Dream Training : The Champions

After Kazuki was out of the field, Southampton continued to maintain their lead. The Saint used solid defense to break Blackburn's attack. Looking at the Southampton defense, it could be seen that it will be very difficult for Blackburn to score 2 goals to equalize.

In the 78th minute, Hugo added Southampton's score became 3 goals. The Southampton winger managed to score a goal after getting a pass from Osmund. With this goal, Southampton ensured victory in this match.

Until the end of the game, Blackburn did not manage to score a single goal. Southampton won the match week 30, at St Mary's Stadium. With this victory, Southampton leveled the points with the 15th position in the premier league table, Aston Villa.

***

Kazuki was sitting at his house watching the 2011-2012 UCL quarter-finals first leg. 8 teams qualified in the UCL quarter-finals. The first is Juventus who beat Liverpool 3-1 on aggregate. Mattheo Rodrigues scored two goals against the Reds.

Second is Lyon, the French team beat Shaktar Donetsk 2-0 on aggregate. Next, there is Bayer Munich who beat Basel 7-1. The next one is Barcelona, after beating AC Milan 3-0.

Real Madrid won with a slight advantage 1-0 over Bayer Leverkusen. Man U won 4-3, they beat Internazionale Milan. Chelsea won on away goals 1-1 over APOEL from Cyprus. Last, Benfica won from Zenit St Petersburg.

In the Quarter-finals, Real Madrid will play against Chelsea. Juventus will play face Barcelona. Benfica will play against Manchester United. Finally, Bayer Munich will play against Lyon.

Even though UCL is very far from Kazuki now, Kazuki still sees UCL matches, especially Juventus matches. The reason was of course because of Mattheo's existence. Kazuki was happy that Juventus would fight Barcelona, cause it would make the quarter-final match more exciting.

The story between Barcelona and Matthew is very popular. Little Mattheo grew up healthy and never had dwarfism. He showed his talent from an early age. Barcelona once approached Mattheo's father so that Mattheo would continue his football career at the La Masia academy. However, Matheo's father refused.

At that time the Italian Serie A was more attractive than any other league. That's why Mattheo became a Juventus academy player instead of Barcelona. Mattheo's opportunity to play for the Juventus first team came when the Old Lady dropped to the second tier of the Italian league. Since then Mattheo became the main player for Juventus and had won UCL 2 times with Juventus.

Guardiola, Barcelona coach stated several times his desire to bring Mattheo to Camp Nou. This is natural because in 3 consecutive years Barcelona has reached the final of the Champions League but they have only won 1 UCL because they were defeated by Juventus in 2 consecutive finals. If there was no Mattheo maybe Barcelona could win the UCL 3 times in a row.

In this season's UCL, Juventus looks to be declining. They even struggled in the group stage. The only thing that allowed Juventus to get into the quarter-finals was Mattheo.

The quarter-final first-round match between Juventus and Barcelona ended in 3-0, Barcelona managed to win the match. It's very difficult for Juventus to turn things around. Juventus' failure in the UCL this time will probably have a big impact on Mattheo's career as a player. The Argentine once said that his loyalty to Juventus was based on Juventus being able to compete for the UCL every year, seeing Juventus decline there is a possibility of Mattheo Rodrigues moving to another club.

***

On a sunny morning, Kazuki got up from the bed. The sound of the cellphone ringing made Kazuki wake up earlier than usual. He opened his eyes and picked up the cellphone on the bedside table.

Kazuki got a message from Furochi, it only contained one sentence.

[See news featured in The Sun article.]

Kazuki pressed the link provided by Furochi. After a while, the article was displayed on Kazuki's cellphone screen.

Kazuki read the article slowly. His forehead slowly frowning, even more, Kazuki stopped at one of the paragraphs that caught his attention. The article contains The Sun's interview with Denilson. At first, the interview went on as usual, but one of The Sun's questions made the situation change.

"Do you agree that Kazuki is a better player than you?

This whole season, you only scored 6 goals and 5 assists, while Kazuki only needed 7 games to surpass your stats this season."

Denilson replied, "I don't agree with your opinion. I don't think we should judge a player based on goals alone. In Southampton tactics, my job as an opponent's attention-getter is one of the factors that allow Kazuki to score goals easily. Of course, Kazuki is a good player but I am better than him."

No matter what opinion Denilson had about him, Kazuki didn't care about it. The problem, however, is that Denilson had said his opinion in media outlets such as The Sun. Keep in mind, every star must keep his words so as not to trigger controversy.

Denilson's words are certainly controversial.

Kazuki had never put Denilson in importance. To him, Denilson was just a passing stranger in his life. Kazuki's current abilities were already better overall than Denilson's. That's why even though Denilson is annoying but he never takes it too much.

However, for Denilson, Kazuki's development was too fast. Denilson is the highest-paid player at Southampton. Previously, he was also a core player for Southampton. But with the speed of Kazuki's development it was clear, next season the highest salary at Southampton would be held by Kazuki, he would also be a core player in the Southampton team. In Southampton, perhaps only Simone had more voting rights than Kazuki.

This was might cause Denilson, who initially acted casual to Kazuki, now, starting glaring at him.

Denilson feels his status at Southampton is threatened.

At 9:00 am, Kazuki came to the training ground. Southampton started training as usual, but the team mood changed. Kazuki who usually greeted everyone including Denilson, was now intentionally not greeting Denilson. In team training, Denilson didn't ever pass to Kazuki. The two practiced as if they didn't know each other.

George who saw that frowned. This situation cannot be allowed to continue. Otherwise, Southampton's game would have an impact as Kazuki and Denilson were the two forwards that George relied on the most.

Assistant Coach, James Ward also clearly felt that Kazuki and Denilson's hostility was making the team's bad mood.

Simone was trying to mend Kazuki's friendship with Denilson.

Kazuki said to Simone in a loud voice, "Let him apologize and the problem is finished."

Denilson heard Kazuki's words. He turned to face Kazuki and said, "I don't owe you an apology. You should recognize your place, Rookie."

Kazuki answered bravely, "It's true I am a Rookie, but ask all Southampton players, who is the biggest problem in this team? Ask Belliand why he scored so few goals in the first half of the season."

Team interests over individual interests. This must be implemented properly. For example, several times Kazuki was willing to give the ball to Osmund on counter-attacks because Southampton's goal was more important than forcing himself to score when a teammate's chances were better than his.

In Southampton's counter-attack scheme, Denilson's problems often arise. He often controls the ball for too long so the counter-attack momentum is lost. In the past, Denilson's individual play might have been needed by Southampton, but since Kazuki's arrival, the only thing Southampton needed was good teamwork.

Denilson's individual playing style now doesn't match Southampton's.