Chapter 22: Karasuno's number 7
About 32 schools participated in the tournament that year. And those 32 teams were further divided into 8 groups with each group consisting 4 teams.
Again the 8 groups were further divided into two segments with each segment containing four groups each.
And due to the large number of schools, that year's tournament was going to be played in the world cup format. However instead of a league format for the group matches, the group matches were going to be played in knockout format as well.
"Woah!! There's a lot of team participating in the tournament this year."
Hiro mumbled.
"Indeed there's a lot of team participating in the tournament this year. But the favourites remains the same, Karasuno elementary school and Ronden elementary school. And even worst, we're placed in the same group as Karasuno elementary school. Just why God?"
Akashi whined.
Just as the announcer called out the name of the final team to participate in the tournament, someone from that team caught his attention. The final team to walk into the pitch was non other than Ronden elementary school. The same school which once tried to recruit him.
And the person who caught his attention was non other than Kurosawa Taki. Hiro was left dumbfounded by the sight of Kurosawa Taki.
"Hiro! Hiro!"
Akashi called out for him but there was no response from him. He kept on staring at Kurosawa Taki.
"Yea- Yeah!"
He stammered upon coming back to his senses.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah I'm fine."
"Perhaps, did you see a ghost?"
"Huh! Hell no! Why do you ask such absurd questions?"
"Well I mean you looked kinda lost to me. So I wondered if you saw a ghost."
"It's nothing like that, let's just focus on the announcement ahead."
Hiro shrugged off Akashi's curiosity.
"But I don't get one thing. There are so many teams participating in the tournament. So how will we complete all those matches today?"
Akashi inquired.
"I'm sure that the coach had explained us about that previously. Didn't you pay any attention to his words when he was explaining about the tournament fixtures?"
Hiro replied while contorting his face.
"Haha!! I must have missed that information."
Akashi smiled awkwardly.
"Sigh!!"
"Group A, B, C and Group D's first matches will be played today in four different venues. Group E, F, G and Group H's matches will be played tomorrow respectively. So in total a total of 8 matches will be played today. And another 8 match will be played tomorrow."
Hiro exclaimed.
"Huh there's three more venues beside this stadium?"
Akashi questioned.
"Yeah!! There are three more venues beside this stadium. Since all the teams were required to gather at one place before the start of the tournament, every team participating in the tournament are gathered at this venue for the commencement of the tournament."
After the announcement ended, the first match of the tournament between Karasuno elementary school and Tokushima J elementary school was about to begin. And the rest of the teams headed towards their respective venue as well.
Hiro's team being in the same group as Karasuno elementary school, remained seated in the stadium while awaiting their match.
Their match would begin right after the end of the match between the Karasuno elementary school and Tokushima J elementary school.
Beep!!
{The referee has blown his whistle and the 15th annual prefectural tournament officially begins}
The announcer announced the commencement of the tournament.
With that announcement, the stadium was filled with the cheers of the spectators. Most of the spectators consisted of the parents of students who were taking part in the competition.
There were few local reporters in the stand along with the general publics.
{Goaaaaallllllll!! That's why they are one of the favourites of the tournament.}
Karasuno elementary school opened up the scoresheet with a goal in the 17th minute of the game. The stand where the students of Karasuno elementary school were seated burst out with cheers as they scored the goal.
Before the end of the half time, they scored another goal. The first half of the match was pretty much one sided with Karasuno elementary school dominating both the position and shots on target.
The second half was no different than the first half. Tokushima J elementary school got completely battered by Karasuno elementary school as they went on to win the match by an astronomical score of five to nothing.
Even though every players in Karasuno elementary school displayed an amazing performance individually, one player stood out among the rest.
The player with a number 7 on his back. Contrary to his diminutive figure, he played as a striker and scored two headers.
Almost everybody in the stand questioned everytime when an air ball was played to him. They all thought that he wouldn't be able to reach the ball and he'd get swallowed by the tall defenders of Tokushima J elementary school.
But contrary to everybody's expectation, he proved everyone wrong with his incredible vertical jump and lightning speed. He silenced all the critiques with his gameplay.
Short black messy hair, suntanned brunet skin and height that was barely 3.5 feet, his explosive jumps reached the ball which even the tall defenders of Tokushima J elementary school struggled to reach.
On the 17th minute of the game, one of his teammates played a razor sharp through ball which couldn't be reached by anybody besides him. Making use of his explosive pace, he opened up the score with a banger.
Everybody thought that his only weapon was his speed. But soon he proved everybody wrong by scoring two more goals in the second half. And surprisingly both of those goals happened to be headers.
{Woah!! What an amazing way to kick off the tournament. Karasuno elementary school completely obliterated Tokushima J elementary school and won the match with 5-0 score.}
{And even more amazing was the performance of the player Shinji Shoyo, the player of Karasuno elementary school with the number 7 on his back. He scored a hatrick in his first match. If he keeps on scoring like this in other matches, he'd surely score more than 10 goals by the end of the tournament.}
"Damn!! How will we face against Karasuno elementary school?"
Akashi started to get flustered all of a sudden.
"Did you already forget that we still have a match to play? Before facing against them we need to get through this hurdle first."
Hiro replied.
"Okay team it's our turn to play. We'll play just like we've practiced. Just keep your calm and play without getting anxious."
Coach Miura exclaimed as they were about to enter the pitch.
{And the second match of the group A is between Ookami elementary school and Public youth elementary school. Surprisingly both of these teams are new to the nationals. And even more surprising is the fact that both of these new teams are facing against each other in their debut match.}
{Public youth elementary school is going for a 5-3-2 formation which emphasizes more on defense and Ookami elementary school is going to play in a 4-4-2 diamond formation which focuses more on the offence.}
{So who'll come out victorious? Will defence win the game or will offence win the game? It's a showoff between defence and offense.}
Beep!!
The second game of group A between Ookami elementary school and Public youth elementary school commenced with the sound of referee's whistle.
As referee blew his whistle, Kuro passed the ball to Sato. The opponent team instead of pushing forward, dropped back from the moment of kickoff.
{Huh? Is this some kind of new tactic? The players of public youth elementary school are dropping deep right from the beginning of the kickoff. They aren't even coming out of their own half to win the ball.}
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