After lying low for almost 30 minutes, Hiro made his move for the first time in the game at the 33rd minute of the match. Making use of his skill ‘Lightning Steps’, Hiro accelerated towards the ball when almost every single opposing players had lowered their guards.
The opposing defender who was waiting for the ball was startled by the sight of Hiro who was rushing towards him, out of nowhere.
Within few breathes, Hiro managed to reach the ball. Intercepting the pass, Hiro then initiated a sudden counter attack.
Tora and the other defender, both of them reacted quickly and rushed forward to block Hiro’s shooting course. Having seen Hiro’s previous matches, both of those two opposing defenders were aware of Hiro’s shooting capability.
Warily Aomori’s keeper widened his legs while anticipating a shot from Hiro. Having been told by his coach to be on an alert everytime when Hiro was in possession of the ball, Aomori’s keeper was extra sensitive at that time around.
[Just when you think that you’ve got him cornered, he shatters your expectations and breaks out of your clutch. Out of nowhere Hiro has reversed the situation of both the teams. A while ago Aomori was on the attack and Kawasaki was on defense. But right now, Kawasaki is attacking while Aomori are forced to defend.]
As if Hiro was challenging both of the defenders of Aomori, after noticing them rushing towards him, instead of slowing down, he kept his pace and rushed towards them without showing any signs of hesitation.
‘If we let him go. He’ll score for sure. So we must stop him even if it means fouling him.’ Gritting his teeth, Tora thought while rushing towards Hiro. 𝓇𝘦𝑎.𝒸ℴ𝓂
Upon approaching close to Hiro, Tora slid down as he performed a sliding tackle.
But just as he slid down, Hiro lightly kicked the ball to his left where Tatsuki was making his run to support Hiro.
Tatsuki then without trapping the ball, played a one touch through pass to Hiro who was still rushing forward after jumping over the legs of Tora.
[This duo makes everything seem so simple. A precise pass by Tatsuki at a precise time.]
Noticing the lethal through ball, Aomori’s keeper reacted quickly by leaving his position. While rushing towards the ball, he could tell that he can’t reach the ball before Hiro. Thus after approaching half close to the ball, he slid down to block the ball with his body.
However contrary to his expectation, Hiro lofted the ball above his body and scored a goal by executing a cheeky chip above him.
“Goaaaaallllllll!!”
[Gooooaaaaallllllll!!!]
Although few, fans of Kawasaki spared no effort to convey their feeling of happiness. Cheering from the bottom of their heart, they began to celebrate Hiro’s goal while still following the rule of the ground- Cheering or yelling loudly is prohibited.
Running towards Tatsuki to celebrate his goal and to thank Tatsuki for providing him the assist, Hiro leaped towards Tatsuki as he reached close to him.
Embracing Tatsuki, Hiro let out a victorious roar, “Yeaaaaah!!” while throwing his fist in the air.
Hiro’s teammates, soon caught up to him and Tatsuki. All of them then began to celebrate the goal while bumping and jumping atop eachother.
[What a marvelous goal that was. Accelerating like a cheetah, Hiro first interrupted the pass. And while keeping his pace, he rushed forward. Just how did he manage to accelerate that fast in such short amount of time. Also we can’t forget the through pass of Tatsuki. Without his pass, Hiro might not have been able to pull out such an amazing goal. The combination of those two sure is deadly]
Cheerfully commentating about the goal Hiro scored in the 33rd minute of the match, commentator praised Hiro and Tatsuki.
While Hiro and his teammates were celebrating their goal, Takuto was glaring at Hiro. His eyes bloodshot, his veins popping out and his fist tightly clenched, Takuto was glaring at Hiro with eyes full of anger.
In order to stop Hiro, Tora who was even prepared to commit a foul was looking at the direction of his goal-post while thinking about what went wrong.
‘Did I time my tackle wrong? Or was I not rough enough?’ Thought Tora while thinking about the tackle he performed a moment ago.
Contemplating about the play which he just witnessed, a middle-aged man probably in his late thirties who was dressed in a windcheater and a track, standing at the sidelines began to scribble something on a note which he was carrying.
Short black hair which was slicked back neatly with the help of a comb, he had black eyes and square shaped face.
And just as he finished scribbling something, he called out to another middle-aged man seated at the substitution bench, “Coach Yuto, can you come here for a second?”
Hurriedly standing from his seat, the man grabbed his note and walked towards the man who called him, “Yes manager Masaki?”
The man dressed in windcheater was the manager of Aomori Yamada High School football team. And the other middle aged man named Yuto was one of the assistant coaches of Aomori Yamada High School.
“Takuto alone won’t be enough to mark him. Perhaps we should change our strategy. Take a look at it and tell me what do you think?” Pointing at the notebook he was carrying, Masaki suggested a tactic change.
As instructed by Masaki, Yuto took a look at Masaki’s notebook. After looking at it for a while, Yuto opened his mouth, “Yes sir, man marking him will be hard. So I agree with your suggestion on switching into zone marking.”
“Let’s place Yushi in between the position of midfielder and defensive midfielder. That way he can focus more on defense. Takumi and the two other right and left attacking midfielders will be enough in the front.” Yuto suggested after taking a look at manager Masaki’s notebook.
Nodding his head, Masaki then began to call one of his player who was close to him.
Entrusting him with the responsibility to convey the information to other players, Masaki filled him with the details of the change in tactics.