127 Caught
With no change in his facial expression, Hiro then murmured softly after hearing Shun’s explanation, “So they’re using technology to record the data.”
Seeing no changes in Hiro’s facial expression, Shun looked quite shocked. He then questioned while staring at Hiro with his eyes wide open, “You’re not shocked to hear about such an amazing technology?”
‘Although I haven’t experienced it myself. But I have seen way more advanced technology than these in my previous life.’ Thought Hiro after hearing Shun’s questions.
But obviously he couldn’t say that to him. Thus, he immediately thought of an excuse, “I have read about it before that in Europe these kind of technologies are quite common.”
Hearing Hiro’s reply, Shun frowned his brow. He looked quite disappointed.
And while the two of them were talking about technology, the people’s standing beside them suddenly started to cheer.
Hearing their loud cheers, Hiro and Shun both of them startlingly turned their attention towards the pitch.
“Look, the test has started.” Speaking such, Hiro tried to distract Shun.
And since the sidelines weren’t that big enough to accommodate all those twenty players at once, they again paired five players and formed a group of four.
And in an interval of 15 seconds, one after the other, the four group of players started running.
**** ****
And as the final group of players completed their run, the first test finally came to an end. Completely drenched in sweat, all the players seemed extremely exhausted.
The first test took about an hour to complete. And almost half of the players in the field were sent home after the end of the first test.
With almost half of the players eliminated, there were about 40 something players left in the field for the second test.
“Man!! This is brutal. Almost half of them were wiped out.” Mumbled Hiro while looking at the players who were walking out of the ground. 𝒷𝒹ℴ𝓿𝓁.𝓬𝓸𝓂
Along with the players who were eliminated, their supporters too started to exit the youth facility. Sweaty, pale, breathless and tired, many of the players who were eliminated looked extremely gloomy.
While there were few optimistic ones, most of the eliminated players were all pessimistic. And there were few who were even making a fuss at the ground by saying that the evaluation was unfair and rigged.
“I finished way ahead of him. So why is he selected and I’m eliminated? Is it because he’s one of your relatives?” One of the player in the field shouted furiously, expressing his dissatisfaction with the result of the test.
“He’s a keeper. And you’re a striker. So you expect a keeper to run faster than a striker?” Coach Kensuke replied calmly.
But still the guy continued to yell. Because of the grief of not being selected, he wasn’t willing to listen to the logic of the coaching staffs.
“Everytime. Everytime there’ll be some players like this.” As if he was used to seeing such scene, Shun mumbled casually while looking at the players who were causing ruckus on the field.
“If they continue to protest in the pitch then the test will be delayed. So now what will the club do?” Frowning his brows, Hiro questioned with a concerned look on his face.
“Nothing much. Either they’ll leave on their own or they’ll get forcefully kicked out.” Shun replied.
“Look they’re already here.” Shun continued while pointing towards the main gate.
From the main gate, four guys dressed in guard uniform were making their way towards the U-18 pitch.
While looking at the guards in confusion, Hiro questioned, “I thought we only had one guard in our hostel. How come there’s four new extra guards today?”
“You’re right. We do have only one guard. But those guys are temporary guards hired by the club to deal with this kind of situation.”
Seeing the guards, some protesters voluntarily exited the pitch. While the few who were left in the pitch were forcibly carried outside the facility.
“Jeez!! Never expected that football trials would get this chaotic.” Hiro mumbled. “That’s why we’re lagging behind the world. You don’t get to see such scenes in Europe.”
Since Shun couldn’t deny his claims, he too consented to Hiro’s claims and nodded his head.
Although the test was indeed unfair to those players who were technically gifted and physically weak, there were few reasons for the club to focus on physically well candidates.
Firstly, by selecting players with excellent physicality, the club would drastically decrease the chances of injuries.
Secondly, they could deploy the player right away. Thirdly and most importantly, professional clubs were leaning towards players with excellent physicality instead of once creatively gifted players.
Top level coaches preferred fast and steady players just like Mbappe and Halland. With the coaches leaning towards players with pace and stamina, the era of creative players like Messi, Neymar was coming to an end.
After the commotion died down, the second test continued smoothly without any interruption.
For the second test, the remaining players were made to perform some of the drills such as pass-receive-shoot and few other drills which they used to do every morning and evening.
And while the second test was taking place in full swing, manager Makoto then suddenly started to walk towards them. Although he wasn’t looking at their direction, he was definitely walking towards their direction.
Noticing him walking towards their direction, Hiro started to feel anxious, “Do you think manager Makoto has noticed us?”
Shun too was starting to get anxious, “He’s not looking at us. So may be not.”
Since a lot of spectators had left the facility, there weren’t as many people as before to cover them up.
And thus, if they decided to run at that moment, they would look even more suspicious.
The two of them tried to hide their faces and turned around to avoid locking eyes with manager Makoto. Manager Makoto however continued to walk towards them.
During the earlier commotion, Makoto had already noticed them. However Hiro and Shun who were too focused on the guards, couldn’t notice that they had been seen by manager.
Finally after getting closed to them, manager Makoto spoke, “You two guys wouldn’t happen to be Hiro and Shun, right?”