's Home Ground, Verona, Italy.

Time: 5:30 PM.

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The sunset on the western horizon of Turin was glorious, all rosy and salmon-pink. Its golden rays filtered through the sparse clouds and shone down on the crowds flooding into the Marcantonio Bentegodi Stadium. Of course, the football supporters were at the famous stadium in Verona to watch the 2014/15 Italian Serie A season-opening game between ChievoVerona and Juventus.

As the minutes flashed by, the atmosphere all around the stadium became more and more electrifying. The fans who had arrived early were already cheering at the top of their voices within the stands. They sang the various famous chants of their respective teams in hoarse voices as they waited for the game's kick-off at 6:30 PM. They were obviously very excited and looking forward to the season opener.

Like always, some overly-enthusiastic fans and dedicated journalists had eagerly camped at the stadium gates. At that moment, they had already craned their necks as they watched the road leading up to the stadium with sparkling eyes.

"The Juventus bus is here," one of the fans in the crowd suddenly yelled to spark off a flurry of activity before the stadium gates.

The fans started yelling the names of the famous Juventus players as the bus slowly pulled up in front of the stadium. As for the journalists, they went into alert mode and readied their cameras in preparation to take some photos of the famous football players.

Coach Allegri, who had donned a full suit that day, was the first to step out of the bus. He waved to the fans before hurrying forward and entering the stadium. Then, the players followed after him while also waving to the fans. But they didn't stop to sign any autographs as they were in a hurry to begin their pre-match warm-up.

"Did you notice that Zachary was in the squad?" A fan asked his friend when all the players had entered the stadium. "Why were there rumors of him being unfit yesterday?"

"Beats me," his friend said, shrugging. "Maybe, the press got it all wrong, like they usually do. But I really hope that he gets an opportunity to play today. I want to see him start scoring goals for Juventus as soon as possible."

"What worries me is that picture of him enjoying dinner with a girl in some hotel on the internet," the first fan said. "Instead of resting and getting ready for the game yesterday night, he was vibing some lady. Honestly, that kind of behavior seems unprofessional. I hope he doesn't make another mistake if he gets an opportunity to step onto the pitch today."

"Don't be so hard on the guy," His friend said. "Footballers are humans too. They also have the right to enjoy life. We should only care about their performance on the pitch, not their personal lives."

"What if their personal life affects their performance on the pitch?"

"Then, we can be harsh on them after the game," the friend responded. "But in Zachary's case, he's yet to step on the pitch, and yet you're already judging him as unprofessional. Let's wait and see how he performs before putting labels on him."

"I hope you are right," the first supporter said. "Let's enter the stadium. The game is about to begin."

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The time passed quickly, and soon the clock hands in Turin pointed to the 6:30 PM mark. Without any delays, the referee blew the whistle and signaled the Chievo players to kick off the game.

Maxi López, Chievo's center-forward, immediately kicked the ball back into his midfield to kick-start the season-opening game between the two teams. With a simple pass, he found Mariano Izco, Chievo's central midfielder.

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Mariano Izco comfortably controlled the ball close to the edge of the center circle while under no pressure. After only a single touch, he whirled around and passed the ball into his defense to find Bostjan Cesar, Chievo's center-back.

Bostjan Cesar surprisingly took his time to react to the pass. The center-back controlled the ball without any sense of urgency in his actions before passing it to Dario Dainelli, his counterpart in central defense.

But by then, Carlos Tévez, one of Juventus' two strikers, had already made a spirited run across the field to close down the defender. The Argentine forward tracked down the seemingly stunned Dario Dainelli and slid in wholesale, trying to tackle the ball with an outstretched boot.

Dario Dainelli, in turn, read the situation accurately and quickly whirled around to escape from Carlos' tackle. But before he could find a safe outlet for the ball, Kingsley Coman, the other Juventus striker, was on him, pressing him and closing down all his passing angles.

The young Frenchman was aggressive while pressing. He harassed the helpless defender and won the ball in a short span of a few seconds. Before the other opponents could close him down, he squared a pass to Carlos Tévez, the striker who had already picked himself from the ground.

Tévez was, of course, a man of steel nerves and iron balls. He remained composed as he controlled the ball with a touch that took him past the other center-back. Then, within a second, he exploded with speed and rounded the keeper to score Juventus' first goal during the second minute of gameplay.

The striker seemed quite excited by his feat of scoring. He rushed to the corner flag while yelling at the top of his voice to celebrate his first goal of the season. It was as if he was announcing to the Juventus fans present in the stands that he was back in business right after the start of the season.

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The game continued after the goal celebrations. And once again, the Juventus players utilized high pressing tactics to pressurize the ChievoVerona defenders right after the restart of the game. The men in white and black ran at the opponents like predators on the hunt and forced them to play the ball high and long on several occasions. And that allowed Juventus to constantly regain possession quickly before starting to dominate proceedings again.

Fifteen more minutes quickly elapsed as the Old Lady players slowly built momentum by dominating a considerable fraction of the ball possession. By arraying themselves into a 3-5-2 formation, they managed to pass the ball more fluidly, especially in midfield. They played with intensity and soon managed to create another clear goal-scoring chance.

Andrea Pirlo worked his magic in midfield and opened up Chievo's defense with his signature long-range passing during the 19th minute. With a single ball over the midfield, the Italian Maestro released Stephan Lichtsteiner, the attacking wing-back who had just made a daring run on the right flank.

Stephan Lichtsteiner was as brilliant as ever. He expertly controlled the ball close to the touchline on the right flank before exploding with speed and racing towards Chievo's half. A short while later, he stepped into the final third and unleashed a lofted cross towards the box to create another perfect goal-scoring chance for Juventus.

Carlos Tévez immediately went into action and raced into the box. His almost instantaneous acceleration allowed him to escape from his marker and connect with the descending ball without any pressure. He tapped it into the back of the net with an outstretched boot to score Juventus' second goal in the 18th minute.

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AC ChievoVerona 0 : Juventus FC 2

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On the bench, Zachary watched on with mixed emotions as his teammates celebrated their second goal that evening. He was obviously happy that his team was winning and destroying the opponents. But at the same time, he was also worried as there was a possibility of never getting a chance to step onto the pitch if the starting eleven continued performing incredibly well.

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