After getting past Takekazu, Hiro found himself infront of the penalty box. However between him and the goal, there stood three opposing defenders and a single goalkeeper.
Three defenders infront and the fourth one chasing him from behind, he was forced to make his decision quickly.
However even with only three defenders, they had completely blocked his pass course.
While the defender infront had completely blocked his pass course to his team’s center forward, the other two defenders in the side had simultaneously blocked his pass course to his team’s wingers as well.
And unlike his teammates, he was willing to pass the ball to anyone with a decent chance of scoring.
“Now then what will you do?” Manager Nozomi mumbled while looking at him with eyes full of curiosity.
Unable to find his teammates, he chose to dribble the ball forward all by himself.
While they were aware of his shooting and passing, they weren’t aware of his most amazing talent. He was a dribbler.
Since he hadn’t had the chance to touch the ball much upto that point of game, they hadn’t seen him dribble much.
That’s why they were focusing all their attention to block his shooting course and passing course. .
And as he started to dribble the ball forward, the opposing defender who was infront of him, gingerly approached him.
With two other defenders behind his back, he wasn’t worried about getting dribbled past.
With an elastico, Hiro got past the first defender.
The other two defenders who were just behind the first defender ran towards him as well, leaving behind their marks.
However he couldn’t pass the ball to his teammates, since they had already ran past the defenders even before he could release the ball.
With the ball still at his feet, he couldn’t pass the ball to his teammates because of their rash actions. At that point even if he had passed the ball to his teammates that would have ended up as an offside.
Thus, instead of passing the ball, he chose to dribble past those two approaching defenders as well.
Seeing him approaching the penalty box, both of them performed an aggressive sliding tackle at him at the same time. Even if it meant fouling him, they were prepared to stop him on his track.
Since he was still outside of the penalty box, they were prepared for the consequences.
However contrary to their intentions of fouling him, he simply lifted the ball above their legs and stepped over them.
“What are those three morons doing? They can’t even stop one person.” Kota Yui gnashed his teeths upon witnessing Hiro’s skills.
“Hah!! No one here can match your dribbling prowess. Only you can make it look easy after tearing the entire defence of the opposition.” Manager Nozomi chuckled after watching him dribble past every defenders of the team without the training bibs.
After getting past all those three defenders, he found himself inside the penalty box infront of the post, one on one with the keeper.
Before he could make his shot, Shun left his post and threw his body towards him.
Even faced with Shun, he tapped the ball lightly with the outside of his right foot and got past his long arms.
After dribbling past the entire defence of the opposing team, including the keeper, he tapped the ball lightly towards the open post.
With the keeper lying beside him, there was simply no stopping to the ball released from his feet.
Hence after kicking the ball, he didn’t even look at the ball. He was sure that the ball would end up inside the post.
He simply ran towards the sidelines to celebrate his goal without even looking at the ball.
Beep!!
And he only turned back after hearing the whistle of the referee.
Looking back, he found the ball inside the post. However the crowd was gathered at the opposite sideline. Aside from Yuya, his other teammates were gathered around the centre forward of his team, jumping atop each other.
‘Why are they gathered there when I’m the one who scored the goal?’ Feeling all confused, he thought to himself after noticing the crowd gathered at the opposite corner.
He then ran towards Yuya who was standing infront of the goalpost all alone with a dejected look on his face.
“What’s happening?” He questioned after reaching close to Yuya.
Just as he approached him, Yuya lowered his eyes and drooped his shoulder. He then slightly lifted his head up and spoke to him in a low voice;
“Ryuma touched the ball before it entered the post. That’s why they’re celebrating his goal.”
From what he heard from Yuya he found out that just before the ball entered the post, Ryuma Takeuchi the centre forward of his team had touched the ball and robbed him of his goal.
Even after finding out the deeds of Ryuma, Hiro showed no change in his facial expressions.
“Why do you look so calm even after finding out the truth Hiro?” Unable to see any changes in his facial expressions, Yuya questioned him.
However Hiro revealed a smile instead without saying anything. As if the fact that Ryuma robbed him of his goal didn’t affect him, he maintained the smile on his face.
“You were robbed Hiro!! You were robbed!!” Yuya exasperated upon seeing his smiling face.
“It doesn’t matter who scores the goal Yuya. What matters is our team tied the score.” Hiro replied with a smile on his face.
But just then the referee made his way towards the celebrating crowd and declared the goal void.
“No goal. Ryuma was offside.” The referee intoned.
Just as referee declared the goal void, he remembered that all three of his teams attackers were offside.
“A striker needs to be hungry about goals. But what you did was plain robbery Ryuma.” Manager Nozomi exasperated while keeping his eyes at the ongoing scene. “Your mistakes has costed your team the goal Ryuma.”
“Yui, go warm up. You’ll be playing as the forward.” Manager Nozomi exclaimed after turning his head towards Kota Yui.
He wanted to replace Ryuma because of his selfish blunder. He was going to play Kota Yui as the forward despite him being an offensive midfielder.
Kota Yui who was enjoying the scene was totally immersed in the drama happening on the field. Thus, he couldn’t hear the words of manager Nozomi. He simply kept on staring at the ongoing commotion happening in the field with a wry smile on his face.
“Kota Yui!! Didn’t you hear me. Go warm up.” Manager Nozomi yelled upon noticing his disgusting expression.