"Come on, Mamoru! We are relying on you!"
"Tagawa, don’t you dare play around! Get serious, our long ball will go to your head!"
"This is our chance to counterattack! Don’t let this slip so easily!"
Looking at the excited Japan team, even the young Italy team couldn’t help but feel intimidated here. They saw the two new players on the pitch, and based on the team’s reaction, they could guess that those two were hidden weapons getting prepared to face them.
"What should we do, Delli?" Someone suddenly asked Tripaldelli, the team’s captain.
The boy didn’t give an answer immediately, turning his head to the bench. There, he saw the coach make a subtle signal, and he gave a nod to the man. "Calm down a little bit and don’t go too far from your own territory. I will see how dangerous that number 20 is, and Giorno will mark that number 9. If they are easy to get neutralized, we will be back with our tempo again."
"If not?"
That... Was not a question that Tripaldelli wanted to answer. He stayed quiet for a moment before patting his friend’s shoulder solemnly. "Just... Pray that they are not that troublesome, okay?"
Unfortunately, their prayer was proven to be useless here, because the first play those two came in, Mamoru suddenly took action. When he received the ball, he was immediately pressed by Tripaldelli from behind. However, this also allowed the boy to know his marker’s position and react accordingly.
’Well, if he comes from the left side like that, what I need is just a little tweak there, and...’
Thud!
The boy shook his shoulder to the right as if he was about to go there. However, when Tripaldelli shifted toward that side as well instinctively, Mamoru took a turn to the other side quickly, escaping from the right side of the boy.
This move caught Tripaldelli off guard, and he even lost his balance in the process. The boy widened his eyes in shock as he stumbled on the ground, and when his eyes caught Mamoru rushing forward, the full back couldn’t help but curse.
"Fuck! He gets me! Cover!" He shouted to the other defenders.
The other defenders were trying to get closer to Mamoru, but Tagawa’s presence was too big to ignore. Unlike Miyashiro, who was living in the shadow, Tagawa’s main role was to attract attention, and he did his job to get all eyes on him.
Then, with a big space for Mamoru to create, his eyes landed on the other flank, and with one glance there, he sent a low, diagonal pass cutting through Italy’s territory to reach the player there. Kawabe, who was in a good position, grinned widely as he increased his speed.
’Ha! What a pass, Mamoru!’
It was a perfect delivery to the space in front of him. With his speed, just one push was enough to put him in the opponent’s penalty box, and this time, the distance between him and his marker was so great that there was no way a foul could be committed.
More than that, no one was close enough to him, so he had all the time in the world to decide what to do. Honestly, there should be no better chance for him to score in this game than this right now.
However, in the next second...
FWEEE!
The referee blew the whistle, stopping the game. In confusion, all eyes turned to the man, just for him to point out the linesman on the sideline who had raised his flag first. Kawabe was deemed offside before receiving the ball, which, once again, created a ruckus on Japan’s side.
"No! What are you, blind?! He is running behind that number 5 before receiving the ball!" Kageyama-sensei almost spat at the fourth referee.
Kawabe himself also had his eyes widen in shock. "No, Sensei! I timed it perfectly! I was still one step behind him before the pass came!" He pointed at the defender with the number 5, Alessandro Buongiorno, while also showing a dramatic face.
The others also tried to help, but unfortunately, most of them didn’t even know English well enough to communicate with the referee. In the end, their complaint was just getting treated as a bunch of meaningless ramblings, with the referee even sending a yellow card to Kageyama-sensei for an excessive protest.
"I know you guys have your own vision, but please, respect the decision made here." The man suddenly turned so firm, not accepting any complaints toward him.
Some of those players who could understand what the referee spoke just widened their eyes in bewilderment. This was the second time they were at the end of the referee’s shady decision here, and if once was a coincidence, twice was too much to be brushed off just like that. After all, fool me once, shame on you, but fool me twice, shame on me.
Kageyama-sensei could only scowl as he stared at the referee in fury. "Fuck your decision and fuck respecting it! You are a complete disgrace to this tournament and this sport! Just get the fuck out of it! Wait until we report this to FIFA, you corrupt Bastard!"
The referee just widened their eyes in shock here. After all, Japan and any other Asian team were infamous for their respectful behavior to the referee in the game, and this was the first time they saw someone from those countries spitting on their face directly like this.
Hell, even though all of those swears were in Japanese, the Algerian referee could basically understand the gist of it, and his hand froze straight away at that moment.
Fortunately, Norio-sensei and Akiba-sensei had already dragged the head coach back, trying their best to get the man out of this mess. It would be a disaster if the commander got a red card like this, leaving the ship running without any leader.
Fortunately, the referee didn’t punish him further, letting this incident slide just like that. However, the decision still stood, and the whole mood was completely ruined for the Japan team.
Right now, even though they didn’t say anything, everyone was on the same frequency here.
’The game is still far from over, so what would the referee do later?’