That drill was specifically designed to test their speed and precision.
And as Hiro positioned himself to make the run, manager Makoto said to the players, “Everyone pay attention now.”
Getting everyone’s attention, manager Makoto then sounded the whistle which he was carrying inside his pocket.
Beep!!
Hearing the sound of the whistle, Hiro started to make his run. Just in mere few seconds, he achieved his top acceleration. Sprinting like a wild horse, he sprinted towards the goalpost.
At the same time, coach Kensuke who was tasked with crossing the ball towards Hiro, released the ball from his feet.
Witnessing his speed, every player who were standing on the sidelines looked at him with their eyes open wide. And even those players who were proud of their pace couldn’t stop themselves from looking at Hiro in awe. They all were stunned.
Shun who was rather focused on the players instead of Hiro, curled his lips slightly and mumbled in a satiated manner, “As expected.”
The ball released from coach Kensuke’s feet was directly heading towards the outer edge of the penalty box.
And Hiro who had already predicted the path of the ball, slightly lifted himself up from the ground and gently trapped the ball in his chest. Without wasting anytime, he then launched the ball towards the top left corner of the post.
Witnessing his otherworldly volley, the players present in the field, all of them held their breathes.
The ball swiftly flew towards the hole in the top left corner and landed inside the post.
And just as the ball landed inside the post, almost all the players burst out into celebration. As if it was them who had scored the goal, they simply couldn’t hold back themselves from celebrating.
“Woah!!!!” Players began to cheer as the ball landed inside the post.
Although it was only a demonstration, to them it felt like watching a veteran player performing his magic.
Hearing their cheers, Makoto’s lips curled as he revealed a subtle smile on his face. He looked satiated as if his purpose had been fulfilled.
The whole reason behind asking Hiro to demonstrate the drill was to uplift the mood of the players. And judging by the reaction which the players were displaying, manager Makoto believed that his purpose had been fulfilled.
While almost every player were cheering for him, there were few players who were still not satisfied with the demonstration. They were saying; it was just a coincident or Hiro had been lucky.
To rile up the players even more and to clear the doubts of the doubtful players, Makoto shouted, “Once more. But this time no trapping. You have to perform one shot volley towards the bottom right corner of the post.”
Without replying anything, Hiro simply nodded his head and walked back towards his position.
“What?? He’s doing it again. And he have to do it according to the manager’s will.”
Frowning their brows, some players started to feel concerned. They felt that manager was just pushing him too much and he couldn’t do it as mentioned by the manager.
“Just trapping that insane cross is already difficult. And he wants to make him perform one shot volley. Further more he also needs to aim the ball at the selected place.” One of the players commented while staring at the post.
The gaps in the nets were barely big enough to fit two footballs. And to score a one shot volley from outside the box while also analysing the trajectory of the ball, it seemed near to impossible without perfect ball control, vision and precision.
And as the players started to chatter, the ambience around the field suddenly started to get a little noisy.
“Okay then everyone pay attention again. Afterall, after this demonstration it’s your turn to perform.” Shouted manager Makoto to make them shut their mouths.
Hearing the command of the manager, they then immediately shut their mouth and focused their attention towards Hiro.
“Ready Hiro?” Makoto yelled.
Keeping his gaze fixated at the post infront, Hiro nodded his head.
Beep!!
Once again as soon as he heard the sound of the whistle, Hiro took a quick glance at coach Kensuke and sprinted towards the goalpost.
That time around there was an unusual spin on the ball.
‘It’s heading inside the box??’ He thought after predicting the trajectory of the ball. ‘Wait no!! It’s curving.”
After attaining it’s maximum height, the ball curved.
And because of that curve, Hiro too decelerated.
“He’s decelerating.” Mumbled one of the players after noticing Hiro’s deceleration.
The ball then began to fall down towards the penalty arc.
Right before the ball fell down, Hiro stretched his right leg. And just as the ball was about to hit the ground, his feet made contact with the ball.
Bam!!!!
Sound similar to that of balloon exploding reverberated just as Hiro’s leg made contact with the ball.
Swoosh!!! 𝒍𝓲𝓫𝒓𝒆𝒂.𝙘𝙤𝒎
Without touching the blocking net, the ball passed through the hole in the bottom right corner and made a swoosh sound as it made contact with the net of the post.
The already shocked players were now even more shocked. They were all speechless. As if their brain couldn’t even process all the information, they simply stood on their spot, completely dazed.
Finally one of the player broke the silence, “So this is the level of Kawasaki Frontale’s U-18 team.”
“Are other player in the team, monsters like him?” Mumbled another guy while staring at Hiro with his eyes wide open.
As if their soul had left their body, some of the players looked quite gloomy. While there were few players who were standing on their toes looking quite excited.
Among them one was Akihiro Yamada. With a crooked smile on his face, his eyes were gleaming with excitement.
‘I need to get in this team. No matter what. I need to get selected. Only such players can receive my passes.’ Thought Akihiro looking all excited.
“Now then the demonstration is over. So shall we continue our test.” Manager Makoto spoke.
Makoto’s words brought everybody back to their senses.
Few of the players who looked excited, replied cheerfully, “Yess sir!!!!”