251 With great talent comes great envy
After inciting Nijichi to take the freekick, Hiro positioned himself beside the ball to confuse the opponents.
The wall of players stood straight at a certain distance away from the ball as they prepared themselves to defend the freekick.
At the same time, Nijichi inhaled a deep breathe. During the process of inhalation, his shoulders broadened slightly, inturn making him look slightly bigger than usual.
Nijichi then exhaled a deep turbid air before starting his run-up.
His eyes seemed extremely sharp as he concentrated at the post infront of him. As he concentrated his attention at the post, the air around Nijichi suddenly started to felt heavy.
Just before he started his run-up, his eyes flashed with a cold light.
With swift nimble steps, Nijichi tore through the air as he dashed towards the ball.
Some eyes in the wall infront of him flashed with anxiousness while some eyes in the wall flashed with determination before jumping upwards to defend the ball.
Bam!!
However the next instant as they lept from the ground, the flying ball bounced beneath their feet as it got past through their blockage in a lightning speed.
Upon seeing Nijichi's freekick, Hiro's eyes widened for a while as he displayed an expression full of shock. However the next instant, in a blink of an eye, his lips curled upwards as he let out a subtle smile.
The ball as it bounced beneath the feet of the players acting as the wall, it's speed increased further.
And before the keeper could even react to the ball, it brushed past him as it found it's way to the back of the net, leaving him totally bewildered.
"Gooooaaaaallllllll!!"
The crowd and commentator yelled almost at the same time as both side expressed their excitement.
At the same time, a lot of players ran towards Nijichi to celebrate the goal.
However Hiro who was standing the closest to Nijichi, stood frozen at his place. Smiling and clapping his hands, he celebrated Nijichi's goal silently from afar.
At the same time, Nijichi who was surrounded by a lot of players, glanced at Hiro with a haughty expression as if he was telling Hiro, "See I'm a better freekick taker than you"
Hiro however only smiled lightly and gave him an approving nod without getting irritated by his smug face.
Hiro wasn't bothered in the slightest.
10:57
Far infront of Japan's goalpost, Shun let out a subtle grin as he murmured under his breath, "So that rascall did learn few things from his duel with Hiro"
Although Nijichi was the one who scored the goal, almost every Japanese player present in the field attributed that goal to Hiro.
Having seen Hiro pull out such stunts few days ago, almost everybody knew that Nijichi was inspired by Hiro's freekick.
However even though almost everybody shared the same feelings, nobody spoke of it aloud.
After that second goal, situation got even more dire for Jordan as that second goal not only acted as the morale booster but also increased Japan's team play.
Before Nijichi and Hiro were hardly coordinating with each other but now even their coordination had slightly improved.
Although their coordination didn't improve drastically, it was still slightly better than before.
And for the remaining minutes of the additional time, Jordan faced countless threatening attacks.
Beeep!!
The referee then blew his whistle, announcing the end of the first half.
"And with this, a thrilling first half has finally come to an end. Be it Hiro's solo goal or Nijichi's freekick goal or Ahmed's brilliant defending or the last minute drama, right from the beginning this match has been very interesting. But with one player down, if Jordan's manager doesn't take appropriate measures to counter Japan's offensive plays then Jordan is sure to meet with misfortune in the second half. Just thinking about the second half is making me excited" commentator expressed his excitement as he made his comment on the match.
Although the first half ended with Jordan losing by two goals, if not for Ahmed's brilliant performance they would have conceded two more goals in the remaining additional time.
**** ****
After about 10 minutes, once again players of both the team walked out of the aisle.
Most players of Jordan carried a gloomy face while most players of Japan were glowing with determination.
Hiro's once dirty face which was smeared with dirt now looked extremely tidy and fresh. Although there were still few bruises in his hands, legs and face, he looked quite rejuvenated right now while walking out of the aisle.
As if he hadn't sustained any injuries before, he was even walking normally without any limping.
'May be I should stop my act now. I've already achieved most of my objectives. Now I just need to provide few more assists and score few more goals to win their trust and further increase the chemistry of the team. Sigh!! If only I could force them I wouldn't have to put up this facade' while thinking about his acting till now, Hiro sighed.
Until now, Hiro hadn't been able to display his full potential because of his plans.
One could say that Hiro had been intentionally suppressing himself up till this moment.
Hiro was well aware of the division in the team. Although nobody showed in the surface, but he was well aware about the internal factions created in the team.
One side was supportive of Nijichi while another was supportive of Hiro. Although Hiro was the most talented player in the team, he still was the youngest in the team.
Thus there were quite a bit of players who were dissatisfied with the decision of the coaches to make him the captain of the team.
Sure, he was talented. Sure he had already proven his talent. But still there were quite few peoples who were extremely proud.
And those players didn't want to listen to the orders of somebody younger than them.
Although their thinking was childish but what can one do? It's not like Hiro could just yell at them? It's not like he could give up on being the captain of the team.
He could only earn their trust slowly and gradually.
Sure there were better ways to solve this problem. He could simply make everybody admire him by displaying his talent.
However football isn't an individual sport. It's a team sport. Thus even to display his talent he'd need the coordination of his teammates.
And with Nijichi and few other starting players already hostile towards him, shining individually may even cause them to have some misunderstanding.
They could even assume that he was intentionally trying to belittle them.
Well everything has it's own merits and demerits. And talent isn't spared either.
With great talent comes great envy.
And envy of people in team sport often lead to ostracization.
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