The scene of him getting ignored by the players of the reserve team was noticed by the players from the starting team. However instead of helping him, they were enjoying his sufferings and making fun of him.
“Look at that newbie struggling to make friends.” One of the starting players chuckled while pointing his finger towards Hiro who was getting ignored by the reserve players one after the other.
“Seems like he’ll be struggling a lot in this match.” Another guy close to the previous guy joined in on the fun of watching him suffer.
“See I told you. Nobody in the team from the previous batches know of him. I’m sure he entered the club via some underhanded way.” Hirato who was stretching his legs mumbled while looking at him with eyes full of disdain.
Since Hiro had been included on the starting lineup of the opposing team, Hirato too was somewhat unhappy about the coach’s decision just like Kota Yui.
Takekazu who was warming up beside him didn’t reply anything and continued to look at Hiro as if he was trying to remember something. After a moment of silence, he finally opened his mouth;
“But doesn’t he look a bit familiar to you?”
“Yeah he must have appeared in your dream right? Hahaha” Hirato chuckled and shrugged his remarks.
Takekazu didn’t react to his joke and kept his eyes fixated at Hiro.
“I’m sure I have seen him somewhere before.” Takekazu whispered under his breath.
Since every player in the team were playing for themselves. The old players in the team often ignored the new players to reduce the competition. As a result the new players would often get ostracized in the beginning which would indirectly affect their performances and result in the reduction of their game time.
Hiro being the only new guy in the team that year provided the old players even greater opportunity to ostracize him, since there wouldn’t be any other new players to complain about their disdainful acts.
**** ****
Having been ignored by almost every player whom he approached in the pitch, he thought of approaching Kota Yui, the guy who was the centre of the commotion which took place a moment ago.
“Hey!! I know that you’re upset about coach’s decision of playing me instead of you. But do you know why this players are acting so weird?” After getting ignored by almost every player whom he approached, he was somewhat suspicious of Kota Yui. However he wasn’t willing to ask him directly. Thus, he asked him indirectly if he was the culprit behind the behaviours of the other players towards him.
“Don’t take it to your heart. They’re like this to every new player. Since the spot for the place at the U-18 team is very limited, they’re just wary of you. And they’re probably avoiding you to minimise the competition.” Kota Yui replied with a smile on his face. As if the behaviour of the other players had nothing to do with him, he pushed the blame on the competition.
“Just play like you do normally. And if you’re talented enough they won’t ignore you anymore.” He sniggered and walked outside the pitch, towards the sidelines.
“So you were the ringmaster who was orchestrating this act afterall.” Hiro whispered under his breath after confirming his suspicion, while watching him leave.
Beep!!
Just then manager Nozomi blew the whistle and signalled everybody to assume their positions.
After that all the players started to scatter around the field. However Hiro who was still new to the team didn’t know what to do. He stood still at his place.
“Why are you standing still? The game has begun. Go assume your position.” Manager Nozomi mumbled while walking closer towards him.
And just as he reached him, he paused his movement and stood straight infront of him.
“But you haven’t instructed me about the formation yet. So what formation are we playing?” Hiro questioned.
“Yeah right!! I forgot to tell you about the formation. Hahaha…” Nozomi chuckled after hearing his question. “We’ll be playing in a 4-2-1-3 formation. And you’ll be the only attacking midfielder of your team.”
“Did you get it? Or do I need to show you the formation on the whiteboard?” Nozomi questioned.
“No sir!!” Saying such he stormed towards his position.
And after everybody assumed their respective position, manager Nozomi commanded a middle aged man in a blue tracksuit to referee the match.
The middle aged man whom manager Nozomi appointed as a referee for the ongoing match was one of the coaching staff of the youth team.
Aside from the appointed referee, there were three other coaches in the field next to the U-15 pitch. Altogether there were five coaches including manager Nozomi and manager Makoto, who oversaw the training and development of the youth players of Kawasaki Frontale club.
While manager Nozomi stood in the sidelines, the referee looked at his stopwatch and blew the whistle, commencing the start of the game.
The reserve team started the kickoff with a long pass to the defender. ｂｎ𝚘ｖ𝚕．𝚘𝚛𝚐
Since manager Nozomi had warned everybody to take the match seriously, the opposing team didn’t slack behind. From the get go, they pressed aggressively for the ball.
Even before the start of the match, his teammates had already lost their will to play the match.
And after witnessing the aggressive pressing of the opposing forwards, the players of his team who had admitted defeat even before the start of the match got even more anxious.
At just 1 minute 37 seconds, the defenders in his team gave away the ball to the opposing player and lost the position because of a misspass.
Just as the opposing striker pressed forward for the ball, the defender with the ball blindly passed the ball towards the right back without taking note of the opposing winger.
The opposing left winger who was waiting for the defender to pass the ball towards the right back ran towards the right back and intercepted the pass.
After giving away the ball, he stood forzen at his place for a while. Hesitating whether to intercept the winger or mark the centre forward who had costed him that mistake, he stood still while juggling between those two options.