Chapter 16: Who's that keeper??
As the game progressed, their form kept on deteriorating. And Hiro who was all by himself couldn't do anything at all. Once again he found himself in the same precarious situation, just like he did during the futsal tournament.
Hiro took a peek at the faces of his teammates. Most of them showed no concern at all and it looked like they had already given up on the match. However Akashi's face said otherwise. He hadn't given up on the match.
"Oh! There's still somebody who hasn't given up on the match."
Hiro murmured.
From the moment he landed his eyes on Akashi, he had every reason to keep a distance from him. Spiky hair, eyes shaped like fish, a face that looked extremely tensed and to top it all, he had a very loud voice. Akashi's appearance and his manner of speech gave him the impression of the typical hot-headed guy that appears in most of the manga and anime.
After conceding the second goal in less than 10 minutes, it was already difficult for them to make a comeback. But having uncooperative teammate in the team made the matter even worst.
Thus, even though he reluctantly wanted to keep a distance from Akashi, he didn't have any other choice but to depend on Akashi, if he wanted to win the match.
Beep!!
On the 15th minute of the game, they conceded another goal and this time as well, he didn't even get to touch the ball.
"Oii!!"
"Huh?? Whad'ya want shorty??"
Akashi replied in a harsh tone.
He seemed extremely agitated.
"Do you want to win the match?"
"So what if I want to win the match??"
"I can help you to win the match."
"Go away!! I'm not in the mood to joke."
Akashi grunted and turned around.
"Just pass me the ball once and if I can't score the goal then I'll play as a defender instead."
Hiro yelled.
However, Akashi didn't respond at all and went over to his position. Due to the unresponsiveness of Akashi, Hiro had no idea if he was willing to cooperate or not.
Beep!!
Unsure about whether or not Akashi would cooperate with him, he had no choice but to trust him. With the sound of the whistle, Hiro kicked the ball backwards, towards Akashi instead of Gen.
"Please pass me the ball. Please pass me the ball."
As he dashed forward, he started to pray.
He looked behind him to see whether the ball was coming towards him or not. To his surprise, the ball did come towards him.
After he passed the ball towards Akashi, he dashed towards the opponents goal without looking back, hoping he'd somehow get the ball back.
After the ball was played towards Akashi, the opponent players rushed towards Akashi to steal the ball. Just then as the opponent players were drawn towards Akashi, he kicked the ball hard towards the direction where Hiro was running.
"Thank you Akashi for trusting me."
"But why do I feel that he kicked the ball a little too hard."
"Wait!! It'd definitely go out of bounds if I don't trap it in one touch."
Even though Akashi did pass the ball to Hiro, he hit the ball a little too hard. However Hiro still tried really hard to reach the ball.
After attaining some height, the ball began to drop rapidly.
Step!! Step!! Step!!
Making full use of his hamstrings and foot muscles, he sprinted towards the ball with all his might. However he was still some distance away from the ball. And no matter how much he tried, to everyone it looked like that the ball would go out of bounds.
Contrary to everybody's expectation, he leaped forward while stretching his right leg. Almost at the periphery of the boundary line, his toe touched the ball. The ball bounced behind him over his head as it touched his feet.
"'What the f***!!! He saved that ball??"'
Thwack!!
Even though he managed to save the ball by jumping towards the ball, he couldn't land properly on his feet and crashed against the protective net.
The opponent defenders were still far away from the ball and it would definitely take them some moment to reach the ball. Even though he crashed against the net, he instantly picked himself up and ran towards the ball.
Besides him, the opponent keeper was the only other player who was closed to the ball. And he didn't waste any time as well. Just like him the opponent keeper rushed towards the ball as well.
Both of them competed for the ball. It seemed like that the keeper would somehow block his course even though he'd get to the ball before the keeper.
As the keeper ran towards the ball, he hid his arms behind his back to prevent any possible PK.
Hiro was the first one to reach to the ball. However the keeper caught up to him and stood infront of him to defend against him. Unlike the previous defenders he had faced before, the keeper didn't leave him any space to dribble. His defence looked extremely flawless.
Being a keeper, he didn't open his legs. And he was conscious of his left and right side as well.
"I don't see any space. What should I do now?"
He began to wonder.
Neither could he dribble the ball from his left nor from his right. The keeper had blocked all his route.
"Just where did a keeper like this come from?? His defence is already on par with pros. But I don't remember him. Shouldn't this kind of keeper be playing in national team??"
For the first time in the match, he looked really anxious.
Hiro couldn't figure out the identity of the keeper infront of him. Despite showcasing such an amazing talent, he hadn't heard about him in his previous life.
Even Kurosawa Taki who didn't let in a single shot during the futsal tournament paled to the comparison of the keeper infront of him.
"Now I get it why the coach didn't play that tall keeper."
He mumbled.
While carefully moving the ball forward, he took a peek at the keeper's face. His eyes were glued on the ball at his feet. And he had completely blocked his route.
He tried to perform a body feint to misguide the keeper but the keeper didn't even react a bit. As if the keeper was aware of his tricks, he didn't show any reaction to his faints.
Just then he noticed a gap between the keeper's legs. He tapped the ball lightly, but the keeper was quick to react. He lunged his left leg and closed the gap instantly.
The keeper deliberately let a gap in his legs for Hiro to try to pass the ball between his legs. And just like he predicted, Hiro indeed tried to pass the ball between his legs.
But to his surprise, the ball rolled over his head instead. Hiro kicked the ball lightly with his left leg but before the ball reached the keeper's legs, he gently tapped beneath the ball with his right feet and chipped the ball above the keeper's head.
The keeper who was already on the ground couldn't react to the uncertain move of Hiro and was left dumbfounded.
Before the ball dropped, Hiro hit the ball in mid air and scored a brilliant volley goal.
Beep!!
Yeah!! Woohoo!!
"'Unbelievable"'
Everybody in the pitch was stunned by his play. Nobody could believe their eyes. They looked at him with disbelief.
Even his teammates were having hard time to digest the fact that they had scored a goal against the senior team.
While everybody were cheering, Hiro ran towards the post. He then took the ball out and ran towards the centre of the pitch while carrying the ball.
He didn't want to waste any time to cheer as his team was still down by two goals. Even though he scored a goal against the senior team, they were still losing the match by 3-1 score.
"You freaking did it."
Akashi exclaimed in ecstasy.
"Yes!! But we still need 3 more goals to win the match."
Hiro replied.
"Yeah that's right!! We're going to win the match."
Akashi clenched his fist and stretched his hand towards Hiro.
"What do you want??"
He inquired while looking at the fist of Akashi.
Hiro didn't realise that Akashi simply wanted to do a fist bomb. Akashi didn't reply anything and kept on pointing his fist towards Hiro.
"Oh!! I see."
Hiro finally realised the meaning behind Akashi's gesture. He then gently tapped Akashi's fist with his fist and performed a fist bomb.
Thwack!!
"Let's score three more goals and win the match."
He exclaimed as he placed the ball at the kickoff position.
beep!!
The opponent team started the kickoff. And from the moment they started the kickoff, they didn't make any mistakes. Unlike Hiro's team, their coordination was top notch.
Nobody among them acted selfish. They were all well organised. And everytime his teammates would rush towards the ball, they would immediately pass the ball to other player.
The game of cat and mouse continued for a while. The ball was the mouse and they were the cats. Everytime they tried to take hold of the mouse, the mouse would run away from them.
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