And as Hiro began to speak, eyes of every player in his team were naturally drawn towards him.
“They can strike all they want. But I don’t fear them. Do you know why?”
While making his speech, Hiro suddenly questioned the players who were listening to his speech.
Even so, nobody had any answers to his questions. They were absolutely clueless. Thus, nobody dared to answer his question.
However their reaction was pretty much within his expectations. He knew for sure that nobody had answers to his questions. Afterall their situation was so miserable that it would have been a miracle if anybody in his team was still somewhat cool-headed to answer his questions.
Even so he was intentionally asking them such questions to see if there were players who could defy his expectations. But Alas! There was none.
“Because I know Shun will protect the goal. As long as he’s guarding the post he’ll even give his life to protect every single incoming ball.”
Upon hearing his name spoken with such reverence, Shun who was currently being treated couldn’t help but look at Hiro with look of astonishment on his face.
Different kinds of emotions such as admiration, happiness, astonishment started to bubble inside him as he heard Hiro’s words.
Afterall it was his first time hearing such words of praises from Hiro. And even the mere fact that Hiro trusted him so much was enough for him to regain his confidence.
And Hiro who spoke such words may or may not be aware about the impact of such words on Shun. But Shun who was listening to his words was greatly touched by his words.
To the point, for a while, while listening to Hiro’s words Shun even forget the pain he was feeling. He was so lost in his thoughts that Shun couldn’t even hear Hiro’s words properly for a while. To Shun, Hiro’s figure infront of him was like a video without any sound.
Hiro however hadn’t finished his speech, “Just like how Shun is defending the goalpost, if every single one of us execute our roles well then we’ll even challenge the U-23 team. If one player playing with all his effort could have such an impact on the match then imagine what would happen if every single one of us play like our life depends on the match?”
As Hiro spoke such words, the intention behind his speech became clear to some of the players. And as if they came to a sudden realisation, subconsciously those players nodded their head as they clenched their fist tightly while looking Hiro with a determined look on their eyes.
“Remember, the thougher the opponent the more highly we’ll get evaluated. So everyone in the next half let’s give our best.” Saying such Hiro ended his speech.
His speech however didn’t seem much effective as few players still looked the same. They still looked like they had completely given up on the match.
However the players whom he had identified with better mentality back then looked completely different. Clearly to them, his intentions had been made clear as they all looked more motivated than before.
‘Well I’m not a public speaker who can move people with my words.’ Hiro sighed deeply while looking at the state of some players.
Then again he shrugged as he looked at players who were now more motivated than ever. At least his speech wasn’t totally wasted as it still produced some results.
Hiro then made few changes to his team. Substituting few players, he made slight changes to the formation.
And even though Yutaka’s condition wasn’t much better as compared to those players he had substituted, he didn’t substitute Yutaka. Afterall Yutaka was one of the most important player he needed for his plan to come into fruition. He was one of the most important cog to turn his wheel.
After 10 minutes break, players of both the team once again positioned themselves in their respective positions to continue the second half.
National U-23 team made only a single substitution as compared to Hiro’s team who made use of 3 substitutions.
However given the severity of the situation, if there were 5 extra players in his team, Hiro would have even considered making 5 substitutions instead of 3.
Changing their formation from 4-1-2-3 to 4-2-1-3, Hiro was now playing in defensive midfield position instead of his original position which meant Yutaka was the only attacking midfielder in his team currently.
Positioning at the defensive midfield position, Hiro began to analyse the changes in opposing team.
Only substituting one of the players, there wasn’t much changes in their formation. .𝘤𝘰𝑚
Just when Hiro was analysing the formation of the opposing team, referee blew his whistle and signalled the start of the second half.
Beep!!
With referee’s whistle, the second half then begun.
Still pretty much one sided, National U-23 team continued to dominate the game. However unlike before, they weren’t able to move the ball in the opposing defensive third as effortlessly as before.
Hiro’s choices of adding new players was proved to be right as those new players who were added in the second half were covering a lot of distances unlike the previous players who were standing in the pitch like somekind of mannequin.
Because of the constant movement of opposing players, players of U-23 were finding it a little hard to move the ball forward.
But it didn’t mean that they weren’t able to move the ball forward. They were still moving the ball in the opposing defensive third and they were still taking shots.
However their movements and plays were a little more restrained as compared to before.
At 70th minute of the match, one of players of Hiro’s team made a terrible mistake, he failed to clear the ball properly.
During the process of clearing the ball because of the pressure from Tatsuki, right back of Hiro’s team in a state of panic couldn’t clear the ball properly. He rashly kicked the ball. The ball then landed on the feet of Kazuya, Hiro’s previous teammate.
Kazuya inturn quickly passed the ball to Mao Suzuki who left his position to go on offense. Just like a charging bull, Mao Suzuki made use of his physique and speed to get past through Team 1’s midfield.
Updated from 𝘪.𝘤𝑜𝘮