Classroom of the Elite: Prepared

Chapter 9 - Calculated and intense football match

The first few minutes were going pretty smooth. We were just passing around the ball like Hirata taught us. After a mistake from Onodera we lost possession and we let them pass around the ball.

But it was different than from our passing around, they were much faster and aggressive. No one from our team expected that and so they quickly got through our defense and scored the first goal.

The shot wasn't good but I saw Akito getting distracted from running Ichinose and I think I'll leave it at that.

Shibata: "Nice guys, lets continue!"

Ichinose: "Yeah!"

Hirata: "It's fine let give it our best."

Akito: "Yeah that was my mistake."

And so the game went on but I must say that Sotomura was terrible at sports. Even though I held back so much he was even worse. Every time the opponent had the ball they would turn up the pace and go in the direction of our goal.

Onodera and especially Sotomura were struggling with the ball on their feet. I wasn't much better but compared to them I wasn't that big of a burden. Hirata was our only hope but he had to run almost the whole time since he was in midfield.

He helped out in front but also behind. You could see that he was playing in a football club.

And after a while the whistle blew for halftime. The score was 3-0. We were lucky because if Akito wasn't our goalkeeper then who knows how many goals we would have conceded.

Hirata: "Okay, let's change some positions. I'll go in front and I want Onodera in the middle and every time they have the ball I'll drop back. How does that sound?"

Sotomura: "I don't know."

Akito: "Yeah sounds good."

Ayanokoji: "I suppose that could work."

We changed our formation and went into the second half. And we could directly feel the change of formation. Now it was way easier to get the ball back and in only five minutes we scored the 3-1.

Sotomura: "Nice Hirata! That goal was straight out of a sport anime!"

Hirata didn't know what to say and just thanked him. There was no time to spend since we want to win this.

Shibata: "Guys concentrate we just gotta defend our lead!"

Kanzaki: "Yeah got it but you gotta help back in defense."

Shibata: "Alright I will."

After that it got way harder to get past through their defense. You could really see the difference of the quality of the players. Shibata especially was very good in dribbling through our defense and passing the pass with accuracy. We stood no chance now while they were defending with Shibata at the back. But through an incredible solo play from Hirata we scored the 3-2 with 7 minutes left. If we manage to score another goal it will go to overtime.

Ayanokoji: "That was nicely played Yosuke."

Hirata: "Thank you Kiyotaka. Now let's go only 7 minutes left we can turn this around!"

I heard Shibata shouting at his mates again and Ichinose try to calm him down.

Now there are only 2 more minutes left and the score is still 3-2. This game truly was intense probably the most intense football game I've played since the opponent are way better individually. So far I hadn't done anything out of the ordinary but just to keep up at this level was really hard since the opponents are so superior.

Hirata: "Ayanokoji pass me the ball!"

I heard Hirata and passed him a ball through Kanzaki and Shibata. They couldn't reach the ball and now they were running behind Hirata. Hirata will be overtaken by Shibata in a few seconds, I decided to follow him to the front.