The game continued again, and honestly, Higo was at the end of his wits right now. His breath was panting heavily, and his expression was so dark that no one dared to take a look at him.
The reason was simple.
Not only were his teammates bad, but they were also blockheads. Yeah, it was the combo of two bad things mixed together, getting dumped straight in front of his eyes. Honestly, Higo had already thought of himself as a saint for not snapping at anyone near him right now.
Honestly, it would be okay if it were just one of them. Higo could accept bad teammates if they were willing to listen, and he could also accept stubborn teammates as long as they were good and knew what they were doing.
Now, though, he didn’t get any.
His two defenders were not only slow to react but also treated him like a fool. They would just glance at his instruction for a moment, nodding nonchalantly as if they heard it, just to completely ignore the whole thing he said earlier. This was why the boy was completely exhausted, not physically, but mentally.
Even Fabian Reese, the one who greeted him earlier, looked at the boy in pity. "You okay?" He asked.
"Man... I don’t care what you have to do, but at least, get the ball as far away as my box as possible!" He growled angrily. "I cannot deal with two simpletons who don’t even know how to listen to the simplest command possible! Hell, they don’t even know what to do when I shout move away!"
Fabian Reese just rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. He truly felt Higo’s pain here because the boy could see that the two central defenders acted like they were the opponent’s spies, always getting in the messiest position possible to make it difficult for Higo to react.
Honestly, it was just a pure miracle that Higo hadn’t conceded a single goal so far.
"Don’t worry, I will try my best after this."
Fortunately, the man truly tried his best. From the left wing, he started to make a move, breaking through everything with just pure speed and power, crushing all of his opponents there. His first attempt failed, as his crossing was far too high for the striker in the box to handle. However, he learned well from that chance, as in the second attempt, the execution was perfect.
He sent a low cross right into the six-yard box, and the opponent’s goalkeeper failed to reach the ball first. In return, it was the striker from Ghana, Randy Gyamenah, who managed to win it, as he fought against two defenders to get the ball. With one foot extended far, the striker managed to poke the ball lightly, just enough to change the direction to get into the opponent’s goal.
Thud!
"Oh! What a goal!"
"Come on, Randy! You rock!"
The Ghanaian striker just clenched his fist after scoring a goal, not overly celebrating it. After all, this was just an internal game, and there was no need to rub it in front of his teammates’ faces.
Higo also let out a sigh of relief. Even though the goal wouldn’t affect the evaluation of his performance at all, at least, it was always good to win the game. It also helped that the team’s mood reached its peak, making them all enthusiastic about doing almost everything.
’Yeah, now, everything is settled. The game is in our hands.’ He muttered, clenching his fist secretly.
After this, the tempo increased slightly. Being down by one goal, the red team wanted to try their luck, pushing further to tie the game. However, with Higo being in command on the back, the white team’s defense was as strong as ever, not giving any leak for the opponent to take advantage of.
Soon enough, as no attempt was quite successful, the pace also slowed down a lot. Before, the red team was just driven by the fact that they conceded a goal. However, now, the realization that this was just an internal game had drowned inside their head, enough to make them move lazily once again.
No, not lazily. They still tried hard enough to run for the ball and make a good move here and there, but their hustle effort was not there, and no one would chase a wild ball running around the pitch. They would rather let the ball out than have to run a little bit more, preserving their energy as much as they could.
Of course, this allowed Higo to breathe a little bit more. However, the boy couldn’t help but feel disappointed right now.
’If this is going to be the level that my team is going to be, winning anything will be difficult, right?’ He couldn’t help but feel worried. ’They might be slightly better than Hakodate Nishi, but their effort is not there. They play as if they just want to go back home as soon as possible. Will this kind of team be okay?’
Since the only team he had ever played with was Hakodate Nishi, of course, that was the only comparison he could make up for, and this didn’t look good for his future team at all. After all, Hakodate Nishi was just a mediocre team at best that made a miracle throughout the national team, something that couldn’t be replaced again, no matter how hard they tried.
Still, Higo forgot about one part.
This team right now was just the second team, reserved only for those young guys who had potential, those who were punished from the main team, or those who were never good enough to be at the main team. The quality was definitely way lower than the main one that fought in the Bundesliga. So, this bad quality was somehow a little bit understandable.
Well, that was the least he should care about right now, because right in the moment the game was over, the boy got called by the head coach immediately.
"Come on, bring your sister and agent to my office. We will sign the contract back at my office, so get ready yourself."