Team Z VS Team Y

As the Team stood ready on the field to begin the match the home side seemed to be taking their sweet time appearing.

Each team had its own training field and a match field on the second and third floor of their stratum.

The third floor specifically was mainly used for the round-robin matches and this time Team Z had to walk through the hallways to reach Team Y their field.

So this made it basically an away game. And what an away game it would become. The team looked pretty fired up and things like arguing about the ball would not happen this time around.

But that could also be said the same way about the opposite side. They were pretty determined to go and win this time. They already had a massive loss against Team V with a big 0 - 8 difference. Now they were pressed to make at least a draw. Favorably win the match.

Haruo stood at the back as a right central defender and looked at the spearhead formation that Team Y deployed. His eyes went over each one of those players. There was not much to see but prey.

The only interesting guy was wearing the number 7 jersey. Haruo was looking at him for a much longer period than the others.

-[Ikki Niko]-

[Football Prodigy: A+]

[Deeplying Shadow Playmaker: A]

[Exellent Football Intelligence: A+]

Haruo put both his hands behind his head and smirked. He found the backbone of the enemy team right at the get-go.

It had to be that guy with those massive bangs of hair hiding his eyes. On a side note, Haruo wondered how he could even see anything with that.

Chigiri that stood close by as the second defender looked at Haruo and noticed his relaxed stance.

"Did you figure something out?", he asked.

"Hmm?" Haruo noticed that some of the others in his team seemed to be relying on his keen judgment ever since he was able to judge them rather accurately.

Someone like Kuon even found it scary how good that judgment was.

"Just keep an eye on the number 7 playing. Observe him and number 9 and you will see what I see."

Chigiri's eyes placed themselves on the central midfielder(7) and then on the striker(9) from the opponent team.

When the kickoff came and their own team had the ball and brought in forward the number 9 seemed to stay at the front and stood unmoving close to Haruo and Chigiri.

So Chigiri ignored him for a little bit and looked over to the other guy. The number 7 sure enough brought Chigiri to a frown.

The others were so focused on attacking and breaking through the defence of the opponent's side that they didn't seem to really notice how much the 7 controlled the flow. he was always posing a threat to their buildup or commanded his teammates to perform good judgments.

"A constant pressing style of football?" Chigiri grasped the foundation of Team Y. They always had about 2 to 3 players near the one that was attacking.

Bachira that was Team Z's starting 9 could not get anywhere close to the goal with that much pressure. The 4-5-1 formation had that kind of a counter play potential.

A formation that was really a bad matchup for their own formation that focused on offense.

Haruo figured it would only take a little bit more and he would soon have to start defending for real.

With Bachira keeping the ball at the front without getting to score it soon happened that 10 minutes passed. But that time was also the mark where something unkind happened.

Bachira was a little bit frustrated and tried another last push on his own but ended up being fouled.

A crisp whistle sounded and and everyone knew what that meant.

"It ended up happening in my playing time? Well, it doesn't matter." Kunigmai picked up the ball and looked over to Haruo.

Haruo only pointed at himself with a questioning look. By the looks Kunigami wanted him to take the freekick.

So after placing the ball on the ground Kunigami went ahead and positioned himself in front of the goal somewhere in the penalty zone.

Haruo smirked a little and placed himself in front of the unmoving ball. Then watching the positioning of the opponents and his own team he thought about how to approach this.

Suddenly something caught his attention and he smiled.

'Hmm, alright then. But you know what? For that kindness, I should reward you.' When he made up his mind he started his run and sent the ball with a beautiful arc into the air.

It went up high and lowered itself back down.

And all that right behind the wall of the defenders straight to the feet of Kunigami. Seeing that it was a pass instead of a shot, Kunigami took the chance and fired his left-footed shot.

The whistle sounded and Kunigami managed to push the ball into the net making the 1 - 0 for Team Z.

"Nice one, Kunigami!" Raichi shouted and realized he was actually happy for another guy's goal. That immediately got him flustered and he remained silent.

"Thanks for the assist, Sugewara.", said a smiling Kunigami after running to him.

With a crisp high-five, Haruo went back to his position. "Make sure that more will follow." It was after all Kunigami's time to shine at the front.

But after that one goal Team Y still kept played defensively and Kunigami was not able to make another goal in his turn as the 9.

That of course frustrated him greatly and he shot without realizing that the opponent number 7 moved to intercept his shot just to sent it back to their own front.

That quick switch from defense to offense was what Haruo already predicted to happen with the movement from their number 9, Hibiki Okawa.

Okawa tried to run past their defense into space behind it just making sure to beat offside. It would have worked if not for both Chigiri and Haruo being pretty fast defenders. Especially Haruo who outrun Okawa's headstart and trapped the ball before Okawa could even get close to it.

Taking it leasurly Haruo passed the ball to Iemon in the goal and repositioned himself to take a pass back. And like it was a second nature Iemon sent it back his way to the far right where Okawa could not be a threat anymore.

It even clearly showed on Okawa's frowning face that he was annoyed. He couldn't do anything but wait again after Haruo cleared the ball forward to Bachira at the right flank.

"Thanks for that save, Sugewara." Isagi was the player currently acting as the central midfielder. It was part of his job after all to keep such things from not happening. But it still did.

"Don't sweat it. This match no ball will pass this defence.", reassured Haruo and told him to keep focused.

The match went on and the forward changed again with Kuon taking that position now. Unlucky for him at that moment, a mishap did happen again after Igarashi was the midfielder.

Team Y went attacking their left flank this time around and not even Haruo was fast enough to intercept the shot that went into the net.

'Shit...They are aiming at our weak links...' Haruo obviously noticed that they were aiming at the defensively weak players.

So it was a 1 - 1 after that goal and the score did not change even after that until it came to half time and everyone went into the lockers.

"Oi, what the hell was that unlucky goal against us?" Raichi was annoyed that they were currently sitting on a draw.

"The opponent's formation is a counter-attacking one and ours is just bad against such a formation.", explained Haruo now.

"Then let us change things up and let me at the front already." Raichi was still not number 9 so he clearly showed his dissatisfaction.

"Bachira? Can you try to force your way into the last third when you have the ball? It doesn't even matter if you lose it. They are bad in fighting fair and will probably could you more than you think."

"Are you trying to win this with freekicks?" Bachira was a little bit surprised after guessing what Haruo was aiming for.

"It's just an idea. I could also stop playing at the back. But they would be able to go through everywhere instead of only our left side." Haruo thought about something. "Actually...Can you pass the ball more often to the back?"

"What purpose would that serve? With that, we would not make any goals! Don't you dare do that shit in my turn!" Guess Raichi was pissed about that.

Haruo only sighed. "Don't get all heated. It serves the purpose to open up space at the front. Did you guys not notice that the number 7 is playing you like a fiddle?"

After a little bit of debate, they went ahead on the field again to play the second half.

The team changed formation again and Raichi was finally at the front. But even with the defence stood pretty well and was organized by the number 7.

So after failing again the team adopted the tactic Haruo was talking about. When they started to pass back more often the pressing opponent soon realized something was off. Through controlled fast passing Team Z let Team Y run their stamina out.

That got Niko to change something up. Just at that moment Haruo acted and ran past Niko to the front.

That surprised the midfielder and looking back he saw how the passing from Team Z became faster the moment Haruo rushed forward.

With clean linking Isagi and Haruo suddenly stood alone in front of the goal. Haruo was with his back to the goal when he received a pass and Isagi ran past the defender at the side with clean off the ball movement.

Haruo felt the defender trying to take the ball but with a simple uplift, he placed the ball into the air and kicked it sideways to Isagi's feet that broke through and had only the goal in front of himself now.

Isagi's eyes seemed to glow in greed and his volley was quick and powerful enough for the goalie not being able to react. It went straight into the left side of the goal.

That was the 2 - 1 for Team Z and the second assist for Haruo.

"Graah, come on! Why am I the only one not having a goal yet!?" Raichi screamed in frustration but still clapped Isagi on his back for a job well done.

That one goal brought the game into Team Z's favor.

After that Haruo started mixing up into the midfield and attack more often and it soon was apparent that Niko was unable to read Haruo's unpredictable movements.

Haruo even managed two heavy shots midrange and scored another two goals on his own making it a 4 - 1 for Team Z.

Team Y slowly started to get more and more frustrated that they really started going into close-quarter fights more aggressively.

That resulted in another freekick for Team Z at the last minute. Bachira only smiled when he stood up from the ground. He did manage to pull this off somehow after all.

Haruo was again the taker but this time his eyes were showing extreme greed for the third goal.

Everyone from his team saw that look and knew they could not expect an assist. But they would still make sure to use any rebound if he failed to perform.

31m away from the goal on the right side of the field.

'I guess it is time to test out this new gifted leg of mine, isn't it?'

-[Haruo Sugewara]-

[Ambidextrous Gifted Feet: U]

That was the result when he devoured Kunigami's gifted left foot after training with him how to shoot better with the left. He basically trained his weaker foot.

That it was now like shooting with his right leg, which was his dominant, just told how ridiculous it was.

There was no difference to him now if he shot with the right or left.

Even his second long shot was made with the left. Otherwise, the opponent probably would not have let him take another mid-range shot like that if they knew.

Taking in a deep breath he started to perform his kick and with enough power to overcome the distance he shot the ball with his left.

Some of his teammates were surprised and wondered what he was up to but when they saw the ball go into the upper left corner of the goal without anyone being able to stop it they could see now that Haruo was able to shoot with both feet.

[*Precise Power Freekicks* upgraded into *Dangerous Power Freekicks: A*]

That brought the game to a crushing 5 - 1 and another hattrick for Haruo.

Haruo jumped up in excitement but when he landed he felt something nearly snap inside his leg. "Urgh" frowning in pain he looked down and felt his leg...

After examining it he breathed out in relief. It was only the tiredness talking to him. Good thing that he had that massage or else that probably would have brought him down.

The others also saw that and asked if he was alright.

Haruo only nodded to that and soon smiled again. With a very good mood the match ended with that after the sound of a whistle was heard right after. Not letting the game continue any longer.

-----

On the other side of the screen Jinpachi was staring at that exact play and his head was even starting to tilt lightly to the side. Was it the first time he showed signs of confusion?

Anri to the side was staring at the screen with a lightly open gap in her mouth. "Amazing...He already did his second hattrick and this time as a defender..."

Ego was tapping the screen as if he wanted to ascertain something in his mind. "A monster...We have a monster among us." Suddenly he started grinning again. And once again he had to update the data about Haruo.

"Huh? What do you mean with that?" Anri was now surprised and curious.

"The rate of improvement he is showing is just out there. How else would you see a right-leg dominant player shoot such a precise shot?"

"Maybe he was just good with it from the start?", suggested Anri. There were many player that would try to hide their true potential or just not know it.

"No, he was not...I am sure of it. He only started developing his weaker foot the last few days together with Kunigami..." Ego was somewhat positively surprised.

He was a man with a sharp analytical mind and rarely gave credit to unexplained phenomena. But this teen in his 17th year of life showed him that math is not everything.

The matches were arranged in a manner where 4 days would be between each match. 3 for training and 1 for rest before the next match.

So developing his left foot in rhat time was monstrous talent.

"Well, looks like this team is close to clearing the round-robin. And I can already see some of them enjoying the feeling of winning." Jinpachi grinned even wider when he saw how Isagi looked down on a beaten Niko.

They had the taste for victory and they knew it was addicting.