(Live Commentary - Toulouse vs Lorient, Ligue 1 — Year 2225) Score: 2–1 | Second Half
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Walker: "Welcome back, folks! We're live here at the Toulouse Dome, and it's been a good match. Toulouse is winning two goals to one against Lorient. It's the fifty-seventh minute, and this game could still go either way."
Ron: "Yeah, Lorient's pushing hard right now. They've been playing more aggressive in this half, but Toulouse are doing a good job handling the pressure."
The crowd is loud. You can hear drums and chants from the home fans — "Allez Toulouse! Allez les Violets!"
Players are starting to look tired. Sweat is dripping, breathing is heavy, and tackles are coming in fast and hard.
Walker: "Looks like Toulouse are making a substitution on the sideline. A young guy is getting ready there."
Ron: "That's number 20 — Mendez. Camilo Mendez. Brazilian kid. This is his first team debut today."
Walker: "Only nineteen years old. Came through the youth system. They say he's got some skill — you know, that typical Brazilian style."
Ron: "Yeah, but this is Ligue 1, not street football. Skill's nice, but you need to have control out there."
Walker: "And here we go, the board goes up… substitution in the sixty-eighth minute. Number fourteen is coming off, number twenty — Mendez — is coming on."
Mendez jogs onto the pitch. He's nervous but excited. His heart is pounding hard in his chest. He taps his chest twice and looks around at the crowd as the stadium lights shone bright on his face.
Walker: "And the youngster's on the field now. He's playing as an attacking midfielder. Let's see what he can do."
Minutes go by. Toulouse keeps passing the ball around. Lorient keeps pressing forward, trying to get it back.
Walker: "It's the seventy-second minute now. Toulouse is still up by one. But Lorient's not giving up."
Ron: "They can't give up. One goal and this becomes a whole new game."
Mendez runs between defenders, calls for the ball a few times but doesn't get it. He keeps moving though, keeps watching, hoping someone will pass to him.
Walker: "You can see Mendez trying to find some space out there. He's moving well, trying to stay open for a pass."
Ron: "That's what he should be doing. Stay patient, wait for the right moment to get the ball."
Eighty-sixth minute.
Toulouse starts building an attack from midfield. Amedee gets the ball in the center of the field.
Walker: "Alright, Toulouse is trying to keep possession here. Amedee has the ball…"
He passes it forward to Bernard. Bernard turns with the ball and drives forward a few steps.
Ron: "They're slowing things down, Walker. Just trying to run down the clock and protect their lead."
Bernard passes to Mario, the striker, who receives it with a defender right on his back. Mario pushes it right back to Bernard to keep possession. Then Bernard sees Mendez standing open just outside the box.
Walker: "Nice passing! Bernard finds Mendez at the top of the penalty area…"
Mendez controls the ball smoothly with his first touch. There's a teammate open to his left. It would be an easy pass. The safe choice.
But he doesn't pass it.
He fakes left, flicks the ball up with his toe, and spins past the first defender — the crowd reacts right away with cheers.
Walker: "Ohhh! Look at that move! Some Brazilian magic from the youngster!"
Ron: "He's got confidence, I'll give him that much."
He keeps dribbling forward, does a quick step-over move, pushes the ball ahead — then a Lorient defender slides in hard. The sound of the tackle is loud and brutal — a rough slide with studs showing.
Walker: "Ohhh, that's a horrible challenge! That's really dangerous!"
Mendez's body slams into the ground hard. His head bounces off the turf. The crowd gasps and goes silent.
He doesn't get up.
Ron: "That's really bad. He's just laying there, not moving at all."
Walker: "The medical team is running onto the field now. That looked really serious. He might have hit his head pretty hard there."
The referee pulls out a yellow card and shows it to the Lorient defender. The home fans start booing loudly.
Ron: "That should've been a red card if you ask me. That kind of tackle is just reckless and dangerous."
Walker: "I agree with you. And look at Mendez… he's still laying there on the ground. They're waving for the stretcher to come out."
The medical staff gather around him quickly. They carefully roll him onto his back and strap him down onto the stretcher. The entire stadium goes quiet, waiting.
Mendez can barely hear anything around him. Everything sounds muffled and far away. He tries to open his eyes, but the stadium lights are way too bright and hurt. The noise from the crowd fades away to just a low hum in his ears.
A voice somewhere in the distance says his name — but it's getting quieter and quieter.
Then everything goes black.
Walker: "They're carrying him off the field now. What a terrible way for this young man's debut to end."
Ron: "Yeah, you really hate to see something like this happen. He was just starting to show what he could do out there. I really hope it's not too serious."
The camera follows the stretcher as it goes toward the ambulance waiting near the tunnel. The ambulance lights start flashing. The crowd claps respectfully as the stretcher disappears into the tunnel.
Walker: "That's just how football goes sometimes — one moment you're living your dream, and the next minute everything goes wrong."
Ron: "Yeah. It's a rough sport."
Inside the ambulance, everything is shaking and bumping around. Mendez's eyes are still closed. He can hear beeping sounds, some muffled voices talking, and then the sounds fade to silence. He feels like he's floating away.
When his eyes finally open again, he's not in the ambulance anymore.
He's standing on a glowing football field. It looks like a stadium but everything is brighter, it seems to go on forever, and it's completely quiet. Standing around him are figures, faces he recognizes, legendary faces from football history.
Pele. Maradona. Messi. Ronaldo. Ronaldinho. Kaka. Buffon. Zidane. Neymar. All of them are there. Their jerseys are glowing like they're made of light.
Mendez blinks, completely confused about what's happening. "What… where am I? What is this place?"
Ronaldinho smiles at him with that famous grin. "Welcome, garoto."
Messi steps closer to him. "You've got something special inside you. We've been waiting for you."
Pele's voice comes through louder and clearer than all the others. "For every generation, a few players are chosen to carry the legacy forward. To take football to places it's never been before."
Ronaldo — the Brazilian Ronaldo — walks over and claps him on the shoulder. "Now it's your turn, kid. You're going to carry the torch for the next generation."
"The GOAT System," Zidane says in a calm voice. "You are the next one chosen to use it."
A bright light suddenly appears in the center of the field, right on the center circle.
Mendez raises his hands up to cover his face and block the light — but the light spreads out and covers everything around him.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
He opens his eyes once more. White ceiling tiles above him. A hospital room with plain walls. Everything is quiet except for the soft beeping and humming of medical machines.
He blinks a few times and then his whole body goes stiff.
Something is floating right in front of his face. A glowing screen, light blue color, just hanging there in the air like magic.
[GOAT SYSTEM ONLINE]
[You have been choosen as the next GOAT]
Mendez just stares at it with his mouth hanging open slightly.
"What the hell is going on…"
The screen flickers and changes to show new words.
[System Initializing...]
[Synchronization: ...5% → 10% → 15%...]
That's when it hits him and he understands, that whatever just happened out there on that field during his debut… was only the very beginning of something much bigger.
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To be continued...