The game was even prior to Kenta turning into prime Di María with that corner kick, and that stunt invigorated team-blue as they took the game by the reigns, as the match had begun to lean toward one side, as though the field itself had become a slope that carried the ball toward Tomoya’s goal whenever Blue recovered possession.
Hayato and Souta had settled into a rhythm in the middle of the pitch, one receiving while the other moved into a new angle, and every time they tried to close one of them down, the ball seemed to leave their feet a moment before the pressure arrived.
Reo kept the right side stretched wide, Naoya did the same on the opposite flank, and between them Takumi and Ryosuke were constantly asking questions of Kaito and Sho, calling for the ball to their feet before turning into the spaces behind them, forcing the two centre-backs to make decisions before they were ready to make them.
Rui had spent much of that period deeper than he wanted, because every time he looked up there was another Blue-bip moving into the space in front of him.
From the back, he could see the entire field ahead differently from the players ahead of him.
He could see Jin retreating on the opposite side, Shun dropping toward midfield, Yamato and Ryo waiting too far forward to help immediately, and Ken and Renta trying to hold the middle together while Blue kept moving the ball around them.
The temptation was always to chase the player carrying the ball, but Rui had already learned that the player was rarely the real danger but where the ball went.
Hayato received a pass from Kenji behind Renta and turned his body and driven diagonally towards Rui.
Rui had to decide whether to step forward or protect the space behind him to prevent Naoya from making that run, he stayed where he was, watching Naoya rather than Hayato, and that small hesitation was enough for Hayato to slip the ball toward Takumi who dropped deep escaping Kaito’s mark.
Takumi took it on his right foot, turned with one touch and shot from range forcing Tomoya into a diving save for the umpteenth time.
The last five minutes, since the corner, have been arduous for him.
He rolled the ball to Sho who moved it quickly to Jin and across to Rui.
Rui held the ball for a second looking for a pass inside, Kenta was being marked closely, moving it up to Shun was the better option, who passed it with pace inside to Renta but he couldn’t control the ball and within his first touch he was dispossessed by Souta.
Souta immediately moved the ball toward Naoya, initiating another attack, as he returned it inside back to Souta who was being hounded by Renta.
Souta shielded the ball from Renta and passed it back to Ryusei at the back who let it pass in between his legs for Haruki.
Haruki passed Daiki, who moved it on to his right-back, Kenji, immediately found hayato and he switched the ball to Aoi who pushed up.
The sequence was simple, almost boring to anyone who did not understand what it was doing, but the repeated movement dragged Red from one side of the pitch to the other until the spaces between them began to widen.
Ken shouted something toward Renta, and he responded by dropping several metres, trying to give himself enough room to influence the next phase, but Blue had already passed the ball around him.
A pass went toward Naoya, Rui stepped across to challenge him but Naoya played a one two with Takumi, who had dragged out Kaito, opening the defence on the flank and that was enough for Naoya to whip in a deadly cross finding Ryosuke who dragged it wide. Visit novelping dot com for the full chapter.
The pressure continued for several minutes, and the longer it lasted, the more Red were forced toward their own penalty area.
There was no single spectacular move that caused it, Blue simply refused to give them a clean moment to breathe.
When Red cleared, Souta collected the second ball.
When Red tried to play through the middle, Hayato intercepted the passing lane.
When Shun finally escaped down the right, Aoi stepped across and forced him backward.
Even Sora, sitting against the low wall with his newspaper folded across one knee, had stopped pretending to read.
His eyes followed the movement of the players but he watched Rui most of all.
Rui was being asked to defend almost continuously, but he was not chasing blindly.
He was beginning to understand the rhythm of the pressure.
As Blue came again, Hayato found Souta who gave it back and Hayato shifted the ball toward Reo.
Reo carried the ball forward until Jin stepped out to meet him and rather than forcing the duel, Reo played the ball inside to Ryosuke, who had dropped between the lines.
Sho followed him and that was what Ryosuke wanted, He received the ball with his back toward goal, held Sho for half a second, then laid the ball into Takumi’s path.
Takumi shot the ball forcing Tomoya to go down quickly for a save and pushed it away wide towards the corner, Naoya, reached the ball first before Rui, swung his foot through the bouncing ball, sending it back toward the crowded area, and for a moment the entire Red defence collapsed toward their own goal.
The cross from Naoya came hard and low toward the near side of the six-yard area, where Ryosuke had managed to slip between Sho and Jin.
Kaito read the ball, did not try to control it, and just swung his boot through the ball, clearing it with enough force to send it spinning away from the goal and out for a corner.
Hayato took the corner, swinging it in too close to the keeper, Tomoya came out to meet the ball with his fists, resulting in a loose ball bouncing free towards the edge of the touchline, Rui and Hayato racing to it.
Rui arrived first to it by a step, simply knocked the ball into space, carried it rather than looked for an immediate pass, Hayato hot on his heels urging his team to fall back.
Rui approached the halfway line and Aoi stepped up for a tackle or to delay him but Rui glide through him by passing the ball between his feet, “what a nutmeg!” Someone shouted from the crowd and the crowd along the fence started cheering without quite deciding to, the specific instinctive rise of an audience sensing something was about to happen.
Rui continued carrying the ball past the half line, a sea of blue and red chasing after him as he beat Ryusei, one of the two defenders left with Kenji, with quick feint inside to cut through the centre and went outside, opening up the field in front of him. This chapter was taken from novelping.com without permission.
Rui didn’t try to drive further towards the goal himself, he’d seen Kota across and instead of driving toward goal, he switched the play wide, a long, weighted ball that arced clean across the width of the pitch and found Kota exactly in stride on the opposite flank.
Kota didn’t need a second invitation.
He took the ball at pace and drove diagonally towards goal, Kenji who was dropping back focused on covering for Ryosuke was scrambling to close the angle but he was too late, as Kota entered the final third.
The goalkeeper, Haruki, began moving forward his body grew larger with every stride Kota made to the goal, making the target narrower.
Kota arrived inside the box as he waited until the last possible moment before touching the ball inside, to set up the angle to shoot forcing Haruki to commit as he rushed out.
Kenji and Ryosuke were rushing in on Kota, to disrupt his shot, while Hayato was on Rui preventing the pass across and Aoi rushed towards the goalmouth that Haruki left open but Kota did not shoot.
He cut the ball backward to the outside of the box where Kenta arrived timely, his run had been almost invisible while Rui was drawing the defenders toward himself, but now it became the most important movement on the pitch.
He met the ball clean with the inside of his boot, opting for precision and momentum to do the rest of the work.
The ball flew past Aoi outstretched leg and into the net who anticipated to shot be away from Haruki who was still recovering from his charge out of goal.
Kenta turned toward the others, his face transformed into a wide smile as he took in the realization that the run he had made without hesitation had actually led somewhere.
Kota arrived first, grabbing him from behind, and Rui came a second later, while the whole fence erupted.
Reiko’s voice cut clean above the noise, something wordless and delighted, and Ken, mobbed almost instantly by Renta and Kaito disappeared for a moment under a pile of boys who’d been chasing this exact outcome for fifty-five minutes straight.
Red 1–0 Blue
On the far touchline, Tatsuya — still standing, ball still tucked under one arm — allowed himself, for the first time all match, something that looked like a real smile.
The blue-team restarted with five minutes still left on the clock, the deadlock finally broken, and both sides, exhausted and desperate in roughly equal measure now, understood exactly how much the next few minutes were about to matter.
(Author)
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