Chapter Five: The Promotion Line

Their number six struck Lin's old injury at every challenge. Someone had shown him the medical file. At halftime, with Saint-Denis one down, rain hammered the dressing-room roof. Baptiste turned over the tactics board. “Anyone who wants to protect his job can stay here. I want no one afraid to lose.” Lin drew three lines. Red Star's left center back left six seconds of empty grass whenever he pressed. The problem was that no Saint-Denis player could control the first pass in the mud. The system had indexed Idriss, an aging substitute who had once been one of Ligue 1's finest target forwards. [Available ability: first touch under pressure. Estimated physical load: low.]