While taking a quick peek at Tsubasa, a fragment of memory where Tsubasa was smiling while looking at the sight of Tomoyasu who was writhing in pain, flashed inside Hiro’s head.
Remembering Tsubasa’s crooked smile, Hiro squinched his brows and contorted his face in disgust.
After that he shrugged and shifted his attention towards the ball and the players infront.
Players of FC Tokyo were all falling back to defend the incoming ball. At the same time Tatsuki was also running towards the spot where the ball was going to fall.
To his left Kenta was making his run along the left flank and to his right Ogawa was also making his run along the right flank.
And since they had changed their formation, Junpei Isido was forced to mark Ogawa instead of Tatsuki.
After dropping to his original position of attacking midfielder, Ryui Asada was forced to stick with Hiro.
Predicting the trajectory of the ball, Tatsuki slowed down his pace and looked above. And as he looked above, the bright light of the sun which directly fell on his eyes, made him to squint his eyes.
While squinting his eyes, he noticed the silhouette of the ball. The ball was falling right at the spot where he was standing.
And as the ball fell down closer to him, Tatsuki leaped upward to head the ball. FC Tokyo’s, two centre back who were standing beside Tatsuki, also jumped upward to compete for the ball.
Despite getting pushed by two defenders from his both side, Tatsuki still managed to touch the ball. Although he couldn’t trap the ball, he headed the ball towards Hiro who was making his run towards him.
And just as Tatsuki headed the ball towards Hiro, sensing danger Junpei Isido left his position. Even when Ryui was already marking Hiro, Junpei couldn’t stop himself from worrying, after seeing the last two plays of Hiro.
Just the thought of Hiro getting ball made him extremely anxious.
Thus, without thinking anything Junpei left his mark and rushed towards Hiro.
However just as he left his position, Hiro supplied a through pass to Ogawa who was completely unmarked.
[A fabulous through pass by Hiro. But a fatal mistake by the captain of FC Tokyo. Perhaps he shouldn’t have left his position.]
Junpei was again forced to return back to his spot. Changing his path, Junpei began to chase Ogawa.
Ogawa then gently trapped the ball. After trapping the ball, he crossed the ball inside the penalty box, towards Tatsuki and Kenta.
Right after heading the ball towards Hiro, Tatsuki had started to make his run towards the goalpost without looking back.
Noticing the incoming ball, Kobayashi solidified his position. Keeping his gaze fixated at the ball, he prepared himself to defend his goal.
Once again Tatsuki leaped from the ground to head the ball. And so did the opposing defenders. However unlike the previous time, that time Tatsuki missed the ball. The ball simply flew about an inch above his head.
Swiftly evading the reach of three defenders and one striker, the ball headed toward the direction of Kenta.
Kobayashi too rushed towards the opposite side of the post.
Kenta then headed the ball towards the post. Quickly reacting to the incoming shot, Kobayashi extended his arms to defend his post. However he still couldn’t manage to land a hit on the ball.
Evading the reach of Kobayashi, the ball then hit the pole and bounced back.
Bam!!!
Kenta’s pupils enlarged as he witnessed the ball bouncing away from the penalty box after hitting the frame of the goalpost.
Bouncing away from the post, the ball headed outside the penalty box towards Ryui Asada. Ryui then cleared the ball away from their defensive third towards Ryunosuke.
“Fall back” Shouted Hiro as he began to sprint back.
Getting the hold of ball, Ryunosuke then began to dash forward with the ball.
Witnessing the incoming attack, all of the players of Kawasaki began to fall back to defend their post.
Akihiro Yamada, the bald headed defensive midfielder of Kawasaki began to chase after Ryunosuke who was about few steps away from him.
However Akihiro proved to be no match for Ryunosuke. Making use of his pace, Ryunosuke left Akihiro in dust.
Akimasa Nakahara, Kawasaki’s centre back dashed forward to block Ryunosuke.
Noticing the incoming defender, Ryunosuke passed the ball to his left winger, who inturn crossed the ball inside the penalty box towards Tsubasa.
Jumping as high as he could, Tsubasa headed the ball towards the goalpost. And just as he made contact with the ball, he let out a subtle smile on his face.
Thud!! 𝒍𝓲𝓫𝒓𝒆𝒂.𝙘𝙤𝒎
Landing safely on the ground, he looked at the direction of the post with a smug smile on his face thinking that he’d scored the goal. However to his astonishment, he was shocked to find the outcome.
Black haired, tanned skin guy who was about 5 feet 7 inches tall was lying on the ground while tightly clenching the ball in his arms.
[Seems like it wasn’t the outcome Tsubasa was hoping for. Shun Yabuzoe, the newcomer of Kawasaki has made a brilliant save and successfully defended his post] Commentator commented in a cheerful voice.
“That was one heck of save.”
“Never imagined that our second choice goalkeeper would be as talented as our first choice goalkeeper”
Few fans of Kawasaki commented happily while cheering for Shun after watching him make that beautiful save.
Shun then slowly stood up with the ball in his hands. Standing straight infront of the goalpost, Shun looked at Tsubasa who was staring at him as if he was looking at someone who had stolen his girlfriend away from him.
Looking Tsubasa in the eyes, Shun lifted the corner of his lips and revealed a smile on his face. While looking at Tsubasa with a sinister smile on his face, Shun squeezed some words out of his mouth, “Try again.”
Although Tsubasa couldn’t hear the words of Shun because of the noise reverberating in the stadium, he could still tell that it was something bad.
“Cry again” is what Tsubasa perceived.
“You piece of shit” Gnashing his teeths, Tsubasa cussed under his breathe.