Power Shot

The bald player clucked his tongue, and with a bitter face, he quickly followed Oka, who was running at full speed.

He needed three seconds to finally reach him and be able to stop him.

However, at the same time, in his peripheral vision, he caught Aoi sprinting forward as his defender was watching Oka dazedly.

"Damn it!" The bald player cursed under his breath.

Obviously, Aoi managed to distract the defender successfully and was now dashing ahead of him.

With two strikers racing towards the goalkeeper, with only the latter stopping them from scoring the goal, it was now near impossible to stop them.

The bald player gritted his teeth as he ran forward, observing Oka's behavior.

If Oka was showing signs of passing the ball to Aoi, he would try to predict the ball mid-way and steal it. If not, then… he had to rely on the goalkeeper to put mental pressure on Oka until he managed to catch up.

He had no choice now.

One second left, and Oka and Aoi had finally entered the shooting range.

The goalkeeper was tense, having failed to stop Oka's first goal attempt.

This was now the second time, and he swore himself to stop it at any cost.

He slowly paced forward, adding pressure to the advancing Oka, and the latter calmly met his gaze.

At this point, Oka could perceive the incoming presence of the bald player closing behind his back.

He moved his pupils to his left and saw Aoi was looking at him, but simultaneously, his defender also managed to catch up.

They were pushing themselves into each other to see who would be the one to receive the ball if Oka passed it to Aoi.

Oka was now determined not to pass the ball to Aoi, but he suddenly remembered Aoi's words earlier, making him hesitate.

However, there was no point in hesitating now, as the bald player finally managed to arrive on his left, blocking his vision on Aoi and leaving him no choice but to focus on the bald player and the goalkeeper.

He only had half a second left to shoot the ball, so he decided to focus on it.

He instantly forgot Aoi because his mind concentrated on the goalkeeper's behavior while pushing the bald player away, trying to tackle the ball.

He lightly pushed the ball forward to prevent the bald player from tackling the ball while taking two quick steps and then pulling his right leg to perform a Side-Foot Shot, focusing on accuracy rather than power.

It was the only shooting technique he could perform, aiming to kick it between the legs of the goalkeeper, who assumed the frog position, covering all the gaps on his defense besides the opening in the middle of his legs.

Oka's kick was swift, causing the ball to bolt between the goalkeeper's legs, who attempted to stop it by bending his legs, but it was too slow.

Oka's eyes widened, and about to rejoice when he suddenly saw another presence behind the back of the goalkeeper.

His heart sank to discover it was the bald player who slid his right leg to completely halt the ball in an attempt to score a goal.

Oka was stunned, scowling, blaming himself for his failure.

The bald player grinned and was about to kick the ball away when another player entered the fray, trying to steal the ball and score a goal.

However, he stood on his ground like a mountain, leaning his back against his opponent while keeping the ball in front of him, preventing any attempt to steal the ball.

He turned his head and discovered it was a middle player on the right side earlier, having no defenders, eventually reaching the shooting range quickly.

If he recalled correctly, he was on the bench earlier, a third year, perhaps, due to the maturity of his face.

Furthermore, his body was solid compared to Oka, causing the bald player's lips to twitch in exasperation, knowing he would be completely overwhelmed by the sheer strength of the third-year player.

Hence, as he was controlling the ball to avoid being stolen away from him, he swept his eyes and looked for his teammates to pass the ball.

There, he saw his teammates to his left - a direction based on the fact he was facing the goalpost - running towards him to receive the ball.

He did not see Aoi, having his whole vision completely obstructed by the third-year player, but it did not matter.

If he passed the ball to his teammates with a short, quick pass, his teammates would successfully receive the ball without any interference.

'Urk!!!'

The third player's strength was about to conquer him now, so he did not hesitate anymore to pass the ball on to his teammates, running at him like crazy.

He failed to grasp the face his teammate was making, suddenly making an arm gesture, but it was already too late for him to understand.

He passed the ball accurately and swiftly, quickly about to reach his teammate's possession.

However, to his horror, and so was his teammate, another foot stopped the ball once again, reminding him of what he had done earlier to stop Oka from scoring a goal.

It was Aoi, who had a massive grin on his face as he completely stopped the ball.

As the ball settled on the ground, he pulled his right leg and executed a power shot.

Swoosh!

Like a bow with the string pulling backward, and the catalyst to hold it lost its grasp, the arrow bolted towards the goalpost without any defender trying to stop it, without any goalkeeper attempting to catch it.

The goalpost's net stretched backward, wanting to stop the ball from completely piercing it, and finally managed to halt its speed, settling inside the goalpost.

The football field quieted down – the bald player was dumbstruck, Oka was in awe, the third-year midfielder was amazed, and the goalkeeper's face turned bitter.

However, there was a face more bitter to the point it became ugly.

It was Kaga.

He was in disbelief.