An Argentine's Rise

The Debut

The next few days were filled with intense training, it was especially intense for Nate as he asked Leo to train him in order for Nate to get a better feeling in 1v1 situation against players that are at a higher level than players in the Primera División or in general any competition Nate played in.

The first few 1v1 situations Leo was the one who was in the possession of the ball and to put it lightly he absolutely destroyed the youngster. However the situation changed when Nate was the one in possession, since he managed to hold up with Leo for a at least a while, before losing the ball. This went on for a while, till the training slowly started to show some progress. Leo was of course the superior one, but now the elder deemed Nate fit to face all the upcoming teams in the Copa America.

Currently Nate is laying on the ground next to Julian as both try to catch their breath after an once again intense training. Occasionally the two sit up and pour a bit of their water bottles over them in order to cool down.

"You know, when I dreamed of playing for Argentina, I knew it would be intense but this?", Nate says with a slight chuckle in the end as he pushes himself off the ground. Julian just laughs at this as he stands up as well.

"Hey Nate and Julian, the coach wants us in the meeting room", Ángel yells across the training field at the two youngsters as he walks towards them.

"As long as it's no more training", Nate says in a exhausted tone, causing to both Ángel and Julian do chuckle a bit. The three make their way towards the meeting room, where the majority of the team was already assembled and seated, so Nate quickly looks for a seat and finds one next to Emiliano, so he takes that seat, with Julian taking a free seat behind the two. After a few minutes the rest of the team arrived and so the coach Scaloni officially starts the team meeting.

"As you know our first Copa Game is coming up in two days and our first opponent is Chile, who already had some business with us in the past, but this time we will show them not to mess with Argentina. So I am now announcing the starting players. Our Goalkeeper for this game will be Emiliano. Then for the defense Gonzalo as Right Back, as our two center backs I have selected Lucas Martinez and Nicolás Otamendi, Nicolás Tagliafico will be our left back", Scaloni says as a monitor reveals the starting eleven player by player. Upon hearing that he is gonna be the starting Goalkeeper Emiliano does small air fist bumps, while the starting defenders high-fived each other.

"Now Midfield, Rodrigo De Paul, Leandro Paredes and Giovani Lo Celso will start"

Paredes and Celso cheer a bit, while De Paul just nods his head, like he expected to start.

"Moving on to our Forwards, Lionel will play Right Wing, Lautaro Martinez will take up the role of the striker and Nicolás González will cover the Left Wing", Scaloni says and finishes his reveal of the starting eleven. Nate however wasn't hurt or anything, since he knew that he would have to prove his worth first before he can get a starting position.

Scaloni then dismisses the team and tells us to use our time to recover and to ensure that we are in top form since Chile is not be taken lightly.

So the Argentina Squad spends the last day before the match doing a final morning training session, before taking the rest day off in order to be prepared and well-rested for the match.

As the match day arrives, the Argentina Squad finds itself traveling to the Arena BRB Mané Garrincha. The reporters and fans alike swarm the place as the team bus opens it doors and the players leave it. Some players took the time to take a selfie with the fans and Nate was even surprised to have a few fans of himself there, who where trying to get their River Plate jersey signed by him. Moved by this, he signs the jersey and takes a quick selfie with his fans, before speed-walking towards the rest of his team, that was already entering the stadium.

Inside the locker room, the tension was starting to build up as the Players change into their Pre-Match Jerseys and enter the field to warm up. Nate and the rest of the team then start to stretch, before moving on to passing the ball to each other. The team does this a few times, while the stadium is starting to fill one by one the stands are filled by a White-Blue sea on one side of the stadium and the other one turns into a red sea. After practicing their finishing for a bit  Scaloni tells his team, that it's time to change into their jerseys and to prepare themselves for the match opening. So Nate and Julian take their seat on the bench and watch as their teammates line up next to each other and the hymn of Argentina is being played, next was the hymn of Chile and the traditional shaking the hands of the refrees and the opposite players. Then the game is finally kicked off and Argentina is immediately trying to push forward.

The first minutes were relatively quiet, with both teams managing some blocks there and then, but nothing extraordinary. However in the 25th minute, when the the Number 4 of Chile Isla commits a risky tackle in order to stop González. As a result he saw the yellow card and Argentina was awarded a free-kick. Leo took it but unfortunately the keeper managed to get his hands on the ball. Then in the 30th minute of the game, Leo managed to dribble past the defense of Chile and ge takes a shot and it goes in. The field players run to hug Leo, while Julian and Nate jump out of their seats and scream out of joy as they witnessed the goal that put them ahead of Chile. The first half then ended with nothing more happening.

The team then enters the locker room, where Scaloni is already waiting. "You are showing your determination out there and that's what gives you guys the lead. But I wanna make a change in our line-up. González you are out, Diaz you will play the rest of the game", Scaloni says and looks straight at Nate, who nods his head with determination, willing to give it all.

The second half then starts with Chile trying to do a counterattack, but Otamendi manages to get the ball and passes it to De Paul. De Paul then dribbles a bit, before giving the ball to Lionel, who as always outplays the entire defense, however the midfield of Chile now comes back to preventing a clear shot for Leo. Nate however uses this opportunity to get himself some free space and Lionel sees this and crosses the ball towards Nate. Knowing that the ball is to high to reach, so he jumps into the air and performs a bicycle kick. The ball then flies towards the bottom left corner and the Chile Goalkeeper is unable the reach the ball just in time.

Nate finds himself on the ground in a temporary trance as he struggling to comprehend what he just achieved, when he feels himself being pulled by someone and hugged.

"I knew you have the potential all along", Leo whispers into Nate's ear, who just let's out a small chuckle as he savors the moment of having scored his first goal for Argentina. As the match continues, Chile found itself more and more on the losing side as once again in the 83th minute Argentina or to be more exact Nate got the ball. Seeing Lautaro being free from Chile Defenders, he skillfully dribbles past some players before making a pass to Lautaro, who uses this opportunity to net in the third goal for Argentina in this match. Nate and Lautaro run towards each other and high five each other, sharing a quick laugh.
A few minutes later, the refree blows the whistle officially ending the game with a score of 3-0 for Argentina and the Argentina players run towards each other. Julian immediately runs towards Nate with a huge smile and gives him a side hug. "Damn, you showed your worth dude. One goal and one assist, that's amazing", Julian exclaimes as he ruffles the hair of his best friend.

"Yeah, but it's far from over, we still have many games to play", Nate says as he watches the rest of the team embracing in a group hug. His eyes then drift up to the sky as he wonders, what the rest of the games will be like.