My Ultimate Gacha System

Chapter 348 - 22: Malta VS England 1

Friday, June 16, 2023Ta’ Qali National Stadium6:45 PM

The substitutes warmed up at the south end while the starters worked the north half, and the stadium had been filling steadily since six, the home sections in red and white producing the specific noise of a crowd that knew what the evening was probably going to be but had come anyway.

Demien jogged the touchline with Eze, Gallagher, Phillips, Wilson, and Grealish while the dynamic stretching ran its course, and the pitch under his boots confirmed what yesterday’s walkthrough had shown — hard, compact, the ball skipping fast and true across the surface rather than dying into the grass the way English pitches tended to do in summer.

He worked through first-touch practice in the possession grid, cushioning passes deliberately softer than usual to account for the pace the firm surface added, and by the third or fourth time it stopped requiring thought and became the automatic version of itself.

The last three minutes before they came off the pitch he had space at the edge of the grid and the ball sat up at the right height and his body moved before the decision formed — drag-back with the right foot, full rotation, exit left with the ball arriving exactly where his left foot was.

「TECHNIQUE ACTIVE」 Marseille Roulette (Epic)

Gallagher was watching from three yards away and said nothing for a moment.

"Filthy," he said.

Demien kept moving.

At the far end of the pitch Kane struck a ball toward Pickford and the contact sound carried across the pitch — clean, direct, the sound of fifteen years of professional finishing compressed into one touch — and Saka cut inside onto his left and the movement was the version of it that came from ten thousand repetitions rather than from thinking about direction.

Demien looked at them and then looked away and jogged back toward the bench.

7:45 PM

Fweeeeeetttttttt!!!!!

Malta kicked off and immediately played it back to their goalkeeper, and their block dropped into the 5-4-1 shape instantly — both wingbacks at the edge of their own eighteen, both wide midfielders tucked central, the striker a lone presence near the halfway line watching England build.

Demien sat with his arms on his knees and watched Rice receive the first ball of the match and play it sideways to Stones, and Stones played it back to Pickford, and England began the patient circulation that Southgate had described all week.

8’ |

A corner came from Saka’s run down the right drawing a block behind, and as the delivery swung in England bodies moved across Malta’s six-yard box and Malta’s defenders tracked them and Apap moved to cut out the ball at the near post and the contact came off his shin rather than his boot and the ball looped backward over Bonello and settled in the net before anyone had time to react.

The England section at the far end erupted and the flags came up as a single movement, and the sound they produced was bigger than their section’s size suggested.

ENGLAND 1-0 MALTA (8’)

Demien watched Rice organise the defensive line for the restart from the bench, pointing at Maguire, gesturing at Shaw to hold his position, and Henderson tucking back into the double pivot without being asked because he’d been doing this for long enough that the instruction wasn’t necessary.

28’ |

Trent received the ball twenty-five yards out with a yard of space opening where Malta’s right midfielder had been pulled toward Shaw’s overlap, and his first touch set it slightly right of centre which was the position for his right foot and his second touch was the strike — driven and curling with the trajectory of someone who had decided where it was going before touching it, the ball passing beyond Bonello’s outstretched hand and settling in the top corner.

ENGLAND 2-0 MALTA (28’)

Demien watched it go in and felt the Dipping Power Shot sitting in his own inventory — same range, same body position, same decision — and the recognition of it wasn’t envy but something closer to confirmation.

31’ |

A Malta defender’s arm moved into the ball inside the box and the referee pointed to the spot and Kane placed the ball and sent the goalkeeper the wrong way with the clean indifference of someone who had taken this particular kick enough times that the moment had no size.

ENGLAND 3-0 MALTA (31’)

The crowd in the home sections had gone quiet in the way that crowds went quiet when the evening’s mathematics had become settled, and from the bench Demien watched Foden reset his position after the goal and thought about the half-space between Malta’s right fullback and their right centre-back, the window Southgate had described, and where it would open when England stretched them wide in the second half.

Halftime — Away Dressing Room

Players came in still warm from the heat that had followed them through the tunnel, and Bonello’s shirt was already through from the humidity and Maguire had tape around his right knee that hadn’t been there at kickoff.

Southgate stood at the board until the room settled.

"Good half," he said. "Same approach second half. Keep moving them. The spaces will be there." He looked at the squad — starters and bench together in the same room — and his eyes moved along the bench row without stopping on any individual face. "Stay sharp. We’ll need everyone."

That was all.

Players hydrated, Saka had his ankle looked at by the physio in the corner, and Demien retaped his right ankle and checked the tension in both boots and drank half a bottle of water and waited.

Second Half — 46’-59’ |

England came out with the same shape and Malta pushed higher because three goals down meant they had nothing left to defend, and the spaces behind their fullbacks widened and their wingbacks committed forward, and England’s possession moved more fluidly through the wider channels than it had in the first half.

Foden had the first real chance of the second half, his low shot taken early and reaching Bonello comfortably without the placement to threaten the corners.

Kane nearly added his second in the fifty-eighth minute, an attempted chip that caught the outside of his boot and drifted wide, and he stood with his hands on his hips for a moment before walking back to position.

60’ |

On the touchline Southgate turned toward the bench and said something to his assistant, and the assistant held up three fingers and the three names reached the touchline before the fourth official’s board went up, and Demien was already unzipping his tracksuit top before the number on the board was fully lit.

He handed the top to the kit man beside him and shook out his arms while Eze pulled off his vest beside him and Phillips straightened his socks.

On the pitch Henderson jogged toward the touchline first, then Saka holding his ankle slightly as he came off, then Foden, and all three crossed the white line and Eze, Phillips, and Demien stepped on while the fourth official’s board showed the three changes simultaneously.

Southgate stepped along the line as they crossed.

"Phillips — base," he said quickly. To Eze: "Right channel, push into the half-space." He looked at Demien. "Alongside Phillips. Simple. Support the attack but hold your shape."

"Yes, boss," Demien said.

He stepped onto the pitch at the sixty-first minute.

「MISSION ACTIVATED」

「SENIOR ENGLAND DEBUT — OFFICIAL INTERNATIONAL」

「OBJECTIVE: Complete 30 minutes without major errors」

「BONUS OBJECTIVE: Create 1 goal-scoring chance」

「REWARD: 100 MP + 2 SP」

The panel faded while the match continued around him..

62’ |

Rice played the first ball to him centrally, and Malta’s right midfielder was already moving across to press and got to within three yards before the ball arrived.

「TRAIT ACTIVE」 Press Resistant

His body adjusted to the angle of the pressure without the conscious thought that would have added a half-second, his weight shifting over his standing foot and his arms settling at the right width, and the first touch came off his right instep and directed the ball away from the press and toward Shaw on the left, clean and safe, before the midfielder arrived.

He moved into the next position.

65’ |

Rice switched play wide right and the ball came off Malta’s fullback and dropped between the lines with pace and an awkward height on the firm surface, two Malta midfielders still recovering their shape.

「STAT ACTIVE」 Ball Control: 89

The ball came out of the air onto the ground in one touch without bouncing, no second touch needed to settle it, and his head was up before the control was complete.

Eze had started his run down the right channel two seconds earlier, already clear of the last Malta midfielder’s shoulder, and the angle from here was forward rather than sideways.

「STAT ACTIVE」 Vision: 77 | Short Passing: 88

The pass left his foot weighted for Eze’s stride rather than his feet — two yards ahead at knee height, arriving exactly as Eze cleared the defender — and Eze took it in stride without breaking pace and drove to the byline before his cross came in low across the six-yard box.

Rice arrived at the back post and his header went straight at Bonello, who caught it cleanly, and the chance was gone but it had been created and the mission’s bonus objective was sitting in the panel at the edge of his vision, waiting.

Phillips glanced over.

Demien moved back into position.

68’ |

A misplaced throw from Walker gave Malta possession midfield and their right midfielder drove forward into space before Eze could recover and the nearest England body was Demien at ten yards, slightly behind the angle.

The body shape of the Malta midfielder was pointing across the pitch — inside foot, planted left — and the pass was going to the striker cutting across Maguire, knee height, inside the right foot, arriving in approximately one and a half seconds.

「STAT ACTIVE」 Defensive Awareness: 73 | Interceptions: 82

He moved to the lane rather than the player, right foot stepping into the passing channel at the moment the ball was struck, and it ran onto his boot cleanly and sat there and he was turning before the contact finished, and England had possession in midfield while Malta’s striker completed his run into empty space.

Phillips was alongside him and said nothing and the match continued at 3-0 and the seventy-minute mark was two minutes away.