The Rise of the Iron Wall!

Chapter 350: The End of the First Half!

CLANK!

Higo couldn’t react properly to that shot. No, everything was so sudden that even with him being warned by his clairvoyant ability, the boy was still so stunned, watching the ball move like a bullet toward his goal. It was only by pure luck that the ball hit the crossbar, preventing him from conceding a goal here.

"AH! FUCK!" Jui Hata cursed when he saw his attempt still failed to get into the goal. "What kind of fuckery charm does he use to keep his clean sheet here?! This is getting ridiculous!" He started to complain in exasperation.

Honestly, the boy could understand Hiroki Kawabe’s frustration when that boy crashed out in Hakodate Nishi’s last game against Shohei. It was as if the ball couldn’t go straight to the goal, either being sucked by Higo’s magnetic hand or being pulled away by an invisible barrier in the goal.

No single attempt was good enough to score the goal against Higo here.

"Oi, Jui, be a little bit serious! Don’t accuse someone of something he didn’t do so easily!" Kei Matsumura scolded him, inwardly sweating. It would be no good if the referee didn’t like this, so the boy turned around and bowed immediately. "Sorry, Sensei. The outburst is unnecessary; I will supervise him further."

The referee just hummed lightly here. "I will not punish him now, but make sure that this doesn’t happen again, okay?"

"Yes, Sir!"

Higo himself was so dumbfounded by the sudden accusation against him. This was the second time someone said that he used something supernatural to protect his goal, and honestly, the boy didn’t know whether he should treat it as flattery or an insult.

FWEEE! FWEEE! FWEEE!

Well, before he could proceed any further, the referee finally blew the whistle three times continuously, ending the first half with Hakodate Nishi’s lead. Higo couldn’t help but groan, letting his butt fall to the ground in exhaustion. "Damn, this nightmare is finally over..." He stretched his back like an old man.

"Come on, Chibi! Let’s go back to the locker room first; we need something warm right now..." Makino landed a hand quickly while also shivering. Yeah, the weather seemed to get colder at this point.

Higo himself just realized that most of the players had already vanished, going to the locker room immediately. He just followed along, and the moment the boy entered the locker room, he let out a relieved sigh at the warmth coming from the heater inside.

"Damn, this is life..." He melted onto his own chair immediately, taking off his gloves before taking a bottle of electrolyte water to relieve himself.

"You sure look like an old man, Senpai." Kenji couldn’t help but snicker.

"I don’t want to hear that from you, who is sitting straight next to the heater, Bastard!" Higo retorted with a little bit of heat in his tone. "What? You are getting cold from not having to do anything specific in the first half?"

Kenji coughed violently when he heard that, not expecting to be attacked out of nowhere by Higo. The others also stifled their laughter here, not wanting to do it out loud. "What the hell, Senpai?! I thought we were bros!" He cried indignantly.

"Bros with you? Kenji, don’t think so highly of yourself! Higo-senpai is more afraid of losing Shishida-senpai to you right now!" Hori chimed in, eliciting laughter from the others. At this point, everyone knew basically that Higo and Kumiko were together, so they dared to tease those two occasionally like this.

Kumiko herself felt the corner of her mouth twitching right now. With a single cough, she managed to silence the entire team, turning their attention to her.

"Thank you." She nodded satisfactorily. "First of all, I am so satisfied that we can score a goal in the first half. A round of applause for Usami-kun, who gains inspiration again, and Hiroshi-kun for his incredible execution, please." She clapped at those two, appreciatively.

The rest of the team followed the order, some even whistling at them. While Hiroshi was calm enough, Usami’s face was so red as he buried his head deeply under his jersey, too embarrassed to accept the love here.

"Still, I know you notice the problem we face, right?" Kumiko spoke once again, and this time, everyone straightened their back immediately. "Our midfield somehow gets exposed tonight, always one step too late to either get the second ball or close down any space for our opponent to take action in the pocket area. I can tell you that 7 of their 9 shots in the first half came from this scenario, and 4 of them ended up on target."

Jun clenched his fist unconsciously, knowing that half of those were his mistake. Takaaki also sighed helplessly, not being able to play a big role in helping in this area. He was so battered after having to cover Jun so many times, and that still failed to prevent the opponent from getting into their own area so many times.

"I know that this is not Jun-kun or Takaaki-kun’s fault, and I don’t intend to blame them. Without Kazawa-kun and Fujinaga-kun, it is indeed difficult to hold our own ground in that area. However, something must be changed here."

Some of the bench players perked up when Kumiko mentioned a change. Well, not some, but all of them. After all, they only had Yuji, Kuroki, and Hori on the bench right now.

"You three, start warming up for now." Kumiko gave an order. "I will definitely put you guys on the pitch today, but the timing depends on the situation there. So, don’t slack off and always get ready to come, okay?"

"Yes, Ma’am!" The three nodded simultaneously, leaving the locker room immediately to start their warm-up.

"Jun-kun..." Kumiko’s tone softened as she stared at the tensed tall boy in front of her. "I know that you are not to blame here, but we need to change something."

"Yes, Senpai?" He tried to smile, but his facial muscles just twitched a little here, ready to face any consequence she had in mind.

Kumiko just took a deep breath, saying, "It is clear that you are not suitable for a defensive midfield position, so you will be back on the backline, with Makino-kun shifting forward to fill your position. Any complaint?"