While preparing to make their entrance, standing side by side, players of both the teams were lined up in a queue inside the tunnel.
One group was dressed in light yellow while the other was dressed in green.
Plain light yellow with few dark yellow coloured diagonal stripe lines printed at the front part, Kawasaki’s away jersey was radiating a sensation of warmth.
On the other hand, Aomori’s jersey was a combination of light and dark green. Designed like a mosaic painting by making use of light and dark green colours, their home jerseys which resembled the mother nature itself looked rather appealing to eyes.
While awaiting for the announcement of the commentator, some players from both the teams were gossiping and joking with their teammates. However most of the players remained silent.
Their eyes looking at the entrance of the tunnel looked rather focused as if they were strategizing plays inside their head. While their attentive posture made it look like they were some kind of soldiers awaiting for their superiors order.
Among such players, one was Hiro. Standing behind 5 players, Hiro was blankly staring at the light coming from the entrance of the tunnel while contemplating about the earlier conversation he had heard in the restroom.
‘Did those two fools accidentally reveal their strategy? Or did they intentionally reveal their tactics to deceive me?’ Thinking about the earlier conversation he heard at the restroom, Hiro was trying to discern whether to trust the information he had heard earlier or not.
Unable to decide, Hiro shrugged to free his mind from such thoughts.
‘Since I haven’t told anybody about it and our strategy hasn’t changed a bit. There’s no point in thinking too much. I’ll just play how I used to play.’
Overall the ambience inside the dimly lit tunnel was somewhat heavy with players of both teams unwilling to talk to the players of opposing team.
[Hello everyone I’m Kenjiro Suzuki. The host who’ll be hosting today’s match. Battling for the top spot, east league’s two giants will be competing among themselves.]
[The away team ‘Kawasaki Frontale’ who have attained an overwhelming victory in both their matches are in a two match winning streak and are also at the top of the table because of goal-difference. And I’m sure the host, Aomori who are tied with them in terms of points will be looking forward to dethrone them from the top spot in today’s match.]
[So without any further ado, let’s welcome the players of both the team with big round of applause.]
Saying such, commentator gave the green light to the players standing inside the tunnel to make their way towards the pitch.
Clap!! Clap!! Clap!!
As the players began to make their way towards the pitch, irregular sounds of applause started to reverberate all over the stadium.
While few people present in the stand were hooting for the players, most of the people in the stand remained rather silent.
As compared to the ambience in Kawasaki’s Stadium, Hiro found Aomori’s stadium rather dull. Not even 1/10th of the sound of cheers could be heard in Aomori’s stadium.
And even those few people in the stand who were cheering at that time were Kawasaki’s fan.
Glancing at the stand, Hiro thought, ‘They could still cheer in a low voice? What’s with those gloomy faces? Are they here to watch a musical opera or a football match?’
While thinking such, Hiro shifted his gaze towards the sky.
With more than 60 percent of the sky covered with dark clouds, it seemed like it could rain at any time.
Looking at the sky, Hiro smiled a bit and whispered softly, “Heh… Gloomy weather and gloomy fans, what a perfect match.”
Despite preferring silence most the time, Hiro was just like any other player who liked to perform in a stadium packed with fans. He liked to hear the cheers of the fans. 𝙡𝙞𝓫𝙧𝒆𝙖𝓭.𝙘𝙤𝙢
To him cheers of the fans were similar to the songs he liked to hear. As there is a saying that fans are the 12th player of any team. The louder their cheers and support, the better the chance that their team can perform well.
After that captain’s of both the team stepped infront for coin toss.
While the coin toss was taking place, Hiro released a sigh of relief and mumbled, “Well!! I guess we have one less thing to worry about. At least we can play freely without concerning ourselves with the taunts of opposing fans.”
Afterall playing in a packed away stadium is a nightmare even for the top level players. And even Christiano Ronaldo once had quoted that he was intimidated by the fans present in the Anfield.
And just like Anfield, it’s almost the same case with every other stadium packed with a supportive home crowd. It’s always nerve wrecking to play in a packed stadium filled with supportive fans of opposing team.
However for a player it’s even more disheartening to play in an empty stadium or to play in a dull stadium.
[Kawasaki has win the coin toss and have chosen the right side of the field. Which means Aomori will be initiating the kickoff]
While the commentator was announcing the result of the coin toss, players of both the team lined up in queue and began to exchange handshakes with each other before starting the match.
One by one, Hiro shook hands with the opposing player without paying much attention to any of them. And while shaking hands with the opponent players, suddenly one of the player of Aomori grabbed his hand tightly.
Although he didn’t react, he was quite pissed by the players behaviour. Shifting his gaze towards the player who was gripping his hand, he found that player was smiling, looking all smug.
Broad wide shoulders and a finely styled short black hair, he was smiling while gripping Hiro’s hands.
And just as Hiro was about to ask him to leave his hand, the player infront spoke while smiling creepily, “Takuto Kuribayashi, remember me. I’m your appointed bodyguard in the game.”
Glaring at the player who was grabbing his hand, Hiro jerked his hand and released his hand from his grip.
Without saying anything, Hiro then moved forward as if nothing happened.