The match hit the seventh minute mark and Gold started to gradually discover that their 4-3-3 gave them an advantage when they moved the ball wide, instead of inside.
Nobu recognized that Green’s midfield four was compact in the middle, he abandoned the centre and began moving the ball from one side to the other, forcing Akira and Takeru to make repeated decisions about whether they should remain narrow or spread out.
It was the tenth minute when Akio received the ball on the right and immediately carried the ball forward as Akira chased after him.
Akio reached the final third, Akira hot behind his heels as he rushed straight to the rightback and forcing Daizen to step up and engage.
He slowed down and feinted going left before deftly cutting inside, instead of attacking the outside as expected by Akira and Daizen, the turn inside had allowed Koji to make the overlapping run behind him.
Koji’s run forced Akira to choose between following Koji or double teaming Akio to prevent a shot at goal, and the momentary uncertainty created a narrow passing lane through the middle.
Akio saw it and slipped the ball toward Reiji, who received it between the lines and shot the ball before Gen and Kosei could close him down.
The ball skimmed the post as it went for a goal-kick causing a few groans from the crowd.
” That was your man Kosei”, Gen said while jogging back to position.
Reiji nodded at Akio before jogging back before the restart, while the rest of the team applauded the effort, recognising that it was the first chance of the match and they had found the space which almost led to a goal.
A minute later Nobu played a one two with Yuji and switched the play to the right and found Shoma with the long ball who laid it off to Reiji with a header and Reiji saw a run by Masaru and played the pass towards him, but Kiyoshi stepped forward and intercepted before the striker could receive it. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
Green escaped, before thing got bad for them.
The match became more physical as the minutes passed, Haru was at the centre of much of it.
His size should have made pressing and challenging difficult against defenders who were several kilograms heavier, but he compensated by refusing to give them comfortable possessions.
Whenever Toma received, Haru was already moving toward him and when Junpei had the ball, Hikaru adjusted his angle to prevent the easiest pass toward Koji.
If the ball went backward to Masato, Haru followed the movement and forced the goalkeeper to play quickly.
Haru was not winning every challenge, he barely won a few, but what made him troublesome to the opposition was the limited time he gave them on the ball before they could think.
Nobu received a pass from Eiji with his body open toward the right and immediately saw Haru had dropped deep and was rushing toward him.
He tried to pass the ball back to Eiji with his first touch, but Haru stretched a foot toward the ball and managed to deflect it away to the other side.
A loose ball, one that Hikaru reached first and Koji arrived a moment later, pressing his body against his to shepherd him toward the boundary.
The contact knocked Hikaru slightly off balance, sending one hand toward the grass, but he recovered quickly and tried to turn back inside rather than allowing the defender to win the duel simply through strength.
Koji expected him to retreat, but Akira was rushing from behind into space, screaming his lungs off “Here”, Hikaru found him with a back-heel pass and Akira felt the momentum shift soon as he touched the ball.
Haru was making a run outside to the flank, where Koji had left space behind chasing the loose ball, and Akira found him with a high-pass in the final-third.
Haru cushioned the ball, turned inside, faced the box and saw his teammates rushing to the box with the opposition making it difficult while Koji was onto him with Akira who had closed-in for a short pass.
He noticed Hikaru about to reach the edge of the box, rushing into the box anticipating a cross inside, but at that moment he cut it back low to edge and Hikaru received it, used his first touch to turn away from Yuji, and drove toward the the penalty area before striking low toward the near corner.
Masato dropped quickly and saved the shot by pushing it out.
The rebound moved toward the edge of the six-yard box, where Shinto had been lurking, and the midfielder struck it first time with his weaker foot before the ball could be cleared by Junpei.
The shot rose over the crossbar and crashed against the fence, Shingo went down on his knees staring at the goalmouth before him, he took a moment before standing up and turning away.
Hikaru approached him and said, “Nice try”.
A few of his teammates shouted, “next time” and “don’t mind”, there was no frustration between them because a chance had been created and believed that another one would eventually come.
(Author)
Thank you for reading.
Constructive feedback to improve appreciated.