2026-07-19, 10:51 PM - Word count:
(This post was last modified: 2026-07-19, 11:42 PM by Bloodless. Edited 1 time in total.)
A shadow looms over us all.
The wall of the world is not one which can be easily conquered.
Sometimes you stumble and need to recalibrate.
Other times you end up in a freefall without a parachute hurdling towards impending doom at incomprehensible speeds.
Kaapstad's friendly matches had gone poorly for the team overall, yet they showed immense promise based off the fact that they were at least scoring against the teams they went up against and putting up a convincing fight. The coaches kept telling them that this season was expected to be a bit rougher because of how many rookies they had, but of course Dante Von Wolfe, their newest Striker was unfazed. Articles had come out calling him some sort of Savant, a Wunderkid--- he'd never really followed that side of soccer so Dante really had no clue what they were talking about. To him, the sport was everything which happened on the field. Everything else was just a bonus if it ever caught his interest, which usually, it failed to do.
However today was a big day for the league's laziest Striker as he was set to make his official debut for Kaapstad, and not only that ... but he was going to be playing Striker like he wanted. Scrolling on his phone while eating breakfast Dante was getting hit with waves of media related to the day's matches and seeing his name keep popping up, speculation as to whether he would start, and all the hype surrounding his name was even getting Dante fired up for today's match! The opponent was also ... none other then Rapid Magyar FC, the team where his rival S.Sei (@xyan) had been drafted to. Of course Dante had improved since the Academy Season where he scored 11 goals and had 5 assists, which made him curious to see just how Sei had also improved during his off-season with a new organization. After all, his goal was to create the best Striker while Dante's was simply to become the best Striker as lazily as possible. Philosophies which although similar in terms of overall goal, had major differences in terms of the route which they were taking. Sei wanted to make someone the best Striker, while Dante would become the best. Two sides of the same coin, yet now destined to duke it out and see who would come out on top. As long as they were on different teams ... only one of their dreams could come true.
Matchday 1: Kaapstad FC vs Rapid Magyar SC
In his first ever official match outside of the Academy, Dante was initially bored. Many fans were excited to see him starting as the sole Striker on top of the 4231 formation which Kaapstad chose to run, but Dante knew better then to get his hopes up. During the Academy season it'd taken him about 3 or 4 games before he was finally able to nab his first assist, and then another before his scoring streak actually began en route to 11 goals. The first opportunity of the night came from a corner kick which fellow rookie Nick Kasak (@nckkss) was set to boot in ... but Dante was surprisingly not inside the box. Instead he was hanging just outside of it, providing an ancillary option for an attack if the ball rebounded. He might not have been thrilled about it, but his coaches hadn't been too pushy with giving him instructions overall and had told him to just stay up top and try to make plays when possible. He'd heard about that kind of approach from his buddy Joshua Homme III Esquire Limited (@o1playz), where coaches give a player who is very talented yet very inexperienced minimal instruction in order to help jumpstart their creativity.
Dante of course didn't really get how any of that was actually supposed to work. For him it just came down to get ball, shoot, score, repeat. There wasn't any thought about how to connect each of those points, and there didn't need to be.
The ball bounced back and Dante immediately closed the gap to the box as the ball fell towards Felix Pedro (@Artemis). Dante being the Striker, the man who had put everything he had into refining his ability in exactly these kinds of moments moved like the wind, ready for the ball to come his way. But Dante slowed down, not because of some external factor ... no, he could tell that based on Felix's footwork, the way he was tensing his body ... that was no pass. Sure enough it was a shot from the edge of the box which albeit impressive in terms of speed and power, ultimately ended up bouncing off the top of the net. With a sigh Dante trotted on backwards, shooting an off look towards Pedro who returned it with nothing but a shrug. Not unexpected ... as rookies, they all wanted to prove themselves and secure their spots in the lineup. Dante figured their coaches would reign them in, or one of their Captains. Dante didn't really care who did it, just that it would get done in all eventuality. After a couple corners and a few awesome saves from their SUPERB goalie, old man Duncan Walrusson (@Jexter) who had a decade more experience in the league than Dante, Walrusson dropped the ball at his own feet for a moment and surveyed the field before drilling a deep pass alllll the way down the field to none other the Dante Von Wolfe himself.
![[Image: 7CRUpz4.png]](https://i.imgur.com/7CRUpz4.png)
Dante from this position only had two options. The first of which was the one he would have typically preferred to take, which is to have the ball land directly in front of his body and stick his foot out, basically letting the ball roll off his foot to kill it's vertical momentum and instead give it some horizontal momentum. The field seemed to freeze though as Dante's perception of everything around him sharpened ... Four total Defenders. Squid (@Colton_MC) was far too close to his left and would stop him from trying to trap it with his chest just by closing the distance and pressing him. DeSoto (@jimi) was on the right and definitely not as aware as to what Dante might end up doing, but was technically the furthest back and might try to get Dante with an off-side trap. Harper (@JCPro) was not close enough to stop Dante, but could definitely join in and cut him off if Dante's trap wasn't extremely precise. Worst of all was Mormor (@Haramcha), who had both speed and momentum and was easily close enough to foul him from behind to kill the scoring opportunity, as well as just engage Dante in a physical press and challenge him for the ball.
It was an unfavorable, untenable 4 v 1 and in this situation Dante did the reasonable thing. He could have tried to trap it, or let it roll off his body towards the goal ... but he could instead go for the higher percentage play and try to build trust amongst his teammates. After all, a Striker was someone who everyone on the field could trust and that was important ... especially if Dante wanted to receive a plethora of passes from them in any situation. He jumped upwards and beat Joe Mormor to the ball, heading it down towards Jang (@davidlostt7). There was a hint of surprise on Jang's face, but he took a couple big touches and immediately started carrying the ball up the wing. It wasn't what Dante anticipated as he would've preferred they try to move it closer to the box and pass it back to him, using the threat of Jang shooting to lure defenders off of Dante. After dancing around and almost losing the ball to Mormor who pressured Jang into the corner, Midfielder finally booted it towards Dante for a header ... although it was far too late for that. There were far too many defenders pressing Dante to make it a reliable, guaranteed header opportunity and worse yet was the distance and height giving the goalie the perfect opportunity to read the pass, then jump up and grab it just before it could reach Dante. Hands on his hips, Dante kicked at the turf and grumbled under his breath.
Worse yet was the immediate counterattack by Rapid Magyar, jump started by a kick into the midfield from the goalie. Bad Wolf (@Thewhovian) tried to header it down, but the pass was collected by Quackareedoo (@canard101) who kickstarted a rapid chain of passes which inevitably lead to a quick tap in for N'Goussou (@Pandar) putting Kaapstad down 0 - 1 just a mere 10 minutes away from halftime. It sucked. They were down. Yet Dante was far from out in this match, and knew that eventually they would get their chance to strike back.
First they repelled a few consecutive quality opportunities from Rapid Magyar, at least two of which were saved thanks to the brilliance of Walrusson ... including one just before the half which looked extremely promising yet fizzled out after a questionable shot from Bad Wolf which Dante forgave since time was running out in the half anyways, and taking a shot there with the possibility of scoring was better than doing nothing at all. Things changed a little at the start of the second half as Dante was getting more and more agitated. He hadn't even shot the ball yet, and he was getting so few passes from his teammates which made it feel like he was just out there doing cardio. Thus he did the only thing he could, and started adding pressure to the ball carriers until it was hit to the other side of the field. No luck there either, and with some effective passing Rapid Magyar was able to score off a short ground cross leading to a second tap in for N'Goussou. After his teammates passed it around and kept avoiding Dante once more, they ended up with a corner. This time however Dante was in the box, albeit positioned further from the net ... yet still an improvement! But it didn't matter as Nick Kasak's corner kick found Howie Dewitt (@Icebear32) who hit an absolutely masterful header across the net and outstretched hands of Stevens (@Toast).
The game continued to tick on and wasted opportunities and passes from Dante to his teammates was starting to make the usually lazy Striker that much much irritable, but he continued to push it down. Tick. Tick. Tick. More time passed and nothing changed. A corner kick that never found Dante, a bad pass which was easily intercepted killing a counter attacking chance. Soon the ref blew the whistle and Dante just stood there with a ten thousand yard stare glued to his face. He was normally so indifferent to these kinds of performances, yet what the FUCK had he actually done out their? No shots on targets, no shots on goal, no shots AT ALL. How could he as a Striker do his job and score when his teammates barely pass to him? He walked past his coaches, clearly a little bitter from the whole debacle and tried to leave the field post-haste. However he was swarmed by reporters inquiring about his performance, about his thoughts on the game, and whether he had been misused by his coaches. The only responses he gave were "screw off" and "don't care."
No shots on goal.
None at all.
He felt disgusted with himself.
The wall of the world is not one which can be easily conquered.
Sometimes you stumble and need to recalibrate.
Other times you end up in a freefall without a parachute hurdling towards impending doom at incomprehensible speeds.
Kaapstad's friendly matches had gone poorly for the team overall, yet they showed immense promise based off the fact that they were at least scoring against the teams they went up against and putting up a convincing fight. The coaches kept telling them that this season was expected to be a bit rougher because of how many rookies they had, but of course Dante Von Wolfe, their newest Striker was unfazed. Articles had come out calling him some sort of Savant, a Wunderkid--- he'd never really followed that side of soccer so Dante really had no clue what they were talking about. To him, the sport was everything which happened on the field. Everything else was just a bonus if it ever caught his interest, which usually, it failed to do.
However today was a big day for the league's laziest Striker as he was set to make his official debut for Kaapstad, and not only that ... but he was going to be playing Striker like he wanted. Scrolling on his phone while eating breakfast Dante was getting hit with waves of media related to the day's matches and seeing his name keep popping up, speculation as to whether he would start, and all the hype surrounding his name was even getting Dante fired up for today's match! The opponent was also ... none other then Rapid Magyar FC, the team where his rival S.Sei (@xyan) had been drafted to. Of course Dante had improved since the Academy Season where he scored 11 goals and had 5 assists, which made him curious to see just how Sei had also improved during his off-season with a new organization. After all, his goal was to create the best Striker while Dante's was simply to become the best Striker as lazily as possible. Philosophies which although similar in terms of overall goal, had major differences in terms of the route which they were taking. Sei wanted to make someone the best Striker, while Dante would become the best. Two sides of the same coin, yet now destined to duke it out and see who would come out on top. As long as they were on different teams ... only one of their dreams could come true.
Matchday 1: Kaapstad FC vs Rapid Magyar SC
In his first ever official match outside of the Academy, Dante was initially bored. Many fans were excited to see him starting as the sole Striker on top of the 4231 formation which Kaapstad chose to run, but Dante knew better then to get his hopes up. During the Academy season it'd taken him about 3 or 4 games before he was finally able to nab his first assist, and then another before his scoring streak actually began en route to 11 goals. The first opportunity of the night came from a corner kick which fellow rookie Nick Kasak (@nckkss) was set to boot in ... but Dante was surprisingly not inside the box. Instead he was hanging just outside of it, providing an ancillary option for an attack if the ball rebounded. He might not have been thrilled about it, but his coaches hadn't been too pushy with giving him instructions overall and had told him to just stay up top and try to make plays when possible. He'd heard about that kind of approach from his buddy Joshua Homme III Esquire Limited (@o1playz), where coaches give a player who is very talented yet very inexperienced minimal instruction in order to help jumpstart their creativity.
Dante of course didn't really get how any of that was actually supposed to work. For him it just came down to get ball, shoot, score, repeat. There wasn't any thought about how to connect each of those points, and there didn't need to be.
The ball bounced back and Dante immediately closed the gap to the box as the ball fell towards Felix Pedro (@Artemis). Dante being the Striker, the man who had put everything he had into refining his ability in exactly these kinds of moments moved like the wind, ready for the ball to come his way. But Dante slowed down, not because of some external factor ... no, he could tell that based on Felix's footwork, the way he was tensing his body ... that was no pass. Sure enough it was a shot from the edge of the box which albeit impressive in terms of speed and power, ultimately ended up bouncing off the top of the net. With a sigh Dante trotted on backwards, shooting an off look towards Pedro who returned it with nothing but a shrug. Not unexpected ... as rookies, they all wanted to prove themselves and secure their spots in the lineup. Dante figured their coaches would reign them in, or one of their Captains. Dante didn't really care who did it, just that it would get done in all eventuality. After a couple corners and a few awesome saves from their SUPERB goalie, old man Duncan Walrusson (@Jexter) who had a decade more experience in the league than Dante, Walrusson dropped the ball at his own feet for a moment and surveyed the field before drilling a deep pass alllll the way down the field to none other the Dante Von Wolfe himself.
Dante from this position only had two options. The first of which was the one he would have typically preferred to take, which is to have the ball land directly in front of his body and stick his foot out, basically letting the ball roll off his foot to kill it's vertical momentum and instead give it some horizontal momentum. The field seemed to freeze though as Dante's perception of everything around him sharpened ... Four total Defenders. Squid (@Colton_MC) was far too close to his left and would stop him from trying to trap it with his chest just by closing the distance and pressing him. DeSoto (@jimi) was on the right and definitely not as aware as to what Dante might end up doing, but was technically the furthest back and might try to get Dante with an off-side trap. Harper (@JCPro) was not close enough to stop Dante, but could definitely join in and cut him off if Dante's trap wasn't extremely precise. Worst of all was Mormor (@Haramcha), who had both speed and momentum and was easily close enough to foul him from behind to kill the scoring opportunity, as well as just engage Dante in a physical press and challenge him for the ball.
It was an unfavorable, untenable 4 v 1 and in this situation Dante did the reasonable thing. He could have tried to trap it, or let it roll off his body towards the goal ... but he could instead go for the higher percentage play and try to build trust amongst his teammates. After all, a Striker was someone who everyone on the field could trust and that was important ... especially if Dante wanted to receive a plethora of passes from them in any situation. He jumped upwards and beat Joe Mormor to the ball, heading it down towards Jang (@davidlostt7). There was a hint of surprise on Jang's face, but he took a couple big touches and immediately started carrying the ball up the wing. It wasn't what Dante anticipated as he would've preferred they try to move it closer to the box and pass it back to him, using the threat of Jang shooting to lure defenders off of Dante. After dancing around and almost losing the ball to Mormor who pressured Jang into the corner, Midfielder finally booted it towards Dante for a header ... although it was far too late for that. There were far too many defenders pressing Dante to make it a reliable, guaranteed header opportunity and worse yet was the distance and height giving the goalie the perfect opportunity to read the pass, then jump up and grab it just before it could reach Dante. Hands on his hips, Dante kicked at the turf and grumbled under his breath.
Worse yet was the immediate counterattack by Rapid Magyar, jump started by a kick into the midfield from the goalie. Bad Wolf (@Thewhovian) tried to header it down, but the pass was collected by Quackareedoo (@canard101) who kickstarted a rapid chain of passes which inevitably lead to a quick tap in for N'Goussou (@Pandar) putting Kaapstad down 0 - 1 just a mere 10 minutes away from halftime. It sucked. They were down. Yet Dante was far from out in this match, and knew that eventually they would get their chance to strike back.
First they repelled a few consecutive quality opportunities from Rapid Magyar, at least two of which were saved thanks to the brilliance of Walrusson ... including one just before the half which looked extremely promising yet fizzled out after a questionable shot from Bad Wolf which Dante forgave since time was running out in the half anyways, and taking a shot there with the possibility of scoring was better than doing nothing at all. Things changed a little at the start of the second half as Dante was getting more and more agitated. He hadn't even shot the ball yet, and he was getting so few passes from his teammates which made it feel like he was just out there doing cardio. Thus he did the only thing he could, and started adding pressure to the ball carriers until it was hit to the other side of the field. No luck there either, and with some effective passing Rapid Magyar was able to score off a short ground cross leading to a second tap in for N'Goussou. After his teammates passed it around and kept avoiding Dante once more, they ended up with a corner. This time however Dante was in the box, albeit positioned further from the net ... yet still an improvement! But it didn't matter as Nick Kasak's corner kick found Howie Dewitt (@Icebear32) who hit an absolutely masterful header across the net and outstretched hands of Stevens (@Toast).
The game continued to tick on and wasted opportunities and passes from Dante to his teammates was starting to make the usually lazy Striker that much much irritable, but he continued to push it down. Tick. Tick. Tick. More time passed and nothing changed. A corner kick that never found Dante, a bad pass which was easily intercepted killing a counter attacking chance. Soon the ref blew the whistle and Dante just stood there with a ten thousand yard stare glued to his face. He was normally so indifferent to these kinds of performances, yet what the FUCK had he actually done out their? No shots on targets, no shots on goal, no shots AT ALL. How could he as a Striker do his job and score when his teammates barely pass to him? He walked past his coaches, clearly a little bitter from the whole debacle and tried to leave the field post-haste. However he was swarmed by reporters inquiring about his performance, about his thoughts on the game, and whether he had been misused by his coaches. The only responses he gave were "screw off" and "don't care."
No shots on goal.
None at all.
He felt disgusted with himself.
