The Rise of the Iron Wall!

Chapter 307: Game Day!

In the end, Kumiko decided to adopt the strategy that Higo proposed. After all, at the end of the day, she still needed to trust her best player here, and the rest of the team also trusted the boy completely. Well, not that blindly, per se, because the twins still doubted that Higo could stop Kawabe at all here. However, the goalkeeper just laughed it off like nothing.

"Well, yeah, he is a scary bloke, but you have to trust your teammates a little bit, you know? Just follow two principles here. Don’t let him gather his speed, and don’t let him get a good angle. If you can do that, leave the rest to me!" He patted his chest reassuringly.

In the end, the twins really had no choice here. It also helped that Higo himself was an amazing goalkeeper, and he had been tested by the bombardment coming from Sapporo Otani. Even though Shohei High was better offensively, at least the boy wouldn’t be caught off guard in the game.

Of course, defense was not the only focus here. They also discussed a lot about the team’s offense, especially more schemes for them to score a goal. After all, while so far, they were lucky enough to never get down and chase the score from behind, but that could happen sooner or later, and when that happened, they had no choice but to go all out to tie the score.

"Come on, Usami-kun! Shohei High knows Hiroshi-kun well enough, and they will also keep an eye on Kenji-kun! Be the unpredictable player who could give them a chance to break through the opponent’s defense!"

"Yuji-kun, Kuroki-kun, always get ready to play! Your appearance will add more variety to our offensive system, so don’t slack off and always think of what you are going to do if you were on the pitch!"

"Takaaki-kun, don’t rush! The key to dictate the tempo is not always passing the ball forward directly, but holding it first to let your teammates get into position! While the defenders are indeed back in their position, at least your teammates are more ready to receive your pass!"

The training session was quite insightful for all the players there, and just like any other activity that they did with the utmost seriousness, time always passed by so quickly. Without anyone noticing, it was finally Saturday, the day when the game would be held. Right now, all the players are still gathered in front of the hotel, waiting for the bus that they rented to pick them up.

"Ah! Here it is!" Hori pointed when the bus peeked slowly from the intersection. Once it was parked near the hotel, all the players picked up their belongings before greeting the old driver immediately. "Good morning, Ojiisan! You ready to go?!"

"Ha! Of course, Lads! This is your game day, huh?" The old man, whose hair had already turned white, just laughed, asking them all to sit there.

Unlike the first game, this time, the venue changed. They were going to play at one of the pitches close to the Nissan Stadium. The place was closer to Kanagawa, slightly in the northern part of the city. While they could’ve just used the Shinkansen, Kumiko didn’t really want to drain her players’ energy unnecessarily, and since the team still had the budget in her pocket, the girl didn’t hesitate to spend the money lavishly like this.

It took probably around 35 minutes before they arrived, and the pitch they were going to play was quite small. Well, not the pitch, per se, but the building itself. The arena didn’t have that many seats for the audience to watch, probably could only contain around 1000 to 2000 people at most. However, the quality of the pitch was top-notch, the standard that international football held.

"And you mean to tell me that this is just one of Yokohama F. Marinos’s training grounds?" Makino couldn’t help but have the corner of his lips twitching speechlessly here. "As expected of the richest team in J-League. Even their training facility is so close to the one they use in the real game..."

"Well, don’t just look at the pitch. If anything, watch the people on the stand closely." Kumiko suddenly spoke, attracting everyone’s attention. The girl was currently staring at the stand, her gaze narrowing slightly.

There, even though the stand was far from being full, one small section was still filled with people. Some wore the same-colored jacket, which indicated that some teams came to scout them. However, most of them had their phone recording everything, some even with a notebook in their hand.

"Those are the scouts who want to take a look at Hiroki Kawabe’s performance," Kumiko said solemnly. "However, even though we are not the main protagonist here, that doesn’t mean we cannot steal the limelight, right? What do you guys think about being a villain once again?"

Some thrill-seekers on the team, like Kenji and Hiroshi, couldn’t help but pump up when they heard that. "I like the way you are thinking, Senpai! Let’s rock the building and make all eyes here turn to us!" Kenji laughed boisterously.

After this, they went to the small locker room prepared by the organizer, pulling on their boots before going out onto the pitch to start their warm-up session. The temperature was around 3 degrees at the place right now, so it was important to keep their body warm. Hell, some of them could even see their breath, indicating how cold the weather was this morning.

Then, in the next few minutes, the crowd suddenly got restless. They started whispering at each other, some even pointing at the tunnel of the pitch curiously. When all the Hakodate Nishi players turned around, they found out that another bus had arrived in front of the building. Soon, a group of boys with the red-and-black jacket came out of it, looking like they were ready for a war.

"So, that’s Shohei High, huh?" Makino took a deep breath, bracing himself for another tough game. "So, where is their captain?"

Right after he muttered that question, the last person finally popped out of the bus. He was as eccentric as Hiroshi described, with a unique hairstyle and so many gothic accessories around his body. The boy was bobbing his head up and down to follow the rhythm while his ears were completely blocked by the massive headphones that were half the size of his face.

When the boy noticed that everyone was watching him, he narrowed his eyes dangerously until he found out one particular person whom he was looking for.

"Ah, Roshi! Ye Brat, ye are finally here!"