While they were conversing with each other, the referee commanded them to assume their positions so that he could start the match.
“Let’s just play like we practiced.” Hiro mumbled as the referee commanded them to assume their positions.
“Yeah let’s play like we practiced.” Akashi nodded his head and started to run towards his position. “Ahh! Before I go, there’s something I want to tell you.” He stopped midway and returned back towards him.
Wondering what he wanted to tell, that sentence of Akashi made him curious. As Akashi approached closer towards him, he looked him in the eyes and smiled. “Let’s win this game partner.”
Hiro nodded his head and raised his fist forward. “Yeah let’s win.” As they clashed their fist with each other and performed a fist bomb, Akashi fled towards his position.
Hiro stood tall infront of the ball. He was already 4 feet 7 inches tall at the age of 10. With a sturdy lean body like that of Sergio Busquets, his body was well toned. Neither too bulky nor too skinny, he was dressed in the iconic black jersey of Ookami elementary school with a captain armband tied around his left bisceps. After the departure of Endo from the team, he had been appointed as the Captain of the team by the coach of Ookami elementary school.
Beep!!
The referee blew the whistle and commenced the start of the match.
Ookami elementary school were playing in their traditional 4-4-2 diamond formation with Hiro as their attacking midfielder. They had opted for a balanced formation with emphasis on both defense and offense.
On the other hand, Tokyo elementary school were playing in an extremely offensive formation. They were playing in 3-4-3 formation. With three attackers and four midfielders, everybody could guess that they were going to play an offensive game.
Hiro kicked the ball towards Sasaki, the fifth year defensive midfielder of Ookami elementary school.
The opponent players of Tokyo elementary school dressed in red and white jerseys, began to scatter as the match commenced.
Since they had already faced against them previously, they focused on stabilising their position rather than pressing aggressively from the get go. Thus they began to pass the ball among themselves.
Even though Tokyo elementary school played a very pressing game from the get go, most of the time they ended up losing the control of the ball at the middle third of the pitch.
While keeping the distance between them fairly close, the players of Ookami elementary school stuck together in certain geometric patterns.
Since Tokyo elementary school relied more on their physicality rather than technicalities, the forwards of Tokyo elementary school always tried to break free from the clutches of Ookami elementary school by making use of their strength and agility.
Everytime when the opposing player of Tokyo elementary school got the ball at the middle third of the pitch, the players of Ookami elementary school immediately surrounded that player, leaving him no place to escape.
While maintaining a certain distance away from each other, they kept pressuring the opposing player with the ball every time when an opponent player got the ball in the middle third of the pitch. 𝚍ｎ𝚘ｖ𝚕．𝚘𝚛𝚐
In order to prevent making costly mistakes, only their forward chased after the ball in the defensive third of the opponent.
At 27th minute of the match Kaminari Shinji, the left wing of Tokyo elementary school got the ball in his feet at the left side of the half line.
Nanahosi Ren, one of the newly recruited central midfielder of Ookami elementary, chased after Kaminari Shinji as soon as he got the ball in his feet.
Kaminari Shinji tried to make use of his agility to break free from Nanahosi Ren. But Nanahosi Ren didn’t give him any opportunity to shake him off.
Unable to shake him off via his agility, he thought of making use of his strength and tried to break free from Nanahosi Ren by pushing him aside. But Nanahosi Ren stood his ground and endured his shoulder pushes without breaking any sweat.
‘Argh!! Why can’t I budge him?’ Kaminari Shinji exasperated while trying to push Nanahosi Ren.
Despite his lean body, Nanahosi Ren was as sturdy as mountain. The secret behind his sturdiness wasn’t somekind of supernatural power, instead it all lied in his technique. Whenever Kaminari Shinji tried to push him, he’d intentionally increase the distance between his feets and push him before Shinji could come at him with full force.
Both players equally matched in terms of speed and physicality, Kaminari Shinji couldn’t shook off the mark of Nanahosi Ren.
Unable to shake him off, Kaminari Shinji started to look for other options to break free from the marking of Nanahosi Ren. He looked at Mizuhara Aoi, the centre forward of Tokyo elementary school. But he was being marked by Sasaki, the defensive midfielder of Ookami elementary school.
He then again glanced behind him to see if anyone was available. But Hiro was already marking the player behind him.
He then looked at his right side in hopes of finding one player free from the tight man marking of Ookami elementary school. Satou Rin, another central midfielder of Ookami elementary school was already occupying the space in the centre of the pitch.
He found himself secluded between four players of Ookami elementary school. Sasaki in the front, Hiro in the back, Rin in the side and Ren infront of him, he was inside the triangular space created by the players of Ookami elementary school.
The more he tried to break free, the more he found himself trapped. Unable to break free, he started to get anxious.
He then started to dribble the ball forward without thinking anything. After trying countless times, he finally managed to shook of the mark of Nanahosi Ren by tricking him with body feints.
‘Hahaha…, you thought that you could block me. Try again next time.’ He thought as he broke free from the mark of Nanahosi Ren.
Just then Sasaki stole the ball from him. He had been so much occupied with Nanahosi Ren that he forgot about the existence of Sasaki infront of him.
Sasaki gave away an excellent through pass to Hiro. Hiro without controlling the ball, passed the ball towards Ichijo Ryu, the newly recruited first year forward of Ookami elementary school.
The ball rolled towards the penalty box. The keeper of Tokyo elementary school ran towards the ball to clear it away.
Seeing the keeper approaching, Ichijo Ryu tried to trick the goalkeeper by faking his shot. The goalkeeper of Tokyo elementary school stretched his legs to make the stop.
Just as the keeper stretched his legs, he tapped the ball lightly and made a turn. With the keeper lying on the ground, nothing stood before him and the goal. He tapped the ball lightly towards the goalpost.
Suddenly the keeper of the Tokyo elementary school stretched his arms and touched the ball. Even though the keeper was on the ground, he wasn’t beaten yet.
Due to that deflection of the keeper, the ball went out of bounds. Even though they failed to score a goal, the referee awarded them corner kick.
It was already 32nd minute of the match. While the ball was in play, the referee had already added additional time. And even that additional time had already passed by the time they were awarded the corner kick at the end of the first half.
Hiro walked towards the corner flag to take that corner kick. For that final corner kick of first half, all of the players except the keeper of Ookami elementary school gathered infront of the goalpost of Tokyo elementary school.
Hiro kicked the ball long and high. The ball was heading away from the goalpost. It was heading outside the penalty box.
When everybody assumed that the ball would go out of bounds and referee would blow his whistle. A silhouette of a person became vivid at the the place where the ball was going to land.
That silhouette belonged to non other than Akashi. As the ball was about to land, he shot the ball in midair and hit a brilliant volley from outside the box. The ball went like a missile towards the post.
Unfortunately the ball hit the bar and went out of play. And as the ball went out of play, the referee blew the whistle, signalling the end of the first half.
Unable to open the scoresheet, the first half ended in a goalless draw.
“That was an amazing volley Akashi senpai.” Ichijo Ryu complimented Akashi as they made their way towards the locker room. “If only that volley would have ended in goal, it would have been the best goal of the tournament.”
“Cough!!” “Cough!!”
“Did you guys already forgot about my bicycle kick against the team from Fukushima?” Hiro interrupted as he heard Ichijo Ryu mentioning about the best goal of the tournament.
The game progressesed rather smoothly for the entirety of the first half with both sides getting fair amount of shots on target.