After battling our way through the first 2 rounds of the Americas tournament, we will face Argentina in the semifinal. The winner will qualify for the Worlds next season, and the loser will be forced into repechage. With everything on the line, I decided to call in reinforcements. I got flights to Canada for our former managers brian, Edju, wozz, and Coco to have a meeting of the minds to come up with a strategy to defeat the Argentinians.
I had a feeling this little think tank wasn’t going to go as planned when Edju walked in and said, “Eff you all.” Brian was wearing all 11 of his NBBA and Cup Championship rings, two of them on a middle finger, which he made sure to show us whenever we said anything he didn’t like. I wound up refereeing an arm-wrestling match between Coco and wozz to decide who could jump higher, Ramos or Villapadierna. Edju started trying to talk me into calling up Dirk Trujillo, and brian watched TV clips from Season 5, wiping away his tears with 100 dollar bills.
Discouraged, I wandered the streets of Toronto late at night heading back to my hotel room at the Four Seasons. I put on my Snuggie and fell asleep on the couch watching Empire Strikes Back.
I woke up at 5am the next morning because Jairo burst into my room and dumped a bucket of Gatorade on me. Apparently he didn’t know that you only do that after you win a big game…he’s still learning the culture. Drenched, depressed, and smelling like Tropical Mango, I drove to the Air Canada Center. I looked over my gameplan on Argentina one last time in the parking lot, and I felt that my hope was fading.
Since practice wasn’t scheduled for a few hours, I walked into the arena at 6am expecting no one to be there. To my surprise the entire team was there! Edju was breaking down film with assistant coach Rambo, while Coco and brian ran drills. Wozz was working with mfork on analyzing some data, stuff that my mind couldn’t comprehend. My domestic scouting staff was present, oriole, korey, and panic129 worked on post moves with the bigs, while Sherlock and jfriske tried to talk to Velasco about not taking jumpers. Jelme flew in from Argentina and gave words of encouragement to his former U21 players. BFiddy took notes for his HOF project; SM, Calum, FatCurry, czobo, and Harper cheered on their players from the stands, and Peluin got in my ear about the benefits of a blank lineup. Many more of my goons from the off-site were there as well.
When practice was over, Rambo gathered everyone together, glanced over some notes, and then started a speech. I leaned over to our PR-director SpF and said, “Please tell me this isn’t another speech from a football movie.” SpF smiled and replied, “Football movie? Don’t worry coach, I helped him write this one.”
The players quieted down and Rambo began:
“In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world, and you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. Perhaps it’s fate that today is the 4th of July,”
The players gave each other confused looks, but Rambo continued, “and you will once again be fighting for our freedom. Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution…but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live, to exist. And should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice we will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We are going to live on, we are going to survive. Today, we celebrate our independence day!!”
I don’t know if it was the words or the dramatic music from Rambo’s boom box, but we all burst into cheers. I turned and faced Joe Bronson and offered him a handshake, he stared at me for a moment and then hugged me instead, ending our long feud. Loud chants of USA rung out…and I knew there was still hope.
Please join me as we fight for Americas glory. Thank you everyone for your support this season!