Although Ryotaro Imamura acted fast, that didn’t mean he acted on impulse without thinking. Player of his stature couldn’t allow such amateurish mistakes afterall unless he was in some short of predicament.
However right now, he was as calm as still water. And most of all, he was very much aware of Hiro’s capabilities.
Thus before leaving his position, he had already called for the reinforcement from other defenders who were closed to him.
And the reason why Ryotaro Imamura was called the adhesive of the Sagan Tosu U-18 team was very much because of such reasons.
As the term adhesive referred, he was like adhesive which held the formation of his team together. And whenever he acted, he always acted while taking the position of his teammates into consideration.
However not only was his team play top-notch, his defending was top-notch as well. He was very much capable of defending one on one. And till now in the west league, he held an impressive record of winning 86 percent of the duels.
Not only was he cunning, he was also very tenacious. Once he comes one on one against any attacker, he’d try to stick with the attacker no matter how many times he gets dribbled past.
Even so while coming face to face against such a tenacious and cunning defender, Hiro didn’t look a bit flustered.
Neither did Hiro slowed his pace nor did he changed his direction. Hiro was openly challenging Ryotaro Imamura to try his luck.
Seeing the scene taking place right now, most people in the stands were either thinking that Hiro was acting reckless or some may even be thinking that he was overestimating his abilities and digging his own grave.
And it was reasonable for them to think like that, afterall he was against five defenders and one of them even happened to be Ryotaro Imamura who was holding the title of the best defender in West League.
Holding onto their breath, most of the fans present in the stand were following Hiro’s movements very carefully while carrying an anxious expression on their face.
As Hiro got close to Ryotaro Imamura, he swayed his upper body towards the left side and rolled his left leg over the ball making it seem like he was going to dash with the ball towards the left side.
However just as he rolled his left leg over the ball, he spun his whole body and made a 360 spin.
Halfway while spinning his body, he lightly tapped the ball with the heel of his right leg, kicking the ball between the legs of Imamura.
Imamura who wasn’t expecting such flashy trick from Hiro couldn’t react in time and ended up getting dribbled past by Hiro.
“What!?”
A big question mark appeared above the head of most fans as they tried to figure out what just happened.
The way Hiro dribbled past Imamura, he made it look so easy that for some moment people couldn’t even believe their eyes.
They all were expecting a fierce clash between the best defender of the west league and the best player of the east league.
However nobody had expected that the best defender of the west league to get beaten so easily.
“Can you believe it? He dribbled past the best defender of west league that easily. The way he dribbled past Imamura made it look like he was toying with some kid and not the best defender of the west league.” Commentator made an exaggerating comment, overtly glorifying Hiro’s skills.
One thing was sure, after this whichever club Imamura had signed for would definitely re-evaluate his signing.
However getting past Imamura wasn’t the difficult part. Infact Hiro was confident that he could dribble past Imamura 7 out of 10 times.
The difficult part was to dribble past the players who were supporting Imamura. Imamura was only the initiator, he wasn’t the finisher. The finisher were those four defenders who were behind him.
While Imamura would distract the opposing attacker, those four defenders would react simultaneously and prevent the opposing attacker from advancing further.
Their tactics could have worked well against some other players but against Hiro who was exceptionally good at dribbling, it’s effectiveness was reduced by a lot.
And soon Hiro proved it right as well. Before the second defender who was behind Imamura could reach the ball, Hiro kicked the ball towards his left side where Tatsuki was making his run.
However Tatsuki’s course was blocked by another defender of the Sagan Tosu.
And even Imamura who was beaten a moment ago had already started chasing after the ball.
Angle was tight and one of the centre back was putting pressure on him, preventing him from moving forward and restricting his movement.
Tatsuki knew that his chances of moving the ball forward was quite slim. And even if somehow he managed to get past the defender who was holding onto him, he had to still face the opposing right back who was awaiting a little ahead.
Thus instead of losing the ball, Tatsuki decided to return the ball back to Hiro. Even returning the ball back was struggle to him because of the pressure from the defender who was holding onto him.
Despite that, he somehow managed to land a hit on the ball. However he couldn’t manage to land a solid hit.
“Tch-” clicking his tongue, Tatsuki expressed his frustration.
The ball as it left Tatsuki’s feet lofted towards the direction where Hiro was making his run.
Because of the lack of power, the pass fell short as it couldn’t manage to fall infront of Hiro. Instead the ball fell behind Hiro while he was still running.
It was evident that to receive that pass either Hiro had to turn around or the ball would hit him and roll back.
Turning behind meant giving up the momentum and Hiro didn’t wish to give away the momentum which he had acquired after painstakingly putting so much effort.
Just then when everybody was assuming that the attack was disrupted, a miracle happened. More like Hiro performed a miracle.
While still running, Hiro hit the ball with the back of his heel causing the ball to float above his head and land infront of him.
The defenders who were running alongside Hiro were caught totally off-guard. They weren’t expecting such reaction from Hiro.
Even so they couldn’t afford to be shocked by Hiro’s play. If they failed to defend the ball then Hiro would come face to face against the keeper.
And knowing Hiro, he’d convert the goal with 99 percent accuracy.
Thus they continued to chase after him. However because of that momentary distraction, Hiro had already left them behind.
And as the ball was about to fall infront of him, Hiro shot the ball mid-air with his left foot.
Connecting a brilliant volley, Hiro scored a magnificent goal which caused the whole stadium to erupt thunderously. 𝘳𝑎.𝗇t
“Gooooaaaaallllllll!!!!”
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