"Shit! Another one from a close distance?!" Higo couldn’t help but curse when he saw where the foul happened. "This is going to be troubleso..."
Yeah, the foul was just slightly outside of the box, even inside the penalty arc. It was just 20 ters from the goal, and the angle was also perfect for any free-kick taker to execute it directly. This was definitely not the situation he wanted to see right now.
"Sorry, Chibi, we have to rely on you one more ti." Makino ca to express his apology.
"If you want to say sorry, don’t try to do any reckless foul in a dangerous area again. This is going to give a headache, you know?" Higo rubbed his forehead while also taking a bottle of water he had hidden beside the goal post. "Anyway, tell Fujinaga to restrain himself from any direct contact around the box. His tendency for pushing too much will be the end of us, I swear!"
Makino just rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, knowing that no amount of answer would be enough to satisfy Higo’s complaint. He could only nod, walking back to the spot just a few ters from the goal to form a wall. It wasn’t just him; Jun, Kenji, Ishinori, and Hori were also there.
"Co on, Jun! You are the tallest, be on the edge!" Higo started to shout, instructing his teammates to build a better wall. "Nori, keep an eye on Makino next to you! Don’t leave any space! Also, keep your hands behind! We don’t need another penalty!"
All the Hakodate Nishi complied, looking so tense as they were moving as Higo instructed. In front of them, the executioner himself had already stood. Hiroki Kawabe put the ball on the spot, taking a deep breath before walking back at least three big steps to give him space for his run-up. The stance was exactly like how Cristiano Ronaldo would execute a free-kick, which told Higo that the boy would go for a powerful ball here.
’I cannot be too passive, waiting here for him to kick it. I have to shift a little to cover the far post as well.’ Higo couldn’t help but mutter, moving his body slightly toward the middle.
It was a risky move, opening up the near post that wasn’t guarded by the wall. However, this was the risk that Higo had already calculated beforehand.
FWEEE!
The mont the referee blew the whistle, Kawabe started to make a move. At the sa ti, Higo received an image of what would happen next, and he also started to shift his body toward that direction.
’Left... No!’
As he shifted toward his left side, the boy suddenly widened his eyes in shock. It wasn’t like a new prediction ca, but in his head, he saw the ball wobbling in the air, making the direction change wildly like it was alive.
Higo had already moved toward the left, but seeing the ball roaring to the right, he changed direction quickly. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quick enough, and with his balance getting shaken off, it was impossible for him to reach the ball. As a result...
’FUCK!’
CLANK!
The ball still escaped from his fingertip, but sohow, the god of luck was still on his side. It slamd the crossbar, creating a loud ’BANG’ sound that echoed throughout the whole pitch. The ball didn’t even get back to the pitch but bounced high in the air before falling to one of the spectators in the stand.
For a mont, silence descended on the pitch, with everyone looking at each other in disbelief. In the end, it was Kawabe who reacted first.
"FUCK! IT STILL FAILED?!" The boy cursed; his curly mohawk was disheveled at this point. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU USING THERE, A FUCKING VOODOO DOLL?!"
Higo was taken aback by the sudden outburst. He didn’t even know who it was aid for until the boy saw Kawabe’s bloodshot eyes clearly. In confusion, he even pointed at himself and asked, "Wait, ?!"
"YES, YOU! FUCKER, HOW COULD YOU STOP THAT GODDAMN KNUCKLE?!"
It seed Kawabe was crashing out right now. However, he had a valid reason. The boy didn’t really know how many tis the team shot today, but nothing seed to be good enough to get through Higo’s goal. It was either the goalkeeper making an amazing save or the shot itself missing the goal by an inch, which was so frustrating to experience.
On the stand, one of the scouts here couldn’t help but ask another who counted the statistics. "How many shots does Shohei High make in this ga, by the way?"
"17 attempts; 13 were saved by that damn goalkeeper, including the penalty."
"13?! How many is the current record for this tournant?!"
"Before this... 11 in 2000 by Eiji Kawashima."
"Fucking hell..."
The conversation spread across the stand, and all the people there were dumbfounded by this. No one knew how Higo could perform so crazily like this, but whatever happened later, the boy’s performance today would be enough to make him beco a legend in this tournant.
"Okay, that’s enough."
The referee finally stepped up, standing in front of Kawabe quickly. Looking at the boy who was panting heavily, trying his best to contain his anger, the man couldn’t help but gulp a little. However, he couldn’t show any nervousness here, or he would be taken advantage of for the rest of the ga.
In the end, the man pulled a yellow card from his pocket and gave it to Kawabe. "I can understand your frustration, but mind your language, young man!" He warned the boy sternly.
Before Kawabe could answer anything, so of the Shohei boys ca imdiately, dragging the captain out of the spot. "I am sorry, Sensei. We will take care of him first."
Seeing the opponent’s players dragging their best player out of the problem like this, Higo was so baffled here, unable to process everything inside his head. He turned to Makino, who was as dumbfounded as he was, and a question escaped from his throat.
"What the fuck is going on here?!"
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