Interns at FC Barcelona

Chapter 24: Interesting Conversations

As the players walked onto the pitch, the stadium roared. Barca were in their traditional red and blue kits while Villarreal wore their signature yellow kits. It was going to be a good game. Villarreal can give Barca quite a bit of trouble but like the rest of the people in the stadium, we had faith in them.

It was an interesting line-up, Valdes was still the keeper but there was no Villa, Xavi or Puyol. Puyol like Pique was still recovering from his injury. It was not a positive thing to have our two normal CBs out. I’m sure I’m going to have to find a plan for that. Well if we’re hired. Xavi and Villa must have been fatigued from playing international games which would explain why Alves was not playing either.

“No Xavi,” Elena said disappointed as she had her Xavi shirt on.

“Yeah and no Villa but at least Thiago is on the field,” I said.

“Yeah, you’re right!” Elena said.

“And Sanchez is on!” Demi said happily.

“Plus we still have Iniesta,” Nate said.

“And the best player, Messi,” Ricardo said.

“And how could we forget that Cescis on the field,” Elena said looking at me.

“Shouldn’t you rather say Fabregas? We better sit down, the match is going to start,” I said in response to Elena’s comment.

“No, what’s wrong with Cesc? It’s his name,” she said.

“Yeah but you generally call players by their surname,” I said.

“You’re right I forgot only you are on a first name basis with him,” Elena said. I was about to say something but she cut me off.

“Don’t even deny it, you know I’m right,” she said smugly. She was right, I couldn’t even deny it but it was not my fault. I didn’t plan it, everything just happened.

“We’re playing a 3-4-3. This is new,” Matt said as I looked to see he was right.

The lineup was: Valdes, Abidal, Mash, Busquets, Thiago, Iniesta, Cesc, Kieta Messi, Pedro and Sanchez.

“I’m not sure how I feel about this,” Nate said.

“Well it can go two ways,” I began to say, “Either we will dominate the midfield since we have 4 players there and have a very strong offense considering we still have 3 strikers or if Villarreal are very strong in attack then we can have issues with our defense. This would be because-,”

“Jade,” Demi said interrupting me.

“What?” I asked.

“Short version,” Elena said.

“It’s either really good or really bad,” I said.

“I see,” Demi said.

Afellay could be quite a crucial sub though but- And that’s when it hit me. Afellay. Where was he? It totally slipped my mind because I was so concerned about Cesc. Wait, what does that mean then? If I was so concerned about Cesc and Afellay just skipped my mind. This is Elena’s fault! Why does she put all these ideas in my head?

“Jade,” I heard Nate say.

“What’s up,” he said knowing something was on my mind.

“Afellay is not there,” I said concerned.

“He must have gotten an injury,” Matt said.

“Yeah otherwise he would have at least been on the bench,” Ricardo said.