The victory against the odds, the ugly, beautiful, 1-0 win that broke our losing streak, was a turning point. It was the moment we stopped feeling sorry for ourselves, the moment we stopped waiting for our injured superstar to come back and save us, and the moment we started believing in ourselves as a collective, as a team.
The 'Team Cohesion' passive ability I had unlocked was a tangible force, a kind of invisible glue that bound the players together, making them fight harder, run further, and believe more deeply in each other.
We went on another unbeaten run. It wasn't as spectacular as our first one. There were no 4-0 thrashings, no dazzling displays of attacking football. These were tight, nervy, attritional affairs.
We won games 1-0, we ground out 0-0 draws, we became masters of the dark arts of defensive football.
