The referee gathered the players near the centre of the field while the crowd pressed closer against the crooked fence.
With both teams finally standing still long enough for their shape to settle, the formations that had been taking form during the warm-up became clear.
Purple had organised themselves in a 4-3-3.
Shunpei stood several metres off his line, eyes moving constantly between his centre-backs and the spaces farther up the pitch, while behind him the back four held firm with Kazuki on the right, Riku and Tetsuo through the middle, and Tetsuya on the left.
The full-backs sat deep enough to deal with Yellow’s forwards but also remained ready to step forward the moment Purple were attacking.
Daichi anchored the midfield three, positioned slightly deeper than Hiroto and Makoto so that he formed the vital link between defence and attack.
He carried himself like someone who had played in places where mistakes were punished at once as he was opening his body toward whichever side looked most likely to receive the next pass.
Hiroto and Makoto floated either side of him, free to drop or push on depending on the phase of play, giving Purple the angles they needed to change the direction of an attack without forcing everything through the crowded centre.
Higher up, Ren held the right touchline while Soma mirrored him on the left and between them Yusuke who had the job of drifting across the front of Yellow’s centre-backs, never fixed in one spot and always forcing Yuma and Keisuke to check their distances.
Yellow had chosen a 4-4-2, and the difference in intention was immediate.
Shota waited in goal behind a compact line of Mizuki at right-back, Yuma and Keisuke in the centre, and Taiga on the left.
Mizuki and Taiga both refused to be dragged wide, staying narrow enough to protect the channels while still tracking Ren and Soma.
In midfield Satoshi held the right, Ryota and Hideo sat centrally, and Kazuya covered the left.
Ryota and Hideo stayed close together, deliberately conservative for when Purple were attacking with the ball, yet both remained ready to step forward the instant Yellow recovered possession.
Up front Shigeru and Akihiko worked a few metres apart, close enough to combine yet far enough to attack either centre-back individually.
From behind the fence the contrast was obvious.
Purple wanted to play a possession style, a style of play that was brought to fame by Ajax and Barcelona.
While Yellow could be seen as being pragmatic in their approach, it was natural given that Purple had two players everyone had been talking about, but Yellow had chosen a formation of discipline to make the chances of the favourites winning far less likely than the crowd wanted to believe.
“They’re going to watch Ren,” Haru said quietly.
Rui kept his eyes on the right side of the pitch, watching Mizuki rather than the winger.
“They have to.”
A few metres behind the fence the arguments about money continued as one spectator insisted that Daichi and Ren in the same team should make the result straightforward and another pointed at Yellow’s midfield and claimed that Ryota and Hideo had the discipline to make Purple work for every metre.
The voices overlapped until they became background noise.
Rui watched the entire pitch rather than any single player, reading the distances between the lines and the small movements that already revealed intention.
Purple will be hoping to target the spaces that will be opened by their formation around the opponents midfield, which would eventually give Daichi, Hiroto or Makoto a route forward.
Yellow looked willing to concede territory as long as the central channels stayed crowded and their two lines remained close enough to deny Yusuke a free touch.
The referee looked toward Shunpei, then toward Shota.
Both goalkeepers gave a small nod.
The players settled into their final positions: Daichi behind the ball, Makoto slightly to his left, Hiroto a step farther ahead on the opposite side, Yusuke waiting between the Yellow centre-backs, Ren holding the right touchline and Soma holding the left.
Across from them Shigeru and Akihiko prepared to close as soon as the ball moved.
Rui’s eyes moved from the first line of pressure to the midfield and then to the spaces behind the full-backs.
The referee raised the whistle.
For one brief moment Nishinari Rec seemed to hold its breath.
Then the whistle sounded, and the final quarterfinal of the morning finally began.