Within a minute, Ren reached his desired position. For him, the first few minutes of the game were meant not only to study the other team, but also to acclimatize to the pace of play.
As Ren watched the ball and studied Cono's team, he clenched his shaking hands. During his entire warm-up with Ryo, he hadn't felt cold enough to be trembling. But now, with the game underway, both of his arms shook uncontrollably. And all he could do was silently plead for it to stop
Stop shaking already!
Although Ren didn't realize it, he wasn't shaking entirely because of the cold. Sure, the weather didn't help, but even if it were warm and sunny, his hands would still tremble. There was only one real reason why he was shaking.
He was nervous.
Not because this was the finals, and certainly not because of the crowd.—but because he was scared of losing. He had already been through it before: Ryusei had fought their way through the bracket, only to fall to Suwa Cono in the finals. Ren had given everything he had to win Regionals, yet they had stumbled at the final obstacle.
Now, they were facing that same team—the one that had triumphed over them the year prior. So even though Ren didn't consciously realize it, the memory of that loss was still in the back of his mind, feeding a quiet, persistent anxiety.
Still, Ren did his best to ignore the shivers in his arms and focus on the game in front of him.
"Let's see…" he mumbled, barely audible over the steady hissing of the rain.
There are four defenders, one forward, and… five midfielders? No, they seem evenly split… maybe a 4–2–3–1 or a 4–3–2–1?
Ren furrowed his eyebrows, trying to assess their formation through the movement in the middle. But with the players constantly overlapping and running past each other, he gave up on trying to make that distinction.
Whatever, it's not like it makes a difference. Ryo's better at understanding these formations anyway… I'll just ask him about it during a break.
Over the next few minutes, Ren began to pick up on each player's tendencies. No matter how skilled a player was, they always had a preferred style of play, which often came with a variety of both habits and flaws.
Why are they playing like that?
Ren's confusion almost showed on his face. To him, many of their movements felt excessive. Even without pressure, they dribbled excessively—almost like a freestyler's street performance.
Nothing they do makes sense… Maybe Ryo knows what's going on.
Despite all that, Ren finally felt ready to involve himself in the game. His eyes turned serious, his muscles tensed, and he began to move with intent. Almost as if on cue, Ryo and the rest of the team raised their level, too.
The change was immediate.
Cono's players felt the increase in intensity right away. Each ball movement was tracked, and each pass was met with a much harder resistance than before. Consequently, Ryusei began to assert control, and their midfield consistently encroached onto Cono's half.
Searching for a breakthrough, Ryusei's midfield poked and prodded at the opposition, testing the integrity of their formation and their reaction time. If they were pressured in return, then the ball would cycle back to the defense, giving them time to breathe, reset, and attack again.
After a desperate push from Cono to regain possession of the ball off the right midfielder, Hideki, it was sent all the way back to their goalie, Sato Kenta. Unable to pick up the ball since it came to him unimpeded, Kenta controlled it and immediately switched the play to Taiga on the opposite side.
Taiga did not hesitate. He took advantage of the quick switch in sides to pass the ball up along the flank. Striking it with sufficient force, the ball flew low, skipping across the rain-soaked grass, and met Ryo's foot as he crossed the halfway line.
With this, Cono's push to reclaim the ball had completely backfired. Half of them were out of position, powerless to do anything against Ryusei's push.
From across the pitch, Ren had his eyes locked on Ryo as he surged forward. Aside from himself and Ken, Ren could already tell that no one else was in a position to meaningfully participate in the attack.
Ken is moving wide to support Ryo. I'll cut in as well to hold the middle.
One of Cono's defensive midfielders, the only one close enough to stop Ryo, approached him from the side. As Ren reached the center and saw this, his mind raced to read the play.
With number 20 attacking, Ryo will probably pass upfield to Ken, then run diagonally into the open space in the center.
His eyes shifted to Ken.
Two defenders are already closing down on him. He won't be able to turn back around, so he'll pass it back to Ryo.
Then Ren noticed the two remaining defenders.
One defender is moving to support the other two near Ken, and the other is in front of me. In this case, Ryo will probably pass to me. I need to move if we want to get the ball through.
Having settled on the most likely outcome, Ren angled his run slightly to the right, which would send him just wide of the goal, right as Ken was passing back to Ryo in the center.
Like this, Ryo can send the ball hard along my run. I'll be wide of the goal, but still in range.
With his back almost completely turned, Ren barely made eye contact with Ryo the moment he received the ball. He could tell that Ryo was properly aligned to execute the pass. Ren just had to wait for his brother to read his intention and send the ball to him.
There was no doubt lingering in Ren's mind; he was certain Ryo would not miss his intentions. To him, it wasn't a matter of if the ball would come, but when.
Under the constant torrent of rain, Ren could not hear the ball as it approached him from behind. The sound of the ball gliding across the grass was indistinguishable from the white noise resounding in his ears.
But Ren didn't need to hear it.
From the shifting expression on the defender's face as Ren passed by him, to the swelling of the noise coming from the stands, Ren knew. He had all the confirmation he needed to know the ball was chasing him.
Reaching the spot he had envisioned earlier, Ren turned his body one last time, so that he ran perpendicular to the penalty box. When his head turned, he noticed the ball just a few steps behind. His eyes tracked its trajectory, and he barely tapped it with his foot to line up his shot. Then, Ren stepped into the ball and struck it cleanly in the middle.
Imparting no spin on it, the entirety of his leg's momentum went to increasing the ball's speed. As it cleaved through the curtain of rain, the ball wobbled slightly and went past the goalie's outstretched arms. The ball slammed halfway up into the far post, causing it to ricochet inward and into the net.
The crowd erupted into cheers, Ren's teammates ecstatically celebrated, and Cono's defenders dragged their legs. Yet amidst all this, Ren remained unmoved, his eyes focused on the sidelines.
Right there, clad in a neon green jersey, the referee stood rigidly with his hand raised high over his head. The orange-and-yellow checkered flag he held cut through the moment, slowly freezing the entire arena in place.
—————————————————————————————————
"Offside? Really?" Ryo said in disbelief.
I could have sworn that Ren was onside when I passed it.
Ryo knew that Ren had played flawlessly in the attack. He had seen Ren adjust his course after cutting towards the center. After that, it only took one step for Ryo to send the ball after receiving it, and, by then, Ren looked like he was just reaching the defender.
Unless the head referee chooses to ignore the assistant ref's call, the goal probably won't count. And we don't have VAR either.
Ryo pushed his wet hair back and looked up, exhaling in slight frustration.
That goal was so good though… What a waste.
As the referees conferred with each other and the excitement in the arena died down, Ryo walked over to Ren.
"Hey, Ren-nii. Don't worry too much about the call," Ryo said carefully, seeing that Ren was still watching the referees intensely. "The ref probably saw it wrong."
"Huh?" Ren turned his head to Ryo. "Oh, I'm fine. We already made it once, so we can just score again, right?"
Wow… He's so positive. The light radiating from him is too blinding.
"Haha," Ryo chuckled, "you're right, but it's still unfortunate. That shot was pretty good."
"Yeah, thanks. I hit that as hard as I could."
"Everyone could tell! The post was shaking for at least five seconds after."
Before Ryo could say more, the head referee stepped forward and made the final call they were all expecting—Ren was offside, and the goal wouldn't stand. Having accepted that fate, Ryo and Ren both walked back to their half.
"Ren-nii, be careful whenever you go through the middle," Ryo warned. "They are playing a 4–3–2–1 formation, so they have a more powerful center. It's easier for them to take control when the ball is there, so make sure to play down the wings as much as you can."
Our formations target each other's weaknesses. We are vulnerable in the middle because of our 4–4–2, but stronger on the wings. On the other hand, Cono is stronger in the middle and more vulnerable on the sides.
"I see… In that case, it's good that you and Hideki are on the sides."
"Yeah, and Tomoya's in the middle, so he won't let the ball pass easily," Ryo added.
He's right that we have some strong flanks, but if we need to, we could also shift into a 4–4–2 diamond to directly challenge their control over the center. Still, as long as our regular 4–4–2 works, there's no point in changing it.
"Oh, there's one more thing I wanted to ask you, Ryo," Ren said.
Another thing? Did you even ask the first one?
"Yeah, what is it?" Ryo answered, ignoring the discrepancy in Ren's statement.
"Why were they dribbling so much at the start of the game?"
"That? Hmm…" Ryo paused for a second, choosing his words carefully, "You could say they were trying to be flashy…"
"Flashy?"
Well, for some reason, it seemed like they were trying to show off… Or maybe they were looking down on us? Either way, there's no need to mention it to him.
"Yeah, but don't worry about it, Ren-nii," Ryo called out more loudly, moving away from him as they finally reached their half. "Let's score another goal!"
"Yeah… Let's do that," Ren answered quietly.