Chapter 203 Changes in the ranking
Slowly illuminating the east sky with it's golden rays, morning sun made it's appearance, signifying the arrival of dawn.
And as the morning sun made it's appearance, the sky transformed from a deep dark blue to a warm orangy-pink, like a watercolour painting coming to life.
Under the golden glow of the morning sun, it seemed like that the earth was awakening from it's slumber.
However despite the light in the sky, some players were still yawning while standing in the pitch. Their eyes half closed, they were having trouble waking themselves fully from their state of sleepiness.
Fluttering along with the wind, Hiro's curly black hair was dancing while his skin was glowing in golden colours reflecting the rays of the morning sun.
Standing in the front row of one of the queue, Hiro was standing attentively. Hiro's brown eyes looked rather focused today. Unlike yesterday, there were no worries in his eyes.
Just like Hiro, many players present in the pitch were also looking at the direction of the entrance of the pitch as if they were eagerly waiting for somebody's arrival.
Some gossiping while some lazing around, some expectant while some anxious, different players were showing different reactions.
Just then while they were waiting, coaches and selecters of National U-17 team entered the pitch. Slowly walking towards the location where the players were gathered, some of them were carrying notebooks in their hands.
With the arrival of the coaches, those players who were continuously yawning, their eyes finally opened fully as they straightened their drooped shoulders.
Just like common soldiers queued up infront of their senior, almost everybody straightened their backs immediately as they assumed an attentive position.
"Good morning players." Greeted head coach Haruki Ozeki. Despite the warm greetings, his voice still sounded a little hoarse and his face still looked the same.
"Good morning sirs."
In an energetic tone, most of the players replied while few continued to laze around.
"I'll cut straight to the chase. Most of you played well yesterday. While few of you seemed quite lackluster. So I'm sure everybody knows the motive of this meeting, right?"
"Yes sir" Replied most of the players while nodding their head.
"Then no matter the results, I'm hoping that every single one of you will accept the outcome gracefully without making any scenes."
Haruki then without wasting any time began to announce the name of the players. The players whose name were spoken walked towards the coaches to collect their jerseys.
One by one, they distributed the jerseys to the players. Yesterday after the match, they took the jersey from the players so that they could swap the jerseys.
And as the last player got his jersey, jersey distribution finally came to an end.
Upon getting their hands on the jersey, some players face brightened while some players face darkened. Few were excited about the jersey which they received while few looked pretty dejected.
As if it wasn't the outcome which they were hoping for, some players looked quite unsatisfied. Still as instructed by head coach Haruki, nobody dared to speak a single word.
Hiro who had gotten his jersey before anyone else looked indifferent. Just like a huge sturdy mountain, his gazes remained unfazed as his facial expression showed no changes.
Even after losing the match yesterday, his ranking remained unchanged. He was still the player with the jersey number 1.
However Shun's face showed somewhat unexpected reaction. No matter what ranking he'd get, he had pretty much steeled himself to accept the outcome without any complaints.
However even so, a part of him was hoping for him to maintain his ranking while a part of him was fearing his downfall.
Now that he got his jersey, his temples were wrinkled while his eyes were open wide. He had a look of surprise on his face.
"This..." Murmured Shun while looking at the jersey in his hands.
"Is this for real?" Still somewhat flabbergasted, Shun pinched his cheeks as he tried to test whether he was in dream or reality.
But the moment he pinched his cheeks, his eyes glowed as a smile formed on his face. Just like a blooming flower, his face bloomed as he suddenly mumbled in ecstasy, "My ranking improved..."
Hearing Shun's loud voice, Hiro who was standing infront of him abruptly turned behind.
Turning behind, his eyes first landed on Shun who was looking all cheerful. After that his eyes slowly drifted on other players in his team.
Most of them seemed pretty depressed while only few looked somewhat better. Judging by the reactions which they were displaying, Hiro could pretty much tell that almost most of the players in his team had dropped their ranking while only few had managed to either keep their ranking or improve their ranking.
"What number did you get Yutaka?" Questioned Hiro as he finished analysing the reaction of the player in his team.
"Somehow I still got the number 7." Casually replied Yutaka.
While Hiro was conversing with his friends, few other players were also gossiping about Hiro.
The way they talked about Hiro made it seem like they cared for Hiro's ranking more than they cared about their own.
As there's a saying, "Jealous people cares more about others than they care about themselves."
"Do you think he got demoted?"
"Judging by his reaction, it doesn't seem like he got demoted"
"He could be putting facade too?"
"No way, he'd do that. That's just his natural expression. Sometimes it makes me feel like that he's somekind of robot."
After a while, selecters and coaches then began to name the players who performed exceptionally well in yesterday's match.
They also pointed mistakes of the player's who performed poorly in yesterday's match.
Speaking about their strengths and flaws, coaches continued to guide the players for a while. And only after they finished pointing the strengths and flaws of the players did they start the morning training.
Training in the morning and matches in the evening, that's how Hiro and other players were going to spend their days.
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