A week later at dortmund city centre inside a small cafe two teenagers was seen walking together.
After walking into a private room, they took off their hoods and glasses. This couple was naturally marco and scarlet.
After sitting on the chair, they both scanned each other, not having met each other for a few weeks.
Scarlett was looking different than before. She seemed more confident and polished. Her experience at paris seems to have a positive influence on her temperament.
"You became more beautiful than last time. Paris looks good on you." Marco remarked.
"The same could be said for you. Bundesliga is making you more charismatic. Is this because of all those assists you made?"
"Assists, yeah. Definitely the assists."
They ordered coffee and began talking about their experiences the past few weeks. Scarlett has attended a major fashion show held in Paris. This will be a major breakthrough point in her budding career.
Her face lit up while sharing her experiences, describing the shows, the designers, the chaos, other models, the late nights and early mornings. She'd walked in two major shows, made connections with agencies, and gotten callbacks for future work.
In return Marco also shared his experiences of bundesliga, about team mates, training, match experience, pressure, rising expectations from fans, coaches and teammates.
"You know, I heard people discussing your performance even in paris. Most of them were from Germany, but still, you are becoming famous, really famous." Scarlett said.
He even spotted a hint of nervousness and some other emotions in her eyes.
He held her hands and asked: "What's on your mind?"
She shifted uncomfortably a few times and finally expressed her thoughts.
"It's nothing. It's just that after seeing you becoming successful, sometimes I feel like I am not doing enough. You have already made a name for yourself, while I am still struggling for the next chance."
Marco was taken aback.
"You can't be serious. Your performance is nowhere inadequate. You just performed in Paris fashion week last week."
"Sigh, I know. Its just...I don't know why I am feeling this way."
Marco let out a knowing smile. He knew that scarlett was a strong women. She never wanted to depend on others. Seeing him become famous, it was natural for her to feel a little competitive. But naturally he didnt expose her.
He waited for the right moment and quickly changed the subject. "So how much free time do you have this time?"
"I have a relatively free schedule for a few weeks, given that nothing unexpected pop up. What about you?"
"I have matches on saturdays and sundays, training most of the days. But I am available for dinner most of the days. Not to mention I have starting on most of the matches. I am sure coaches would give me some free days."
"That sounds perfect."
"yeah."
* * *
Days passed and it is 20th october, Matchday 8: vs VfB Stuttgart.
A tough away match against a strong side. Marco started as usual, but their defense was physical, organised and experienced. And they focused on marking him with multiple players.
Although he created many half chances, none of these resulted in the goal. But he contributed well in the defense instead.
Marco felt stifled and frustrated throughout the match. But he expected this day would come sooner or later.
Now that he is well known and his playing tendencies were clear, every opponent will study him thoroughly and will prepare for his every move.
It is the first major challenge in Marco's senior career, to overcome theis newbie wall, to prove that he is not a one time wonder. Only then will he pass the bare minimum qualification to compete for the title of a star.
The match ended scoreless. Both team excelled defensively, in other words it was a very boring match.
Now Marco's task is to adapt to these tough conditions. In professional football, being good means being targeted. It's either you adapt or suffer.
After the game many media outlets and fans didn't criticize him much. But underneath this silence there was a lingering doubt. Will he be added to the list of those wonderkids who faded from the field after a short brilliance? With these doubts came pressure.
But Marco was not much burdened by these doubts. He firmly believed in himself and his ability. Throughout his journey from an almost-released-acadamy player to now a Bundesliga starter, he never became complacent. He constantly faced challenges and doubts and overcame every one of these. And he just has to do it again.
After the match, after the long call with his parents and girlfriend, he started to review the match, and his performance. He realised that when facing multiple players at once his calm breaks and movements becomes rushed.
The reason behind this is that he mostly trained one on one dribbling and explicitly focused on dribbling multiple players at once.
Another observation is that by rushing plays, he lost focus on the overall pitch development. Simply, if more than one player came to mark him, it will also result in a team mate becoming free. In the last match, the player who became free was the right midfielder. If he can stay calm and play a long diagonal to him, the attack can continue from a more advantageous position. Although his vision was quite good among his peers, it still couldn't pick up this. But this can also be remedied by staying calm on the ball. So his next short term focus should be on staying calm when facing multiple defenders and improving tight control.
He also needed to be more unpredictable on the ball. After the review and conclusions, he discussed this observations with the system and optimised the training plan and approach. He is now ready for a new day and next training session, next match to overcome his limitations and rise stronger.
* * *
On matchday 9, Dortmund faced off against Arminia Bielefeld at home. In the past days, Marco had focused on improving his game when defenders double teamed him.
And the result was visible throughout the match.
This team also followed stuttgart's defensive tactics to bind Marco. But these tactics were already outdated facing Marco.
This time, he didn't try to force dribbles, he didn't rush the play, he didn't panic. He scanned the tight space to effectively move into vacant space, scanned the pitch for unmarked team mates, and released the ball at the last opportune moment.
Game at the 67th minute.
Two biefield defenders pressed Marco on the wide left. They effectively cut off his shortpass options on the final third and cautiously charged at him. But Marco didn't play according to their plan. Instead of passing back to the backline of trying to dribble past them, he played a long diagonal throughball into the path of the running right winger. And he blasted the ball into the roof of the net with pure power.
2-0 dortmund.
And that was his eleventh assist of the season.
With his performance all match, he answered those silent questions from the press and the fans, he overcame yet another challenge. More importantly, he proved to himself, that he can do this.