Rise of a Football God

FWEEEE!

From the very first minute of this game, Tottenham set a marker with their outstanding Korean forward as the star. Heung Min Son started the first half brightly, torching the Fulham defense with some impressive runs and plays.

And just behind him, the English midfielder, James Maddison also imposed his authority as he orchestrated play for Tottenham.

With these 2 players as the core of the team, Tottenham started brightly, playing high-offensive football under their coach, Ange Postecoglou.

Originally, in moments like this in games of this caliber, Sam would have started running everywhere across the forward line already, desperate to assert his authority over the game and make his team dominant.

But today though, Sam did not run everywhere.

Rather, he focused on making the space around the attacking midfield area where he was positioned impenetrable to the Tottenham buildup.

Focusing on only this, Sam noticed one thing. 'It's so much easier'.

And it bore fruit.

No meaningful Tottenham attack went through the middle as shutting down his area of the pitch with his relentless press, Sam played as a defensive midfielder in an attacking midfield position, winning tackles and intercepting passes.

For the first few minutes of this first half, it was not vintage Fulham yet but this team became more solid than ever before.

With Sam being such an example in the middle of the pitch, the other Fulham players were challenged as motivated, they all elevated their game.

All over the pitch, the Fulham players who were sleeping previously were aroused and once all of them became awake, the game became locked.

It became a cagey affair as both teams could not create any meaningful attack. And as the game finally settled, becoming tight and cagey like this, Sam finally thrived in the deadlock.

With his teammates now performing their jobs close to perfection, Sam got more touches of the ball and more time with it too.

And one rule that premier league clubs were learning recently was that, never allow Sam too much time on the ball.

Sam went berserk!n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

For the first 30 minutes of this first half, he stayed doing his job to perfection and now once his teammates upped their game, Sam took it a step higher.

Pass after pass, dribble after dribble, he made fans of the black, white, and red persuasion jump up on their feet regularly as gasps constantly erupted around this stadium.

Due to his performance, even the commentator seemed to become a poet as he described his gameplay with different superlatives.

As Sam played, doing one thing after the other, he realized something.

His eyes widened. 'I'm enjoying myself!'

With his teammates now performing their jobs, he got to do even more, thoroughly enjoying himself as he tortured the Tottenham defense.

He was playing the neatest and most aesthetically beautiful game of his life.

The only reason why he didn't create a goal yet was because of Dragusin and Christian Romero's valiant defensive performance at the heart of the Tottenham defense, but even this did not last forever.

In the 42nd minute, the deadlock was finally broken as after receiving the ball close to the Tottenham 18-yard box, Sam held the ball, shrugging off a few challenges before threading a needle pass through the Tottenham defense immediately after Muniz started his run.

The Tottenham defense was rooted to the spot, only reacting after the striker already beat the offside trap and went behind them.

One-on-one with the Tottenham goalkeeper, Vicario, Muniz did not miss his mark, calmly rolling the ball into the bottom left corner.

"GOALLLL…!" Craven Cottage exploded.

"What a goal! What a pass!"

"As accurate and perfectly timed as a shot from a medieval archer's bow! Maybe even Leonidas' bow himself!"

"What a performance!"

"Neat and tidy as you would like".

"Sam has truly taken the premier league like a storm, what a player!"

Both teams went to half-time with Fulham leading 1-0.

During half-time, Marco Silva did not hold back this time, heaping praise on his star midfielder's performance and that was the last cherry to unlock Sam.

You thought his performance in the first half was already great?

Watch out for the second half.

In the second half, Sam still somehow managed to level up his game even more, playing like a seasoned maestro on the pitch as he tortured Tottenham.

If you didn't know him before now, you would never believe that this was just an 18-year-old boy playing against men, husbands, fathers, and veterans.

Just 4 minutes after the restart, Sam sent a looped ball over the Tottenham defense for Alex Iwobi to run into, cutting this defense open again.

The Nigerian International took the ball in his strides, charging towards goal as he held on to possession having been stopped by the Tottenham right back.

As Alex Iwobi bid his time, waiting, Lukic finally arrived at the Tottenham 18-yard box with his late run and immediately, Alex threaded the ball to him.

The defensive midfielder did not hesitate, hitting the ball first time as it floated past Vicario's outstretched arms into the top left corner of the post.

"GOALLLL…!" The Fulham fans got more reason to celebrate.

Sam didn't get another assist, but it was a beautiful pre-assist.

Just 12 minutes after that 2nd goal though, Fulham rounded an incredible performance off with a 3rd goal at the 61st minute of this game.

And again, it was Sam.

Receiving the ball in the Tottenham 18-yard box, as the aggressive Argentine defender, Romero charged towards him, Sam flicked the ball first-time with the heel of his left boot towards empty space behind the Tottenham defense.

Empty space that Muniz charged into and nailed the Tottenham defeat, tapping into the net to score Fulham's 3rd goal of the game.

In the 70th minute, Sam was subbed out of the game but he already did more than enough as he received a standing ovation from the Fulham fans.

A frustrated Tottenham team could not mount a comeback in his absence.

The game ended 3-0 in Fulham's favor and Sam won the man of the match award after his impressive display capped off by his 2 assists.

Fulham took all 3 points from Tottenham.