Thirty minutes later, Higo had already found himself sitting nicely on the bench, watching as the game was about to begin. Next to him, Makino leaned forward, intending to learn anything that could happen today. It was nice for the coaching team not to set who sat where, so that the bench players could be with their best friend while watching the game.
Still, the boy tried his best to ignore the strange gazes from the others. Hell, he could even see Kumiko and Sakura Aizawa giggling at him secretly, which was enough to make the tip of his ears redden.
Makino himself also noticed this, so the former Hakodate Nishi captain couldn’t help but tease him. "So, how does it feel to be this kind of center of attention? Still daring to brag?"
"Not you too, Teme!" Higo groaned, covering his face in shame. "I cannot believe he would just blurt it out in the locker room out of nowhere, and he even has the guts to drag me into this shit! I am so regretting everything in my life right now!" He moaned indignantly.
"Well, you have never denied his words even for once, so here you have the reaction." Makino shrugged, trying his best to hold back his laughter.
For that, Higo just made some rude hand gestures, knowing that he had no answer here.
The reason why he suddenly became the center of attention on the bench was none other than Zion Suzuki himself. Somehow, the goalkeeper relayed his words in the locker room, bragging to everyone else that Italy was nothing special and they had a chance to win.
Well, that was indeed what he thought secretly, but Higo had never intended to say it out loud, for God’s sake! He knew that this kind of bragging would only create an enemy for him, especially since he himself was just a bench player. People would sneer and look down on him, probably thinking of so many nasty insults about him.
’Just a bench player who couldn’t get the number one spot, who does he think he is?’
’Does he really become that arrogant after getting recruited by a European team?’
"Bah! Everyone can brag, especially those who didn’t play! No need to care about those shameless people!’
Those were not just Higo’s imagination, because the boy truly heard some people muttering that behind his back. Unfortunately, no matter how much he tried to explain, the boy couldn’t convince everyone that he wasn’t just bragging here. As for an apology... Well, he himself didn’t know what to apologize for, since it was just a genuine thought, and he didn’t offend anyone else here.
As a result, yeah, here he was, sitting on the corner of the bench while the others were talking shit secretly around him.
’This is probably the consequence of having a big-mouthed friend, right?’ He sighed helplessly.
Meanwhile, Kageyama-sensei just glanced over Higo for a moment before his gaze fell on Zion a second later, and with a little snort, he said to Norio Takahashi, the team’s goalkeeping coach, "Norio-san, the talents you cultivate sure are interesting, huh?"
Norio-sensei just rubbed the back awkwardly, not knowing whether it was a sarcastic remark or not.
"I am serious, if you want me to be honest," Kageyama-sensei added, clearly realizing the man’s awkwardness. "For the last couple of days, I have been thinking of a way to say that winning this game is possible without putting pressure on them, and yet, two goalkeepers could do that so easily just with their overconfident state. Honestly, I don’t know if it is because of confidence or ignorance, but I am so glad that some players thought that it is possible to win this game."
"Now, everything depends on their performance. If they failed to show their potential here, all the big talk before would only backfire on them later." Akiba-sensei muttered under his breath.
Well, this was definitely a matter for when the game was over. Now, though, everyone was ready, waiting for the referee to blow the whistle. The two players from the Italy team stood in the center circle, still chatting with each other casually while waiting for the kickoff.
After a while, though...
FWEEE!
The whistle had finally been blown, signalling the first game of the World Cup for both teams. Andrea Pinamonti passed the ball back immediately before going straight to the space in front of Japan’s defensive line, intending to hover around there and terrorise his opponent.
Still, the Italy team didn’t want to go all out from the beginning. This was the first game of the tournament, and they wanted to pace themselves carefully, not wanting to get carried away by high emotion. Even though they were just a bunch of new adults around 18 to 19 years old, somehow, on the pitch, they still showed a lot of maturity here.
Japan was also the same. They moved like a unit, compact and narrow, to push the opponent to the flank. They didn’t want their territory to get breached easily, so maintaining discipline was the most important task right now.
For the first five minutes of the game, the tempo was slow without any chance being created there. Both teams were still trying to poke around here and there, wanting to understand their opponent first before making a big move.
Then came the first threat of the game, where somehow, Andrea Pinamonti managed to hold the ball strong even under Ito’s guard. He only had his back against the goal and couldn’t turn around, but the striker held the possession strongly, letting the other Italy players make a move around.
Then, before anyone could recover, somehow, a shadow sneaked from the midfield area, cutting through the right side out of nowhere. This caught Kobayashi and Sugawara off guard, not expecting someone to get into their territory like this.
However, in the next second...
Thud!
Andrea Pinamonti sent a backheel that surprised Ito, and the ball slipped through Japan’s tight defensive shape before it arrived right in the space in front of that new player. That was when hell broke loose for the Young Samurai, as chaos ensued right after that.