Just as the first test came to an end with the sound of whistle from manager Makoto, Hiro threw himself on the ground and collapsed on the floor.
Huff!! Huff!!
With steams of sweat oozing out from his body, he began to pant heavily while lying on the ground with his face facing the sky.
‘Damn!! I never imagined that a three minute sprint would tire me out like this. I really need to work on my physicality to increase my work rate.’ He thought while shading his eyes from the sun.
Just as he lifted his hand down and opened his eyes, a silhouette of a person appeared infront of him, blocking his view of the sky.
While trying to get a better view of the person, he narrowed his eyes. And as he narrowed his eyes, the appearance of the person became much more visible. The person standing infront of him was manager Makoto Kenzaki.
“Rest for about a minute and we’ll begin the second test immediately.” Manager Makoto exclaimed while standing infront of him, shading him from the sun.
**** ****
While he was resting on the pitch, manager Nozomi walked towards the sidelines and brought a sack of balls with him.
“Time’s up!! Now get up.” Manager Makoto yelled after the specified time for rest came to an end.
Hearing such, he pressed his hands on the ground and uplifted him from the ground. And as he uplifted himself from the ground, he brought his hand closer to his face and wiped off the sweat from his face.
After wiping off the sweat from his face, he made his way towards the coaches.
“Okay now we’ll begin the second test. For the second test we’ll be testing your ball control and shot accuracy.”
“And to do that manager Nozomi will be supplying you with crosses from different spots on the field. And you can either shoot the ball after trapping the ball or you can shoot the ball at the very first touch. But remember you cannot touch the ball for more than two times. The crosses might be irregular too. So pay attention to the ball and watch out for wild passes.”
Just as he finished describing him about the second test, manager Makoto dropped an indirect hint.
And for the second test, he was required to score goals from the crosses of manager Nozomi.
As simple as manager Makoto made it sound, the second test was rather tricky. Since he had to predict the projectile of the ball and the type of pass before even trapping the ball or shooting the ball, he was required to pay extra attention to the ball.
While trapping and shooting were the easiest part of the second test, the tricky part was to predict the projectile of the ball.
‘Well aside from the wild passes which he mentioned about, there’s nothing else to worry about the second test.’ He thought after hearing the details of the second test.
Just as he finished describing him about the details of the second test, manager Nozomi ran towards the left corner of the side of field they were staying in at the moment.
“Okay are you ready?” Manager Makoto inquired after manager Nozomi assumed his position.
He nodded his head slightly while assuming his position inside the penalty box.
Beep!!
Manager Nozomi performed a 3 second run up before kicking the ball inside the penalty box.
The ball flew towards the outer edge of the penalty box. And since he had already predicted the projectile of the ball, he had already placed himself at the position where the ball was going to land.
After assuming some height, the ball started to make it’s descent. And as the ball descended downward towards him, he comfortably trapped the ball in his chest and shot the ball with his right foot in mid air before it even fell down.
And as the ball left his feet, it flew towards the post like a missile. ｂ𝚍ｎｏ𝚟ｌ.
“Just like in matches. His first touch really is impressive.” Manager Makoto mumbled in awe after witnessing his perfect volley.
After that first volley, manager Makoto kept on supplying him with even more challenging crosses. Sometimes he made him run towards him with his short crosses while sometimes he made him run far away from him with his powerful long crosses.
As if he was playing tennis with him with the football, he kept on making him run all over the pitch with his irregular crosses.
But despite that he didn’t miss even a single ball. And neither did he touched the ball more than two times in that whole test nor did he complain about the intensity of the test.
‘Just when will this end?? Isn’t it already enough? Like you’ve already seen me score about 60 times without violating your conditions. Just how much more are you going to grind me?’ He mumbled while contorting his face.
He then casted his gaze towards coach Nozomi who was assuming his position at right side of the halfline, preparing himself to take his 60th cross.
“Huh!! Is he smiling?” He mumbled after witnessing the smile on manager Nozomi’s face.
Witnessing his smile, he turned his gaze towards manager Makoto. And even he was smiling as well.
While Hiro was suffering, both of the Kenzaki brothers were enjoying themselves.
“I’m damn sure that the test should have ended way ago. But since I kept on scoring without complaining, they continued the test out of excitement.” He mumbled while looking at their smiling faces.
Since the coaches were completely overtaken by their excitement, he decided to take the matter in his hands and end the test by himself. “I need to do something.”
Beep!!
Just as manager Makoto blew his whistle, manager Nozomi shot the ball hard towards Hiro. At first the ball seemed like it was going to head right but because of the spin on the ball, it curved and changed it’s trajectory towards left.
Predicting the trajectory of the ball, Hiro placed himself at the location where the ball was going to land. Determined to take the matter in his hands, instead of shooting the ball towards the post behind him, he shot the ball in mid air towards the opposite post.
Although his shot wasn’t powerful enough to reach the opposite post without dropping, the ball still managed to find it’s way inside the opposite post after bouncing twice.
“I think that much is enough for the second test.” Manager Makoto mumbled while rubbing his hair.
“Yeah!! I think it’s enough as well.” Manager Nozomi parroted to his older brothers statement and agreed to end the second test.
Sigh!!
Hearing their statements, he revealed a deep sigh of relief while throwing himself on the ground once again. He was simply too exhausted to stand striaght.
With that 60th cross, the test finally came to an end after almost an hour of shooting the ball repeatedly.
“So how many did he score?” Manager Makoto inquired as he concluded the end of the second test.
Along with supplying crosses to Hiro, manager Nozomi was also noting down his progress on his notebook.
“60 out of 60. No misses. 39 without trapping and 21 with trapping.” Manager Nozomi replied to manager Makoto’s question while looking at his notebook.
“Damn!! He’s a monster.” Manager Makoto intoned.