Chapter 72 Penalty pass
At the 33rd minute of the match, just 3 minutes after the start of the second half, his team got a penalty because of Shun Yabuzoe's foul on Yuya.
While the one who won them the penalty wanted Hiro to take the penalty, other players in his team refused his decision and were against of him taking the penalty.
The majority of the players wanted the centre forward to take the penalty. But since the penalty was won by Yuya, they were also willing to let him take the penalty as well, if he wished to take the penalty.
And thus after some discussion among the players, Yuya stepped forward to take the penalty.
While Yuya was standing at a certain distance away from the ball, preparing to launch himself, all the other players including the opponents stood behind the penalty arc, preparing to launch themselves towards the post while waiting for Yuya to shoot the ball.
Since other players beside goalkeeper and the penalty taker were forbidden to be near than 10 yard to the ball, all of the players beside Yuya and Shun stood outside of the penalty box.
With his legs behind the goal-line between the goal-posts, Shun kept his eyes fixated on Yuya's eyes to predict the direction of the ball, while Yuya was looking for a spot to kick the ball.
Beep!!
Just as the referee blew the whistle, Yuya ran towards the ball and shot the ball towards the bottom right corner of the post.
Shun correctly predicted the direction of the ball and dived towards the bottom right corner of the post to save the ball.
However the speed of the ball was rather slow. As if he wasn't aiming for the goal, Yuya kicked the ball without much force.
And infact he hadn't aimed for the post as well. That ball was meant as a pass for Hiro.
From behind the penalty box, Hiro ran towards the ball and shot the ball at the bottom left corner of the post, opposite to where Shun had made his dive.
Shun who had already dived towards the bottom right corner tried to stop his actions midway. However he still couldn't react on time and thus ended up conceding the second goal of the match.
The ball effortlessly hit the net without any form of disturbances.
"Yeah!!!"
Yuya shouted in ecstasy upon witnessing the ball landing inside the post.
Hiro who had slotted that ball inside the goalpost ran towards Yuya and hugged him.
"Nice assist!!" Hiro spoke while hugging him.
"You too. Nice goal!!! Hahaha" Yuya replied cheerfully.
"Coach! Is that even legal??"
The opposing players started to protest about the goal. They began to complain to the referee.
Since such events rarely happened in football, they were not aware of such penalties where a penalty taker passed the ball to his teammates, instead of shooting the ball towards the post.
"Yes!! It's completely legal." The referee replied and shrugged their complaints.
With that second goal from Hiro, the score of the match read as such; Starters-3 and Reserves-2.
With more than 27 minutes still remaining, the game was starting to take a drastic turn.
After a bit of complaining and protesting, everybody started to assume their respective positions to continue the match.
The opposing players with bitter face, looked extremely unhappy about that goal from Hiro.
For about next 10 minutes, nothing noteworthy happened on the pitch. The opposing team continued to play with the same aggressiveness.
However the only thing that changed was the mark on Hiro. The opposing team after conceding that second goal started to mark Hiro. Two of their players followed him everywhere for the next 10 minutes.
At the 14th minute of the game, Hirato made a long range shot from outside the box. The ball flew just some inches above the post and ended up as a goalkick.
The keeper then played a short ball towards Shunta. And as the ball landed on his feet, Shunta began to weigh his options, looking for his teammates to pass the ball.
Upon noticing Shunta hesitating to pass the ball, the opposing winger came rushing towards him to snatch the ball.
Witnessing the opposing winger rushing towards him, he passed the ball to the sloppy centre midfielder who had nearly costed them the goal a moment ago.
'I'm sure he wouldn't pass the ball to him.' Thinking such, Hirato ran towards the center midfielder to snatch away the ball from him, leaving behind his mark.
"Pass!!"
Hiro quickly freed himself from his mark and asked for the ball.
'You can shout all you want. But I know that they won't pass you the ball.' Hirato revealed a smug smile as he approached the midfielder with the ball.
However contrary to his expectations, the central midfielder released the ball towards Hiro. He finally passed the ball towards Hiro.
Takekazu came rushing towards him to clear the ball away. Making use of the incoming pass, he let the ball pass through him. Takekazu who was rushing towards him to tackle him couldn't stop his acceleration.
That action from Hiro left Takekazu dumbfounded. He was hoping to tackle the ball after Hiro took hold of the ball. But since Hiro let the ball slid through him without even touching the ball, Takekazu couldn't do anything against him.
Hiro then turned around and chased after the ball. Takekazu who was rushing towards him like a bull couldn't turn his body on time because of his acceleration.
However he didn't stop to chase after him. After he turned around, he again began to chase after Hiro, once again.
With Takekazu still chasing after him, the other three defenders began to panic. Right winger in the right flank, Yuya in the left flank, the center forward cutting inside the box and Hiro rushing from outside the box.
The three defenders had to defend against four players.
Even in that precarious situation, the one they feared the most was Hiro who was charging from outside the box.
After witnessing his shot power from his first goal and passes he displayed during the build-up of second goal, they couldn't leave him alone.
Thus all three of them approached him while maintaining a triangular shape. With one defender rushing towards him to defend against him, other two stayed behind the first defender to cover up the spaces.
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