Chapter 34 Costly mistake
At 43rd minute of the game, Hiro tied the score with his incredible goal. All of his teammates ran towards him to celebrate the goal as he scored the goal and tied the game.
After scoring the goal, Hiro ran towards the sidelines to celebrate his goal and lifted his left arm forward. He then folded the fingers of his right hand while sticking out his middle finger and index finger. And as he stretched his left hand forward, he lowered his head and positioned the fingers of his right hand at his temple. He announced the supporters his arrival by immitating teleportation gesture of son Goku.
Just then his teammates caught up to him and jumped all over him.
The supporters of Ookami elementary school very much enjoyed his celebration and burst out in praises while the supporters of Ronden elementary school were fuming in anger. The players of Ronden elementary school expressed the same feeling as their supporters, they were furious.
Pulling off a comeback in the 43rd minute of the game, the coach of Ookami elementary school was overjoyed with happiness and so were the supporters of Ookami elementary school.
While everybody were celebrating Hiro's goal, Endo pitifully observed his teammates from the backline. He couldn't bring himself to celebrate the goal.
While they were celebrating his goal, the coach of Ronden elementary school was preparing to make a player change.
Beep!!
[The first substitution of the game has come from Ronden elementary school. They are substituting one of their midfielder for a defender.]
The game continued with a score of 1:1.
As the match continued after that 43rd minute equaliser from Ookami elementary school, Ronden elementary school substituted their midfielder for a defender.
Their already stuffed defensive line was even more packed with the addition of a new defender.
After that equaliser, the defenders of Ronden elementary school didn't give them any opportunity to score another goal. They completely shut them down everytime they went on the offense.
Because of the increase in the number of defenders, they were having difficulties in moving the ball forward. While the two forwards of Ronden elementary school didn't participate in the defence, they still stayed behind the centre line preying on any lose balls, which inturn created another threat for them to pass the ball backwards.
The game was neck to neck with both sides unwilling to change their strategy.
As if the coach of Ronden elementary school had instructed them to stand their grounds until the final whistle of the match, they maintained their positions and cleared every potential ball that could have ended up as a goal.
The players of Ookami elementary school were starting to show signs of frustration and fatigue. Players?of Ronden elementary school were in similar situation as well, they were panting heavily.
Everytime when they tried to take the ball forward, the defenders of Ronden elementary school would somehow snatch the ball away from them.
But even so they wouldn't charge the ball forward even after snatching the ball away from them. Instead they would clear it away.
As if their only purpose was to waste time and take the game into penalty shootout, they played very defensively.
Just then at 57th minute of the game, Kosei Otsuka the defensive midfielder of Ookami elementary school made a costly mistake. While he was preparing to pass the ball towards Akashi, he didn't notice the presence of the forward of Ronden elementary school behind his back. Garou Sato the forward of Ronden elementary school had been eyeing at the ball while hiding in his blind spot.
[Ohh!!! That doesn't look good. A dangerous mistake from Otsuka has given the opportunity for the players of Ronden elementary school to steal the victory.]
Due to lack of power, the ball from Otsuka stopped midway before it could reach Akashi. Garou Sato one of the forward of the Ronden elementary school was already chasing the ball.
He had been hiding his presence since earlier while awaiting for Otsuka to make some mistakes. Since Otsuka remained at the centre half most of the time and played as a defensive midfielder, he played as a bridge between the defence and offence of the Ookami elementary school.
"Argh!! Shit!!" Akashi cussed in frustration as the ball stopped midway before reaching him.
He ran towards the ball. But before he could reach the ball, Garou Sato the forward of Ronden elementary school who was already chasing the ball even before it was released from Otsuka reached the ball.
"Tch- Oh Great!!" Akashi clicked his tongue as he stopped midway.
He then began to analyse his options. Once again he found himself in the same situation as he did previously. He was in a 1v1 situation with Garou Sato once again. The only difference being the lack of support for Garou this time around.
With only Endo behind his back, he couldn't trust him to make the save because of his deteriorating performance. Since the start of the match, Endo was performing very badly.
Garou Sato while dribbling the ball towards him, glared at him. Akashi glared him back but didn't charge forward recklessly. He maintained his position and waited patiently for Garou to make his moves.
Having no support, there was only one option available for Garou Sato. He could only dribble the?ball forward if he wanted to score.
And he did exactly the same, he tried to dribble past Akashi. As he approached closer to Akashi, he kicked the ball forward. He was trying to dribble past him while making use of his explosive pace.
Because of his explosive pace, he shook off Akashi easily and left him behind in dust.
After dribbling past Akashi, he approached the penalty area. And as he was stretching his legs to shoot the ball, a leg came flying towards him from behind him and swept him on the floor.
Beep!!
The leg belonged to non other than Akashi. Unable to reach him, he performed a sliding tackle at Garou Sato from behind him to prevent him from scoring a goal.
That intentional tackle from Akashi prevented Garou from making the shot and also prevented the immediate threat. However it couldn't prevent him from getting dejected from the game.
As Garou Sato fell down tumbling on the ground after getting hit by Akashi's harsh tackle, the referee stopped the play.
Everybody could see that the tackle made by Akashi was intentional. And so did the referee. He witnessed his intentional tackle and immediately took a red card out of his pocket.
Akashi looked frustrated but he didn't complain about the decision of referee. He peacefully accepted the referee's decision and began to head out of the field.
"Sob!! Sob!!"
"Akashi you-" Hiro tried to interact with Akashi.
"I leave the rest to you guys." Akashi's voice shook as he left the pitch.
Even though he tried to hide his tears and act tough, Hiro could notice the tears in his eyes. And so did Endo. He also noticed the tears on Akashi's face.
'What am I doing? If not for me, he wouldn't have performed that tackle. My poor performance is costing my team the game.' Endo comprehended.
With that red card, the referee had awarded Ronden elementary school a penalty. And a penalty at that moment of game would have totally altered the outcome of the game.
With only 2 minutes remaining on the clock that penalty was as crucial for Ronden elementary school as last drop of water for a survivor in the desert.
"It's not your fault. You did well." Coach Miura consoled Akashi as he walked outside the pitch.
While everybody were questioning about the penalty taker for Ronden elementary school, Garou Sato stood up and began to walk towards the ball.
Garou Sato hadn't sustained any serious injury from that tackle.
"So it'll still be him" Hiro mumbled.
While everybody positioned themselves behind the penalty box, the referee blew the whistle. Garou stared at the ball placed infront of him and started to make his run.
With slow and steady steps, he made his run towards the ball as if he was trying to intimidate the keeper infront of him.
Endo who was determined to correct his mistakes looked very focused. Peeking at Endo's eyes, Hiro felt something different about him. He then signalled Kuon to run towards the post as soon as Garou made his shot.
Just when Garou began to make his run, Hiro started to run forward. One of the defender of Ronden elementary school caught a sight of Hiro making the run and began to fall back as well.
Garou slammed the ball straight in the bottom left corner of the post. Endo leaped towards the direction of the ball and barely managed to touch the ball.
Endo made a brilliant save and stopped Garou's penalty. As the ball touched his gloves, it bounced forward. The players of Ronden elementary school began to chase after the ball. But it was Kuon who reached the ball before anyone else could.
Just as gestured by Hiro, he had begun to run towards the post the moment Garou made his run. And luckily the ball bounced towards him as well.
"Go Hiro!!!" He yelled as he shot the ball towards Hiro who was already running forward.
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