250 Extending a hand of friendship
Because of the commotion which took place in the pitch, a lot of time had been wasted. Due to which, the referee was forced to add a ridiculous 7 extra minutes for additional time.
Although the incident was settled with only one player getting sent off, still a lot of players from both the team involved in the commotion had received a warning.
Which meant Jordan who still had three players booked playing in the field was at higher risk of losing yet another player.
As such to mitigate the risk and also to restore the balance in their formation, manager of Jordan national u17 team decided to make some changes in his team.
Substituting three players at once even before the end of the first half, he totally altered his team's formation.
Substituting both their left and right midfielder for a defensive midfielder and a defender and substituting one of their defender who had already received a yellow card for yet another defender, Jordan national u17 team was now going to play in 5-3-1 formation.
They had completely switched their playstyle from balanced to defensive.
With this not only did they took two of their booked players out, they also reduced their chances of losing.
Afterall even with their full force they had been struggling against Japan. But now that they even lost a player and their number was reduced to 10, their chances of victory had been further reduced.
Just then as everybody positioned themselves in the field for the freekick, Hiro who had been receiving treatment at the sidelines, limped his way towards the freekick spot after applying some muscle relaxing spray.
Although Hiro was the appointed freekick taker of his team, he wasn't going to take this freekick. Even so nobody in his team was aware of his intentions.
Thus until now nobody was making a fuss for the freekick. Right now all of his teammates were waiting for him to take the freekick.
Just as Hiro reached the freekick spot, he started walking towards Nijichi who had positioned himself inside the box.
All of Hiro's teammates gave him perplexing gaze as Hiro walked towards Nijichi instead of positioning himself behind the ball to take the freekick.
"What is he doing?"
Such thoughts filled the mind of many players standing in the pitch, right now.
Most of the players couldn't figure out Hiro's intentions. Today they were struck dumbstruck by Hiro's behaviour since the beginning of the match.
First he acted weirdly and now he was even giving up his chances of scoring. Seriously what the hell is wrong with him today?
Even Nijichi who was pissed a moment ago because of Hiro's decision of choosing Yutaka instead of him was baffled right now.
As Hiro approached closer to him, carrying a gentle smile on his face, Nijichi who wasn't in good terms with Hiro felt his eyes twitching.
"What? What do you want?" He spoke hurriedly in a flustered tone.
His tone carrying a hint of bewilderment and his expression looking a bit skeptical, Nijichi right now was like a person trapped in complete darkness, unaware of his surroundings.
His eyes glowing with brilliance, Hiro kept his smile as he replied, "You take the freekick"
"Huh??" Nijichi exclaimed in shock as he heard Hiro's request.
His wide-opened eyes fixedly stared at Hiro. Nijichi's stupefied expression gave an impression that he had heard something totally unexpected.
Hiro however while keeping that gentle smile glued in his face, repeated once again without any hesitation, "I said that you should take the free...."
Before Hiro could even finish his sentence, Nijichi interjected him as he exasperated, "I heard it already. But why are you giving away your opportunity? Neither did I win the freekick nor am I the appointed freekick taker. So why are you giving away your opportunity?"
It was clear from the way Nijichi interpreted his statement that he was extremely doubtful of Hiro's intentions.
As much as he knew about Hiro, even at the club level he had always been the set-piece taker. So to him, it was totally unreasonable for Hiro to give up his chances.
Faced with Nijichi's question, Hiro calmly replied, "It's because you are good at taking long distance freekick. And plus my ankles hurt right now. So are you gonna take the freekick or not?"
Despite hearing Hiro's reasoning, Nijichi hesitated to answer.
Seeing Nijichi's reluctance to answer, Hiro turned around as he shrugged, "Forget it, if you don't want to"
While Hiro was saying such, Nijichi exasperated once again, "Who said that I wasn't going to. If you don't want to then it's your loss. I'll happily take this freekick"
Saying such, Nijichi strode towards the freekick spot.
Looking at Nijichi's figure, Hiro's lips curled up into a smile as he whispered under his breath, "With this his attitude towards me will definitely improve."
The reason why Hiro asked Nijichi to take the freekick was to improve the harmony in the team. He knew that Nijichi was hostile towards him.
And since they were playing in the same team, such hostility will only hamper their team's performance.
Now one may wonder that he didn't have to go through such lengths just to improve the harmony in the team.
He could have just talked to Nijichi regarding that matter?
Well the reason why he didn't do that was because he was aware of Nijichi's personality. Nijichi was very prideful and arrogant. And Hiro wasn't a smooth talker either.
Thus he could only do such things to improve their relationship.
But is their a need to improve their relationships?
If they were playing for a different team or if Nijichi wasn't talented, he wouldn't have gone through such lengths to improve their relationship.
But since both of them were playing in the same team and since both of them were the starter of their team, having bad relationship among each other could only benefit their opponents and reduce their chances of victory.
Thus he could only take indirect route to improve the harmony in the team.
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