AKIFELA.

CHAPTER 3 contd. 

A fictional story by Folusho…

The bear gang were the most notorious thugs in the village. They didn’t rob, they oppressed. They oppressed the poor, the weak, and the new. Their founder was Orogi, son of the Meshkar. The gang was made up of mostly boys from wealthy homes who were Orogi’s friends. Today was the first time Orogi was winning a battle against his step sister Aira, someone who he had bragged endlessly about to everyone that he could beat. For his victory, the boys were celebrating.

Akifela walked from shop to shop, asking the butchers if they would buy his dead bear. He wasn’t pleased with the price they valued his kill for. To him, that was the prize of a peacock. He saw some boys cheering and jubilating on the street, he walked up to them in hopes that they might want to make their celebration bigger.

“Sorry, excuse me, err hi my name is Fela, I would like to offer you and your friends a bear, if you pay me well for it.” Akifela said to them as he got there, he smiled as he spoke because he was happy to be speaking and trading in the village. He had left the bear meters away from the village tied to a tree he had tagged. He however took with him the head of the bear which he cut off as proof of his kill. “I slayed it myself, I left it back in the woods however this is th….” He continued but was interrupted by a slap on his neck from behind which put him into momentary reset. He staggered forward, dazed and confused, the boys chattered and laughed, they surrounded him and his initial attacker collected the bag with him in which he kept the head of the bear.

As he unveiled the head, the boys yelled in awe. “Quite impressive boy, where did you get it?” one of the other boys asked as he collected the head to view it properly.

“I killed it, by myself” Fela responded, unaware of why they were treating him as though he stole a bear. “Give it back!” Fela raised his voice as he made to take the head back from the boy but was pushed back by another boy. The boy who slapped him initially came back from behind him again and kicked him on the knee, forcing Fela to fall onto his knees.

 

 

 

************

 

 

Yuri observed from meters away as the boys busied themselves with another poor victim. He moved towards them, hoping to pass them unnoticed. As he got closer, he saw a bear head in the hands of one of the boys. “Wow, must be a night to remember” Yuri thought to himself seeing as the boys even got a bear head. Then he saw a boy amongst them kneeling in their mist. He stopped to watch, the boy was been bullied and it seemed like the bear’s head was his too. But there was nothing he could do, these boys always had their way around this part of town. He walked on quietly until he heard his name called out loud.

“Yuri! Hey everyone, that’s Yuri over there, the loser’s sister!” the little boy shouted. Yuri looked at him, disgusted, the boy wasn’t even thirteen years old yet he taught to himself. His name was Konano. He was one of the sons of the wealthiest fur traders in the village. His brother was Gonanu, Orogi’s best friend. The boys shifted their attention to Yuri, blocking his path. Yuri walked towards the boy on his knees, he drew him up and held him by the hand. He turned to Gonanu, who he felt was next in command after Orogi.

“We don’t want any trouble, just let us go and continue your celebration.” Yuri said calmly, hoping Gonanu would be reasonable. A slap on the back of his head from behind sent Yuri to the floor in front of Gonanu. The whole boys roared, they immediately formed a circle with Yuri, and the boy in it and their attacker Quinn. Quinn hated Yuri a lot, he disliked hearing him speak or smile. He had always wanted to hit Yuri and today seemed like his best chance. He was sure he could beat Yuri because he was slightly bigger than Yuri and Yuri was known to be a poor fighter.

Yuri got up, his eyes had turned red from the brownish black they were before. He looked at Quinn, a strong desire to kill him arose from inside him, his body temperature increased greatly. Quinn came at him, from in front this time, Fela moved into the crowd that formed the circle, he wanted to just observe. This was his first day in the village and he got to witness a fight among two big boys. Yuri charged at Quinn with so much rage inside him.

As they approached each other, Yuri slowed down to charge a punch but he is surprised by Quinn who unveils a knife from his left hand and jumped up with it aimed at Yuri’s neck…

 

 

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AKIFELA.

CHAPTER 3.

A fictional story by Folusho…

Yuri walked out of the hut. He moved along the street filled with mostly market people, thugs and homeless children. The biggest and only market in the village was located close to the Meshkar’s court. The streets were wide and always crowded with different kinds of people. That was the environment Yuri grew up within.

He walked down the street, to nowhere in particular, his mind divided into two, one part monitoring the road and everyone around him, out of experience because he knew a lot of sneaky little thieves operated in the market. The other part of his mind was thinking about what happened to his sister. He saw the chief minister’s smirk after his sister screamed for help in the arena. The chief minister was Orogi’s Uncle, another one of the Meshkar’s cousins. He intended to guide Orogi to become Meshkar even if it killed Aira. He acted as a mother for his nephew ever since his sister’s exile. Yuri wondered how Orogi was able to develop and modify his ability in such manner. ‘Was it the chief?’ he taught. As he continued he spotted a group of Orogi’s friends blocking the road ahead as he walked on. They seemed to be celebrating their leader’s victory by disturbing the passersby and causing trouble as usual. He took an immediate left turn into an alley leading to the next road in order to avoid them.

‘’Oh woooow! Look who showed up guys” A familiar voice rejoiced from inside alley. Yuri stopped, not too surprised he was bumping into her today. It was a battle day, which meant that there would be many people in the market area because of the people coming to the arena. And thieves loved crowded places because it made it easy to steal. He closed his eyes and signed.

The alley was dark and it looked like it was blocked at the end, but Yuri knew better, that was just an illusion casted by one of them to scare random people from coming in. The group was made of homeless boys and girls who helped each other for survival. They were all gathered by a girl named Shilla. Some of them had abilities and the dark shadow casted over the alley was done by one of the little girls in the group. Shilla was the leader of the group. She was short, black haired, wild and very sharp. Her parents died when she was very young and so she had roamed around the market road begging and stealing for food alone since then. Yuri met her when they were both young and they became friends, he had seen her crying alone at a corner one sunny day when he came out to play, he felt pity for her and brought her food and toys from his home. They found a new playing partner since then and they got really close.

“My love” she called him passionately as she moved towards him in her usual catwalk. Three of her boys had surrounded Yuri already blocking the exit of the alley, they were armed with knives and sickles awaiting her orders. The others continued with their dinner in the corner, uninterested in the situation, they dealt with what looked like was once a huge turkey while it was still boiling.

“What is it again?” Yuri said rolling his eyes. He seemed to feel very comfortable regardless of the tension around, he stood firm and folded his arms.

One of her boys, the tallest of them made as if to attack as he heard Yuri but she touched him on the shoulder signifying him not to attack yet. “What’s with the attitude Rii?” she said pouting like a little girl. “You still owe us from last time, where’s our money?” she said holding her waist standing in front of him. She liked acting like a little girl, no matter how serious the matter was, she had a poker face worn every time. However those who knew her well knew what she was capable of.

“Wait what money!” Yuri started, “I told you to find, and bring me a book, and you failed! And you still expect me to pay you, for what huh?” Yuri yelled at her angrily then stormed off, back the same way he came towards the main street. He pushed the two people standing on his path aside and left.

Shilla turned around back, to continue attending to the kids eating the turkey.

“So we just let him go?” the tall boy asked angrily, his hands vibrating. “Like that?”

“I think we need to teach him a lesson, so he knows who his messing with.” The third boy said, also feeling disappointed that Yuri went away with that.

Shilla turned back to them and said “just for today guys, I don’t want to be too brutal, his sister just lost her battle for like the first time today, his probably finding that hard to deal with. Let’s give him a break today guys”

“Since when did we start to care about his sister, or anything that doesn’t have to do with our money” the tall boy challenged her. He was one of the gifted kids in her circle, he could electrocute anyone in direct contact with his palms. His name was Soope. He was known for his anger issues. He wasn’t happy that a girl was his leader and so always challenged Shilla and hated her even though she once saved him.

“Drop it and focus on why we’re here” Shilla said, seriously now.

“I hate it, I hate it when you act like that, you act like you care about us but you honestly don’t, at least not as much as you obviously care about him.” Soope rambled on loud enough to be heard. “Sadly he forgets you exist the moment you are not in his sight because of how cheap you act.”

Shilla stopped, angry now she smiled and said to him “Say anything about it again and ill cut off your tongue.” At this point, most of the kids gathered around them to watch.

Soope charged his palms electrically, electrical sparks were visible around it. He felt he was ready for a fight now, he held his knife tightly and mumbled under his voice “cheap…”

“Shilla charged at his immediately, without any weapon. He made a defensive stance, using his electrical palms and his knife as a shield. As she got to where he stood, her thinking became extremely fast, so fast it was as if she froze time. She observed his stance and saw many openings she could attack from. She pushed his hand holding his knife to his knee and avoided his attack as he tried to grab her with his electrical hands, the knife drove into his knee and he shouted. She kicked him at the chest and he fell on the ground. She pulled out the knife from his knee and blood gushed out from the wound. Soope groaned turning around on the floor touching his knee, Shilla kicked his face like it was a ball on the ground and he stopped turning.

He lied on the floor motionless, still breathing heavily. Shilla walked around him, smiling. She intended to make him an example for all of them. “This is what happens to you when I say something, and you don’t obey! Am going to cut your tongue off now, just as promised” she said and smiled at him. She grabbed his face and forced his mouth opened. He brought his hands to electrocute her but as Shilla watched his hand come slowly, she slashed it with the knife. He screamed and as he threw his hands away. The second he screamed in pain from the cut, Shilla tucked her hands into his mouth and held his tongue, she gave him a light cut on his tongue but intentionally didn’t cut it off.

She got up, dropped his knife on him, cleaned his saliva from her hand with his cloth and said “I still like your voice.”

 

To be continued….

 

 

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AKIFELA.

Chapter 2

A fictional tale by Folusho…

The sound of crows filled the air.

How terrible it sounded to a happy person.

They lurk around hoping you have something to spare.

Enclosed in every carcass, is a tragic lesson.

The boy dragged his two wolves by means of a rope over his shoulder. The blood of the dead wolves made a trail as he moved with a slight limp. His wound had almost healed up already. This was one thing about him that made him fearless whenever he was fighting anything. He didn’t care about getting hurt, all he cared about was killing his enemy. Even his twin sister admired him for that. He was glad to be taking a prize home after his hunt. He had been hunting since he was five with his twin sister and this was his most significant kill. His sister however had been hunting tigers since she was fourteen. She was always better at everything. She was more courageous, faster, smarter and beautiful. He stopped for a while to check his wound, he dropped his rope and removed the piece of cloth around his lap. The wound had stopped bleeding and didn’t need the cloth anymore. He took his rope again and moved on. He thought about his sister, how she would react when she found out he killed two wolves for dinner. He smiled to himself. His sister was obsessed with killing tigers though. She said their fur was worth a lot in the nearby village.

AKIFELA loved the nearby village. The way of life of the people there intrigued him. He had always wanted to go there but his grandmother had always prevented him. His sister was the only one allowed to go there to trade the things they owned, and buy the things they needed. This two wolves were probably his ticket, while his sister was away. He could use this wolves as an excuse to go into the village, trade their fur and look around before going back home. Though, he knew his sister was already in the village and his grandmother would be against it, he didn’t care. He was determined to go there anyway.

Meters away, a grizzly bear was following the trail of blood he was leaving. It had starved for days and had been feeding on insects for survival. The bear followed the blood trail anxiously salivating as it sensed that the blood was getting fresher. It spotted AKIFELA who kept on moving, unaware of what was behind him. It broke into a run towards him. The cold wind blew past and AKIFELA stopped for a while, tired and cold. As he stopped, his mind concentrated on his environment. He heard the sound of something coming from behind and he turned around immediately. He saw the brown bear covered with a little snow running towards him. His heart tripled its beating. He dropped the rope holding the wolves and moved backwards. He toke his bow and arrow and aimed at the bear. He shot his first arrow and it hit the bear on the shoulder. The bear roared and charged even faster than before. He picked another arrow and shot it aiming for its head. The arrow missed, but it hit the bear on its front leg. The bear was a few meters closer now, AKIFELA threw his bow away, his eyes turned yellow and he ran towards the coming bear with rage.

The crows sat on a nearby rock to spectate. The fight however ended as quickly as it began, even quicker. They turned their tiny heads to observe properly. Both parties seemed to be dead. That meant excess food for the crows during this harsh season. One of the crows volunteered to examine the bodies. The huge creature lied on the ground with his stomach on the floor and the boy lied on the opposite direction with his stomach faced up. He was holding his sides which he had sustained a deep injury.

AKIFELA got up. He saw the bear, lying dead with two crows on it. ”I killed it!” he exclaimed. He had jumped at the shoulder of the bear as both of them clashed. The bear had stood on both legs, roared and stroke him at his sides with its sharp claws. He had pulled out his arrow from the bears shoulder. The beast stood on all fours again, and bit him with its jaws by his side. He thrusts the arrow into the back of the bear’s head. It roared loudly and fell on the ground with him falling the opposite way.

He lied on the ground laughing at the whole situation. His bravery, quickness and brain had just earned him a bear. The same qualities he admired his sister for. He taught of how he was going to pull the bear with the wolves back home. Though home wasn’t far anymore, he waited for his injury to heal. The sun moved down as if it was no longer interested in what was going on this side of the world. The crows were feasting off one of the wolves, the one that was badly stabbed. He got up, his side was not completely healed though but the wound had covered up and was less painful now. He scared the crows away, loosened the rope from the legs of both wolves and tied the bear alone. He pulled the heavy bear along and headed home.

The crows gathered around both carcasses, as the little hunter boy dragged off his burden just before the night fell leaving behind, a feast for crows.

*****************

YURII dragged his sister out of the arena as the crowd cheered for their new Champion. A good number of the crowd expressed their discontempt openly. Some of them had just lost all of thier money from betting on her to win. They screamed curses at her and threw things at her and her brother as he carried her out of the arena. She looked pale, filled with shock and fear, holding her throat protectively like she might lose it at any moment. OROGI had taken her by surprise with his new modification of his ability. She had planned to seriously hurt him this time so that he stops challenging her and learned to respect her but the exact opposite had happened. Her black hair had turned light brown after all her rolling on the floor coughing her throat out.

YURII carried his sister back to their small hut in the chief’s compound. The arena was large and round, about 500meters in diameter. It was caged round to shield the spectators from the warriors and a high table for some special spectators. It was also located behind the chief’s house.

YURII staggered into the hut with his sister in his arms shivering and gently settled her down on the mat. The hut was cool, round in shape and the wall was decorated with bones and feathers and art works made by their most famous village artist. There was only one mat in the hut, and a box beside it in which AIRA kept her things. AIRA looked around the small hut as she settled down, the smell of home brought comfort to her and assured her of safety. She taught of what could have happened to her out there and immediately made a conviction in her mind never to fight him again. She had never attempted to kill anyone before in her life, only animals. For the first time in her life she realized what the DEATH THUG would feel like, even worse, she wasn’t sure anymore if she could win it.

“You lost sister!” YURII’s voice fired through her mind as he started pacing around the room. “Few battles away from the DEATH-THUG itself and you lose to that chubby maniac!” he stopped and faced her as he shouted and pointed in the direction of arena.

“Did you see what he did to me out there?” AIRA squeaked back, upset that her one and only little brother showed no concern about her well-being after something like that happened, ”He almost killed me!!”

“I don’t care! The point is you LOST!” he snapped. He continued moving about now speaking to himself with his arms floating about expressing how greatly doomed they were. “The chiefs would have their doubts doubled now.” he said to himself loud enough to be heard. ” They’ll say you’re not good enough, they’ll say we can’t have a MESHKARI (female ruler)”

“Get out.” she said gently waving her hands towards the door controlling the wind to blow the door wide open.

“What?” said YURII as he stopped and turned in her direction.

“I said Get out!!” she screamed at him with the little energy she had left in her precious throat. YURII walked out calmly and left the door opened. She shut the door herself with her abilities and relaxed. She felt bad about her brother’s coldness towards her. She and YURII had been together alone in the world since she was 10 and he was 7. Their Father was the chief and his wife was his cousin. Their father took a second wife, a peasant girl from the street, and after a year, AIRA was born. His first wife however later gave birth to OROGI a few months after AIRA was born. Both women grew hostile towards each other as time passed on and eventually their mother was poisoned by Orogi’s mother and she died. As punishment, she was banished from the village and was secretly killed on the orders of the chief. Thus all the chief’s children grew up together without a mother.

All three of them were born with special abilities. AIRA had control of the wind and her brother YURII had a ‘CURSE’, it basically allowed him to create flames as large as a touch flame with all his energy concentrated for hours. Their Step-brother OROGI could manipulate his size to his wish. He always bragged that he could grow as large as a mountain.

However, their father, the current chief was very old and sick, and according to tradition, a new chief must be appointed from his household. All contestants must battle with their lives at stake and the winner would become the new chief of the village. AIRA was the strongest amongst her siblings. She and her brother had suffered in the hands of OROGI’s family while they were little. They had no one in the world but themselves and the chief- who had no time for them at all. Hence as a child, she resolved to become the future ruler of the village so as to be strong enough to protect her brother and defeat all her enemies.

She rested her head on the mat, her throat felt better now, she closed her eyes slowly and slept off.

Instagram- @thelifeandtimesofsherifddin

AKIFELA.

A fictional story by Folusho…

Chapter 1

The sky was clear.

Silence filled the cold misty air.

The land was dry and covered with snow. The drought had scared all creatures away, even grasses and flowers were shy to grow.

The fate of a little hunter boy was about to be decided. He stood at alert. His yellow coloured eyes focused on his enemy. The hair on his skin was standing. He gripped his stealth knife strongly. His heart was beating quickly, he was determined to protect his kill to the end. His opponents on the other hand were desperate. A small pack of four wolves. They all looked really thin. So thin their ribs were visible. The alpha looked better than the rest nevertheless. The Pack was obviously starving and this little hunter boy’s kill seemed like their big break. All they had to do was scare him off. Although the dead deer was not enough to satisfy all four of them, it would atleast give them enough strength to hustle later. The wolves moved closer to the boy with the alpha in front growling, Hoping to scare him off easily. The alpha bent down, with his head almost touching the ground, he was growling and moving slowly. The boy knew what it was doing. A long time ago he had leant from his sister that when they assume this posture, they are about to target the throat. So the boy moved forward a bit, and started moving to the left and to the right, his eyes on his enemy and on his kill as well.

The tension in the air was broken. The wolves attacked the boy together. The alpha jumped at his throat and the boy fell. He managed to keep the alpha’s jaws from his throat but the Wolf was on him. His knife was on the floor beside him but he couldn’t get it because he was holding the wolf’s jaws. One of the other wolves bites him on the lap and he shouts in agony. The other two remaining wolves went for his kill. They dragged it quickly away struggling with one another. He looked at his kill, he had been really happy when he saw the deer feeding on the scanty short grasses that now covered the plains. He had searched relentlessly for hours before finding it. He didn’t let his arrow miss so as not to loss it. It was also the hope of food for him and his old grandmother. He remembered his grandmother’s words – ”the weak lives for the benefit of the strong. That is the way of the world. Always be stronger so that you do not perish in favour of your enemies” He shouted as he summoned all his energy and pushed the alpha off. He grabbed his knife quickly and as the alpha came back to bite his arm he strikes it’s neck with his knife.

Blood gushes out of its neck and it falls down on the ground. The boy withdraws his knife, he kicks the other wolf at his leg with his other leg and gets on his knees. The wolf pulls back, the boy squats, then jumps on the wolf with the knife in his hands. He stabs the wolf at any point his hands can touch as the animal struggles jerking it’s legs.

The wolf stops moving but the boy keeps thrusting his blade through it shouting ‘arrrgh’ with each thrust. Covered with blood, sweat and snow, he finally stops. Breathing heavily and muttering to himself ”I am the stronger!! I am the stronger!!” he looks around to be sure the fight was over. He then sits down to rest, satisfied at the results. It seemed like he had just traded one deer for two wolves though he wondered if it was worth it because the deer he lost was fat but the wolves he gained were skinny. His leg was bleeding from the Wolf-bite but ties it with his a piece he tore from his cloth and struggles up. He ties the two wolves together by their legs and drags them along as he limps on back to his grandmother’s hut.

****************

The crowd gathered around the arena to watch the two warriors battle each other. AIRA, the crowds favourite was standing out boldly. She had just defeated a giant warrior soldier and the crowd was cheering her name. Her black wavy hair was spread out at her back with two strands in front of her face locked in a dread decorated with colorful threads and beads and her hands on her waist. She was known as the Wind goddess. OROGI, a fat tall boy with short hair walked into the arena with his usual smirk holding his club in his hands. He was a warrior known for his brutality. He has faced AIRA so many times but has always lost, yet he is relentless. They both are famous for having much power and abilities. They are also the oldest children of the MESHKAR. The MESHKAR is the ruler of the Tribe. Since according to tradition, the strongest and oldest child of the former Meshkar becomes the new Meshkar, this meant that they were not just battling for the entertainment of the spectators, they were also battling for the tittle. As a result many villagers always came to watch their duels. Even the elders of the village came to watch so as to know who thier next ruler would be.

“You’re late! What happened, we’re you scared?” AIRA said chuckling

“Oh apologies, I wanted my breakfast to digest so as to reduce chances of vomiting it when I saw your ugly face. Sadly, it was a waste since I still feel like throwing up.” OROGI said touching his stomach with his smile momentarily disappearing before reappearing again and this time wider.

“I am going to crush your bones!” she said cracking her knuckles.

His fat huge frame started to increase greatly. In seconds, he was twice his original size.

AIRA spread her hands out and gathered wind in front of her and pushed it with a lot of force. The wind swept past her towards OROGI. “You forgotten what happened to you last time right. I’ll make this one stick into your block head.” she said.

OROGI’s size increased greatly again till he was ten times his size. His giant-self ran towards AIRA, the wind caused him to slow down. He raised his club to hit her with it.

She jumped off to dodge the attack. The crowd cheered. She clapped her hands together as if to pray and concentrated her power in making the wind around her grow greatly till it became a tornado. OROGI strikes the tornado with his club with so much power but it acted like a shield and repelled the attack. It got bigger and surrounded him making him feel helpless as he couldn’t breathe much, AIRA jumped up a kicked him with both feet in the chest and he fell causing a huge smash. The crowd roared. Supporters of AIRA cheered shouting ‘Finish him! Finish him!’ He returned his body back to his normal size, caught his breath, and got up slowly dusting his garment with a smile on his face. AIRA allowed him to get back up determined to beat him till he gave up and begged for forgiveness.

He came dashing at her again. He threw his club at her and grew a bit bigger enabling him to be faster. AIRA jogged towards him, dodged his club and increased her pace. They clashed with strong fists, and instinctively began a physical combat. ORIGI threw a punch with his left hand but AIRA dodged it. He brought it back swiftly to hit her but she blocked it with her right. The crowd bartered on. SUDDENLY, OROGI brought his two fists on AIRA. She blocked it with one arm, and was about to grab him with the other WHEN….

He disappeared. She couldn’t see him. She immediately turned around but he wasn’t behind her. The crowd was surprised too. AT THAT MOMENT, AIRA began to feel something in her throat, she held it. IT grew bigger and bigger and she looked like she had goiter. THE CROWD was silent. She croaked and struggled, sweat dripped down from her face as she fell, she realized what was going on. The crowd murmured in confusion as to why one of the opponents disappeared and why the remaining one was groaning on the ground with her throat really swollen. She finally gave up and raised her hands up as a sign that she gave up. She was sweating and trying to vomit the ‘THING’ in her throat. The bell rang and the crowd murmured in disbelief. AIRA finally vomited, and the ‘THING’ in her throat turned out to be OROGI! He had reduced his size to a size drastically small and had found his way into AIRA’s mouth. Then when he was at her throat he magnified himself to a size that could terrorize her throat. He returned to his normal size now, a proud grin on his face. His friends in the crowd cheered for him and he waved his hands at them.

He picked up his club and said to AIRA laughing “Next time, I’ll impregnate you instead……………. with me!”

BMG vs. RBL: Match preview

Recovering from their 2-0 loss to Eintracht Frankfurt, 7^th place Borussia Monchengladbach will entertain RB Leipzig on the Saturday the 3^rd of February. The previous encounter resulted in a 2-2 draw with goals from Timo Werner and, Jean-Kevin Augustin for Leipzig. Thorgan Hazard and Lars Stindl were the goal scorers for BMG.

Regularly, BMG line-up in a 4-4-2 but last time out at Walstadion, they lined up in a 3-4-3 system. They retained their aggressive frontline pressing – which was a common pattern in their 4-4-2 system – but on several occasions it was escaped. When this press was escaped, they switched to a deep block that relied on the forward and midfield players to aggressively block the passing lanes to opposition players located in central areas of the pitch. This was done with the aim of moving the ball out wide to the flanks, there, the press would be activated and the ball would be won back. On attack they didn’t seem to pose any threats with Thorgan Hazard – the furthest player upfront – regularly dropping deep to link play and initiate attacks. The BMG right flank was noticeably weak with Patrick Herrmann. To further emphasize the weakness of that side, the location of the assist for the first goal came from that side of the pitch with Herrman involved. This is something Leipzig would look to exploit if given the chance.

Leipzig come into this match at the back of their 1-1 draw with hamburger SV. With Kaby Keita on the bench, Kevin Kampl was the preferred choice to partner Diego Demme in central midfield with Konrad Laimer starting at Right back. There was no clear winner in the midfield battle with both sides exchanging possession after certain intervals. An early goal from Bruma in the sixth minute was cancelled out just before the hour mark through a goal from Fillip Kostic. This confined Leipzig to a run of one win in their past five games resulting to them sitting 5^th on the standings.

BMG on the other hand lost their previous match by a two goals to nil and hence recorded three losses in their past 5 games conceding 5 goals in the process.

 

Match Information

Date: Saturday 3^rd February 2018

Kickoff:  18:30 (WAT)

Venue: Borussia Park

 

Previous meetings:

Leipzig 2-2 BMG | BMG 1-2 Leipzig | Leipzig 1-1 BMG

 

Key man: Thorgan Hazard

 

Being BMG’s top scorer with seven goals this season, Thorgan Hazard is the main man for BMG. The 24-year old Belgian is often used as the focal point and primary outlet for attacks. Often seen dropping deep to operate between the lines. This particular kind of movement/positioning is very dangerous when deployed against a 4-4-2 as he has the ability to drop deep between the lines and hence pull players out of position. He has the technicality and instinct to pose a valuable threat.

 

 

Recent form: 

Leipzig: D|L|W|L|D

BMG: L|W|L|W|L

 

Team News

RB Leipzig;

Emil Forsberg (strained abdominal muscle) | Marcel Halstenberg (cruciate ligament rupture) | Naby Keita (suspended) |Stefan Ilsanker (suspended).

 

BMG;

Tobais Strobl (cruciate ligament rupture) | Laszlo Bennes (metatarsal fracture) | Ibrahima Traore (muscle fibre) | Mamadou Doucoure (torn muscle bundle) | Fabian Johnson (back trouble) | Raul Bobadilla (osteitis pubis) | Raffael (cals sclerosis) | Yann Sommer (minor wound) – doubt | Oscar Wendt (minor wound) – doubt | Ba-Muaka Simakala – (suspended).

 

Predicted scorline

BMG 1-3 RB Leipzig.

Why do I write?

I started this blog solely for one reason; because I was told to. I was browsing through my timeline on twitter and saw a re-tweet requesting for interested writers, before I get to how I managed to pull off a rookie role at a website let me take you a few weeks back.

I was on WhatsApp and my cousin who recently just graduated messaged me on the platform. We exchanged the customary greetings (same old routine everybody does) one thing led to another and he asked me what I plan to do while I was still on the holidays, I simply said, “nothing”. He then told me I should try and find something to do that I like and me, being in my most reluctant form, was unwilling to agree with his suggestion. That was until he asked me what I derive joy from, those who know me know it is football, he said I should try and get a job in a football platform that doesn’t involve betting. I jokingly agreed with him as if was a good idea knowing fully well that no one would want to hire a 17 year old boy with zero experience and full hatred for writing essays, and in addition, how many people actually read about football asides the football nerds and the likes? They rather just watch it. I later found out people actually do read football articles (lucky me). So yeah, I was pretty convinced he was saying a whole load of crap. Now, that all changed on that faithful day on twitter.

As I said earlier I was scrolling through twitter and saw the retweet and I messaged the owner of the tweet, we went through a series of questions and then the question came; “how experienced are you in writing?  I was dumbstruck, what was I expecting to say? Several thought went through my mind, should I just leave it on read? Do I lie? Finally I went for the honest approach and replied; “I have zero experience in writing, but I was merely a 17 year old boy who had huge passion for football and was willing to learn. I had to wait two agonizingly long minutes for a response, and when I thought of it, I was actually in a low risk situation. I wasn’t going to die, neither would it be the end of the world if I didn’t get the post, and at the same time I would be overjoyed if I managed to land it. The reply finally came in and read thus; “I’m liking the fact that you’re able to identify issues and I’d like to add you to the team, but I have a standard in which I want my work to meet. Would you be willing to – over the next month or two – do some practice work for own benefit, where you watch past broadcasts of games, enhance your knowledge on individual players and write the occasional match preview and/or report? These won’t be uploaded to the site, but it will grant you more experience.” I was overjoyed, although I didn’t show it. I quickly went to message my cousin and my sister, the former wasn’t online, but I still dropped a message there so he would get it immediately he came online. So there I was dumb-founded at what just happened I still could not believe I managed to pull it off. Quickly, I started thinking about what to write, I brainstormed a bit and finally arrived at a conclusion of writing a player profile based on “Jean-Kevin Augustin” (previous post).

So then after my first article, I asked myself, “how far can I go with this?” and after contemplation I ultimately decided I would continue, I mean what could possibly go wrong? But although this were just mere shallow thoughts for I had already started writing short quotes on an Instagram page and I wasn’t really taking things serious back then, but through the coming days I had been thinking over again and realized this thing I’m doing could serve as a platform for  future opportunities in this field. So yeah lets imagine a scenario whereby you graduate from the university and and you happen to be unlucky enough to not gain an immediate job acceptance. What do you plan on doing in the meantime asides wasting away in your parents’ house? That typical example goes to show you education is not the only path to success, you must be on a different level of delusion if you think education is the only way forward (Although that is not to say if you have zero backup plans and concentrate solely on education you can’t become the president of a nation). If I were in that position I would have a go-to option which is straight up writing at least I can’t be completely useless as I could find a way to make money off of writing. So about a year ago, back when I hadn’t fully resumed my studies yet, I used to stay with my aunt and she hosted an “end of the year party” where she invited a bunch of family members I’d never met and funny enough, the guy serving drinks had a PhD in visual arts. Completely blew my mind, I mean literally it sent me into deep thoughts. I’m pretty sure if he had something else to do he’d pick that over serving drinks for a bunch old people at a party. You might also be wondering how I knew he had a PhD, well the host more or less announced it as a form of introduction.

Now up until this point this article begs the whole point of the article, “Why do I write?” simply put, I write to clear all these thoughts off my head, as an expression mechanism of how I feel – not that I’d even post that here –  and to express my passion. After I had written for The Red Bull Hub I hadn’t actually asked them if they pay so that crosses of the thoughts of wanting to make money, although I wouldn’t mind if I could make money off of it.

If you managed to make it this far thank you for your time, if you just skipped to this part, I can’t even blame you. This is about more than a thousand words composed by a loner boy who found the courage to write something up at his own will. But on the other hand if somehow this inspired you to start writing or pick up a life skill, then good luck on your journey because that, just like every other thing in this world, is not easy.

 

Yours truly,

Sherifddin.

 

 

 

 

Jean-Kevin Augustin

Name: Jean-Kevin Augustin

Date of birth (age): 16th of June 1997 (20 years old).

Place of birth: Paris, France.

Club: Red Bull Leipzig.

Position: Striker, Right midfield.

Nationality: France.

Height: 1.77m.

Strengths: Explosive pace, upper body strength, clinical finisher.

Weaknesses: Predictability, especially playing out wide.

 

Jean-Kevin Augustin is one of France’s hot prospects. Graduating through PSG’s youth system, he made his debut in April 2015, but had since found difficulty in gaining first team minutes making a combined total of 190 minutes in 2016 under coach Unai Emery. Despite his lack of domestic appearances, it had no effect on his performances for France’s U/19s scoring 12 goals over 13 caps including being the top scorer at the U/19 Euro championships with six goals equaling the tally set previously by Alvaro Morata. This later won him the tournament’s best player and top scorer award. All these facilitated his call-up to the U/21 setup where he continued his scoring form with 4 goals in 7 appearances.

During the summer of 2017, Augustin earned himself a move to RB Leipzig in a deal worth 13 million Euros signing a five year contract. “I’m really pleased to be a Leipzig player, I want to help the team in attack with my flexibility.” said Augustin. He made his debut replacing Konrad Laimer (another player from the Red Bull project coming in from Salzburg in the summer) in Leipzig’s 2-0 loss to Schalke.  So far Augustin has made 12 first team appearances till date scoring 3 times one of those being a match-winning penalty away at Dortmund becoming the first team to beat Dortmund at the Signal Iduna Park since April 2015. Three days later he scored his first champions league goal in a 3-2 home win against Porto making it RBL’s first ever Champions League win in the history of the club. Although he could have made more appearances but this was interrupted by some of minor injuries that has caused him to miss a couple of games for his team. He was nominated that year for France’s best U/23 player which was later won by PSG’s Kylian Mbappe.

Augustin is a typical young French forward, possessing pace, strength and skill to beat his man, always ready to lash on to a through ball for a chance on goal. For those who are familiar with Football Manager, he is the kind of player you would call, “An Advanced Forward”. In addition to that he’s also good at playing with his back to goal and is good at dealing with aerial balls. Capable of leading the line alone, he can also function in a 2-man attack as he has shown during his time with the French U/21 team often teaming up with Celtic’s Moussa Dembele. The duo have been destructive together scoring 11 goals between themselves. Augustin is also adept at playing out wide as a winger preferably on the right hand side as he very often chooses to beat his man with pace rather than using trickery to dazzle opponents. But this is where his weakness lies as he can be very predictable as when he keeps doing the same routine over and over again, his opponents will grow into and contain him. But with time he is sure to develop into Europe’s finest and it won’t be long before the big boys of European football come calling, and judging from what we have being seeing from him, he is likely to fetch a large sum.