Smiling while staring at Hiro, manager Makoto was celebrating the goal scored by Hiro with other players seated at the substitution bench.
His eyes filled with joy and his face showing how satisfied he was with Hiro’s progress, Makoto couldn’t stop himself from praising Hiro for persevering through such rough training session day in and day out without ever complaining, “Sometimes I wonder how can a boy who’s only thirteen be this good. But then again I look at you training. Till this date, you’ve never complained about the intensity of the training. Infact you’ve done more than what you’ve been asked for. I’m sure that the day isn’t that far when you’ll succeed in the world stage.”
While mumbling such, manager Makoto’s eyes moistened all of a sudden. Feeling the moisture in his eyes, Makoto then gently rubbed his eyes.
After celebrating for a while, all the players in the field started to walk back towards their respective position to continue the match. Afterall celebrating for a long period of time was considered time wasting and for that offence, referee could even book the players.
Getting to his position, Hiro noticed something off. Although Aomori had made no player changes and they were still playing in the 4-2-3-1 formation. Hiro could tell that their players had shifted their positions slightly. For example, he could tell that Yushi had moved a little back and their right and left midfielders had moved a bit towards the center.
‘So they’re making some changes huh!’ Thought Hiro while analysing the formation of the opposing team.
While he was contemplating, referee blew the whistle and resumed the match.
Beep!!
Dark clouds had almost swallowed the entire sun as it veiled more than 80 percent of the sky. While the persistent rays of sun was still trying to find it’s way out the dark clouds, surrounding temperature had dropped drastically.
The moderate cold wind which was blowing was making howling noises as it collided with the roof of the stands.
Fans were rushing from the open stand towards the part of the stand which was roofed to shelter them from the unavoidable rain.
Sticking to their traditional counter-attacking playstyle, Aomori was trying to find the back of Kawasaki’s net. However even with their improved strategy, they were still failing to equalise the match because of the presence of one particular player.
And that player was Akimasa Nakahara. Monster in aerial duel, he was clearing every ball away.
Just 1 minute before the end of the first half after the attack of Kawasaki failed, Yushi sent a through ball to their right attacking midfielder.
That right midfielder inturn played a through ball to Takumi who’s also known as one of the fastest player in the league.
[This could be very dangerous. If Takumi get’s hold of that ball, then Aomori might get a goal back.]
Making use of his quick feet, Takumi was sprinting towards the ball at almost 31 km/h speed. And even though Nakahara and Minato were way ahead of Takumi, judging by their speed, it seemed like Takumi would reach the ball ahead of Minato and Nakahara.
And just like the three of them, Shun was also sprinting towards the ball.
Contesting for the ball, all four of them were trying their best to reach the ball before anyone else.
However after few short breaths, the contest was won by Takumi. Witnessing the ball in the feet of Takumi and seeing both of his teammates still chasing after Takumi, Shun had no other choice but to defend the ball all by himself.
And since Shun was about few steps out of the penalty box, he retracted few steps to get inside the penalty box, so that he could use his hands.
Afterall unlike other players, he wasn’t good at defending. Despite being an exceptional keeper, he lacked when it came to defending without using his hands.
And thus to increase his chances of defending, he returned back to the penalty box. However even doing so, he never looked away from the ball. Cautiously retreating, he was prepared for any long shots.
Takumi too didn’t try to take a long shot. Instead he dribbled the ball forward to increase his chances of scoring.
And as Takumi got closer to Shun, he stretched his leg to shoot.
And as Takumi stretched his leg, Shun dived. But just as Shun dived, Takumi tapped the ball lightly and faked his shot.
From the very beginning when he stretched his leg, he wasn’t planning on making a shot. He was only trying to deceive Shun.
After deceiving Shun by faking a shot, Takumi dribbled the ball opposite to Shun. He then kicked the ball towards the empty net.
“Gooooaaaaallllllll!!”
[Gooooaaaaallllllll!!!]
[Finally Aomori has managed to tie the game at the final minute of the first half. Scoring the goal at 44th minute of the match, they had equalised the game.]
[Almost for the entirety of first half Takumi seemed like he was struggling. But despite struggling so much, he proved it that he only requires one chance to prove his worth.]
And while Takumi and his teammates were celebrating Takumi’s goal, Shun who was still lying on the ground bit his tongue out of disappointment.
Disappointed that he was tricked so easily, he wasn’t even being able to lift himself up. Nakahara and Minato had almost the same expression as Shun. 𝒍𝒊𝒃𝒓𝙚𝙖𝙙.𝓬𝙤𝙢
Squatting on the ground, with their chin lowered, they were panting heavily. Totally speechless, most of the players of Kawasaki were either sulking their head or looking at the sky while wiping their sweat.
“You may have caught me off-guard some moments ago. But it’ll be us who’ll win the game eventually.” Walking close to Hiro, Takuto sneered. There was bit of intimidation in his words.
Hearing Takuto’s words, Hiro lifted his gaze towards the face of Takuto. However instead of acting irritated, Hiro smiled at him and left towards his side of the pitch.
Takuto who was expecting Hiro to lash out at him was totally dumbfounded by Hiro’s unusual reaction.
Perplexingly staring at the back of Hiro who was walking away, Takuto began to have several thoughts inside his head, ‘Why did he smile? Is he somekind of psychopath who enjoys getting mocked?’