What followed Hiro and his teammates after their last victory in the league wasn’t flowers and vacations, instead for the next nine days, they had to go through rigorous training to prepare them for the final match.
Well obviously they didn’t train everyday with the same intensity. Afterall the club couldn’t afford to register even a single injury at such a crucial moment.
Thus after every three days of training they were given a day off to rest and recover from their fatigue.
However even in those rest days, they still had to show up in the video analysing room. Meaning although they didn’t train or perform any physical exercises that day, they were still forced to study the tactics and gameplay of the opponent team.
Afterall as much as football is a physical sport, it is also a mental sport. And without learning the tactics of the opposing team and preparing accordingly, no matter how good a team is, the chances of their victory will drastically fall off.
Thus along with training, they had to study and analyse the tactics and gameplay of their opponents as well and prepare in accordance.
Even so, nobody actually complained. Infact everybody diligently followed the instructions of the coaches.
Just like that eight days had passed. And currently almost every players were gathered in the pitch for their final training session before the ultimate showdown between the champions of east league and west league.
Days in the winter were quite short and the sun had already settled down.
Veiling the entire sky, misty grey clouds had blanketed the starry sky over the city of Kawasaki.
Just like white dandelions dancing along with the wind, snowflakes were dancing and twirling as they fell and clustered on the surface beneath.
And under the lights of the floodlights which were illuminating the training ground of Kawasaki, those intricate patterns made by those snowflakes were quite mesmerising to look at.
Because of that gentle snowfall, temperature had also gone down drastically. And right now, it was quite freezing. .𝘤𝘰𝑚
Even the usual green pitch of Kawasaki Frontale U-18’s training ground was now lightly blanketed by snow.
While rubbing his palm against each other, Hiro walked out of the hostel building and started to walk towards the pitch.
Moving along the path filled with the dark shadows of the mesh fence, Hiro casted a glance at the pitch.
Most of his teammates were already gathered in the pitch. And surprisingly even Shun had already arrived in the pitch today.
The sight of his teammates gathered at the pitch without doing anything greatly confused him as it made him wonder why nobody had started to warm up today.
Even so he continued to walk towards the pitch with a huge question mark above his head.
Step!! Step!! Step!!
Walking over the snow covered pitch, the ground beneath his feet made crunching sounds and also left a trail on the pitch as he continued to tread his way towards the location where his teammates were gathered.
“Why is nobody warming up?” Questioned Hiro as he got close to Shun and Tatsuki.
The reason why he questioned such was because by now previously even in the absence of the coaches players would be warming up their body to prevent themselves from catching cold.
However unlike other days, nobody was showing any movements today. They all were clustered at one place.
Their brows knotted and their eyes drooped, most of the players present in the field seemed pretty tensed right now.
“Everybody’s waiting for manager Makoto.” Casually replied Shun.
His voice a little deeper than usual, he too seemed a little different than his usual self.
While speaking white mist could be seen coming out from their mouth because of the cold. And while standing in the pitch, light snow had accumulated over the head and shoulders of some players.
“But why?” Asked Hiro.
Before coming to the pitch, he hadn’t been informed about any meetings. Thus, he had absolutely no idea on why they were waiting for the arrival of manager Makoto.
Afterall even the coaches had advised the players to keep warming up their body until their arrival because of the cold weather.
“Manager Makoto has something to say before the start of today’s evening training.” Tatsuki quickly answered.
“But I didn’t hear anything about the speech” mumbled Hiro as he turned towards Tatsuki.
“That’s because, we were informed only a moment ago.”
Just then while they were still conversing, manager Makoto entered the pitch accompanied by all the coaching staffs.
Dressed in a long black coloured puffer jacket which was about the length of trench coat, manager Makoto and the rest of the coaching staff made their way towards the location where the players were gathered.
And as they made their appearance, everybody straightened their back as they followed their movements.
Just like coaches, all of the players had also put on puffer jackets to keep them warm.
With their appearance the already silent pitch got even more eerily silent. And the only thing which were heard at that moment was the muffled sound of players breathing and sound of footsteps of the coaches.
Finally after the coaches stopped their movements as they stood infront of the players, even those sound of footsteps disappeared.
The coaches then without saying a word stood infront of them while sweeping their gazes across the players.
Under the gaze of the coaches, some players body tensed even more as they tried to focus their attention on the coaches.
Step!! Step!! Step!!
Then after some seconds, manager Makoto calmly stepped infront. Unlike his usual self, even he had a stiff expression today.
Cough!! Cough!!
Manager Makoto then coughed a few times before speaking.
“Tomorrow is the judgement day. Tomorrow is the day when we’ll get to know the results of our years worth of effort. Until now, you’ve all performed well and I’m sure that even tomorrow you’ll continue do the same.”
“You lot are hardworking fellows and there’s no denying to that fact. But remember history doesn’t remember hardworking fellows, it only remembers the winners. Either you win and etch your name on the pages of history or you lose and fade away along with time. It’s all up to you.”
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