Chapter 240 Cheeky Shot
After bringing some players to act as the walls for the duel, Hiro and Nijichi played a game of rock, paper, scissors to determine the order of the freekick taker.
Hiro won the game and hence Tominaga Nijichi was forced to take the freekick first.
Even so he didn't look worried in the slightest. Infact his expression was more sharper than ever and his confidence was at an all time high.
Just like Hiro and Nijichi, Taki who had agreed to help them conduct this challenge had his own intention.
He wasn't helping them out of goodwill. Neither was he helping them because they were his teammates.
He had his own motive to help them in this challenge. Mostly he wanted to impress the coaches who were currently watching the duel taking place in the pitch from the sidelines. Indirectly he wanted to appeal the coaches to increase his playing minutes.
He knew that with Shun and Hanagaki in the team, his chances of getting any playing minutes was pretty slim. Thus, right now he was prepared to stop any shots shot at him.
Obviously it was a good thing. Since that way the result would be even more fairer.
The blazing hot sphere which hung relatively high up in the eastern horizon was a kaleidoscope of yellow and orange.
Spreading it's majestic aura upon the surface, it was warming the entire surface.
The azure blue sky being it's playground and the fluffy white clouds being it's companion, the sun was as lively as ever, even in this early in the morning, signifying the arrival of the summer.
Despite the sun shining upon him, Nijichi's eyes were glowing with a cold light while he was preparing to take the freekick.
Enveloped by an aura of coldness, his eyes looked as sharp as ever while he focused at the ball.
Just by looking at his stance and eyes, one could tell how focused he was at the moment.
Infront of him a wall of five players was erected. And since he was taking the freekick from the left flank just about 10m away from the goal-line, the shooting angle was quite tight.
"Huff!!"
Exhaling a deep breath, Nijichi then started his run-up. At the same time, Taki squinted his eyes, focusing intently at the ball.
Using power from this angle and at this distance was like a suicide. The ball was bound to go astray or hit the wall or get blocked by the keeper.
Thus the only ideal way to score from this spot was to either curl the ball or shoot a knuckle ball.
And Hiro who had seen Nijichi's stat was almost sure that Nijichi wasn't a technical player.
Sure his shots were impressive, sure his stats were impressive and sure his wow-factors were impressive, however he was still lacking in technical aspects. Tominaga Nijichi simply wasn't a technical player.
Thus as predicted by Hiro, Nijichi went with power. Instead of curling the ball at the top right corner which was the most ideal position to hit the ball from this angle, Nijichi hit a powerful shot which inturn got deflected as it hit the wall of players.
"Tch!" Nijichi bitterly clicked his tongue as he witnessed his shot failing to pass the wall.
"Ohh... Missed!!"
"Damn!! That was a powerful shot"
However as he received that shot, one of the player in the wall fell on his ass after defending that powerful shot.
Immediately other players who were beside him started checking his condition as they helped him get up.
"Damn!! That was a powerful shot" mumbled that player while letting out a subtle laughter.
His forehead as red as tomato, he was trying to act tough at the moment, despite feeling a burning pain.
While the bunch of players who were surrounding the player who just fell down were making jokes and laughing heartily, Hiro displayed a worried look on his face.
His brows knotted and his face ghastly pale, he was pursing his lips while looking at the scene of the players laughing heartily.
'Sure that shot was powerful. But if they can't even handle that much power then how are they gonna handle African players? They shoot like missiles.' panicked Hiro while thinking about the miserable state of his teammates.
His worries weren't baseless. No disrespect to any other countries out there in the world. But young African players are really a force to be feared. Although non of the African countries had yet to win the senior world cup.
This U17 world cup which they were going to participate was heavily dominated by African countries. Although the current U17 champion was Brazil a footballing powerhouse nation, still the team with the most championship with five titles uder their name, it was Nigeria, a team from Africa.
Immediately seeing such state of his teammates, Hiro was brought back to reality. His dream of lifting the trophy seemed quite farfetched.
After that blunder, Nijichi scored two goals out of five freekicks. He missed the next freekick which he shot from the right flank.
However he converted both the freekicks from the 20 yards line and 30 yards line. And even the last freekick which he shot from the halfline, he only missed it because Taki made a brilliant save.
No doubt, his abilities shone brilliantly when he could shoot from a distance.
The result of his performance had greatly shaken him as his eyes no longer radiated an aura of confidence.
His face a little pale than before. Sure enough he had taken a hit.
The fact that he knew about Hiro's feat of scoring from the halfline further intensified his worries. And right now, his worries were evident from the wrinkles on his forehead.
However what he didn't know was that Hiro couldn't shoot like before. If only he knew about this secret, his worries wouldn't have been this severe.
Now it was Hiro's turn to take the freekicks. During the process while Tominaga Nijichi was taking the freekick, after taking his reduced power into consideration, he had deduced that the only way he could win this challenge was by scoring the first three goals.
Since he was a technical player and with the loss of such a precious talent, he could only thrive in short distance freekicks at the moment, he had no other choice but to score those first three freekicks if he wanted to win.
However with such tight angle, it was easier said than done.
With that being said Hiro was currently taking his stance beside the ball preparing to take his first freekick.
As much as Nijichi was worried about Hiro's freekicks, Taki who had faced him once was even more worried and so were other players acting as the wall.
'For sure he's going for top right corner' thought Taki while staring at the ball.
'For sure he's going to curl the ball above our head.'
'I need to jump as high as I can to block the ball'
Such were the worries players in the walls were thinking about while looking at Hiro with grim look on their faces.
And as Hiro started making his run-up, some players in the wall gulped their saliva before jumping as high as they can.
However the next moment as they leapt from the ground, their expression turned from grim to shock. They were utterly stupefied.
Why you may ask?
It's because Hiro shot the ball right beneath their legs. Instead of shooting the ball above their heads, he shot below their legs, making use of the gap created by the players in the walls as they leapt from the ground.
Taki's situation wasn't any better either. Thinking that Hiro was going to shoot at the top right corner, he had jumped towards the top right corner to have a better probability to save the ball.
Making a cheeky shot, Hiro scored the first goal.
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