Chapter 196 A look of shock
His body boiling with rage and his fist clenched, Tatsuki strode towards Mao Suzuki, while flaring his nostrils.
"He could have been injured seriously! Why are you playing so roughly?" Questioned Tatsuki as he reached closer to Suzuki.
His voice carried a hint of anger and even his eyes were burning with rage.
Just like how he did with the referee, Suzuki feigned ignorance as he pleaded, "I didn't even push him that hard. Is he that frail?"
Witnessing the two of them arguing with each other, Kein being the captain of his team immediately stepped in between them as he tried to separate the two of them, "Look we know Mao, I'm sure he just somehow slipped when he got pushed a little. Nobody among us want to injure him."
Hiro who was only slightly hurt, smiled inwardly as he witnessed his plan taking it's effect.
Winning the foul was only the initial part of his plan, his main focus was to disrupt the harmony between the opposing players.
He knew that it was Tatsuki who had revealed his playstyle to the opposing players. Thus, if his club teammates were going to use his weaknesses then he was also prepared to do whatever he can to win the match.
'Don't blame me for playing dirty Tatsuki. Afterall it was you who started this thing first.' Thought Hiro while looking at the direction where Tatsuki was arguing with Mao.
After some while players of U-23 lined up together forming a wall infront of the freekick spot.
And even though the freekick spot was like 30 yards away from the post, they still erected a wall to hinder Hiro's shot.
They very well knew that Hiro was capable of scoring from even the half-line.
"Watch out for any possible gaps." Shouted Naoto from behind while guiding his teammates to cover up the spaces.
Retracting few steps from the ball, Hiro stood straight infront of the ball. After quickly analysing the position of the players infront, he then looked towards the direction of the ball.
Waiting for the signal of referee, Hiro exhaled a deep breath before making his run towards the ball.
Beep!!
And as the referee blew his whistle, Hiro ran towards the ball. Hitting the ball with as much force as he can, he hit the ball in a spot where he could maximise his output.
Bam!!!
A loud sound resounded as Hiro's leg made contact with the ball. There was so much power in his shot that even the ball wobbled vigorously before it left Hiro's feet.
The ball flew high above the wall of players, straight towards the opposing goalpost. And as the ball attained it's maximum height, it fell down rapidly. He hit an insanely powerful Knuckleball.
While the wall acted as a safety measure to block the ball early in it's track, it also greatly obstructed the vision of the keeper.
Thus Naoto who had little to no vision of the ball could only rely on his wits to make that save. Naoto relying on his wits, dived towards the top right corner since most of the time Hiro only took freekick from his right.
And a freekick from that distance, he was about 70 percent sure that Hiro was going to aim at the top right corner.
But to his great surprise the ball actually flew opposite to the direction he had predicted.
And before he could even dive towards the direction he had predicted, it was already too late. The ball found it's way to the back of net without any disturbance.
The whole thing happened so fast that it felt like it happened in the blink of an eye.
Thus for a short moment, the whole pitch got ghastly silent.
"Gooooaaaaallllllll!!!!"
Suddenly out of nowhere, players of Hiro's team erupted all of a sudden.
At 39th minute of the match, Hiro once again gave his team the lead by scoring a magnificent freekick from 30 yards away.
Drawing the talent "Ambipedal", sure came in handy. Moreover it also gave him the freedom to let him use the talent "Roberto Carlos's Freekick", with both legs.
Thus Naoto who wasn't aware of the fact that Hiro could shoot equally powerful shot with both his feet was caught totally off-guard.
"Damn!! He could shot that powerful shot with his left leg?" In a state of shock, one of the selecter mumbled.
"Wasn't his previous freekicks all from right leg?" Another selecter who had seen Hiro's freekicks previously questioned with a dumbfounded look on his face.
His eyes gleaming with excitement, Kazan's heart was boiling with thrill and excitement. While focusing at the scene infront of him, a large amount of dopamine was being released in his mind making him feel extremely happy.
'Interesting so you're saying that you can shoot such powerful shots with both your leg? Now what more can you do?' Kazan mused. nove.lb-In
Putting two goals past that dominating U-23 team, it was clear that Hiro wasn't your above average talent. He was someone capable of displaying one man show.
He was someone worth building the team around.
Even Tatsuki who was part of the wall of the players had a look of surprise on his face. Afterall it was also his first time seeing Hiro take such insane freekick with his left foot.
Although he had seen Hiro take freekicks with his left leg before. But back then Hiro always went for a curl while taking freekicks with his left leg. And usually, he only used his left leg to take freekicks near the penalty box.
He never took a powershot freekick with his left leg.
Gradually the look of surprise on his face changed into trepidation as he realised how fast Hiro was evolving.
In presence of Hiro, Tatsuki felt like he was standing infront of a huge mountain which kept growing.
It hadn't even been that long since he last played with Hiro. In less than half a year, Hiro had already evolved to an unfathomable point, beyond his expectations.
Looking at his lonely shadow, Tatsuki mumbled meekly, "If you continue to develop like this, we'll always stay in your shadow."