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n“It’s good that you realise your mistake. But still don’t disrupt the announcement.” Saying such manager Nozomi continued with his announcement.

n“Midfielders: Hidetaka Maie, Hirato Hyakukai and Takahashi Hiro”

nUpon having their names called, the three of them took a step forward and joined the clique of players who were selected for the starting eleven.

nSince most of the times, the U-15 team played with only one attacking midfielder, other players couldn’t help but wonder why manager Nozomi selected two players who played in the same position that time around.

n“Why did he pick two attacking midfielders?” The players thought after hearing the name of Hiro and Hirato.

nEven though they weren’t against manager Nozomi’s decision, they still couldn’t comprehend the reason behind selecting two players who played in the same position. At most they had expected manager Nozomi to pick Hiro over Hirato.

nThus, manager Nozomi’s announcement left all of them completely baffled.

n“Forwards: Seiya Baba, Sho Inagaki and Yuya Asano.”

nSho Inagaki was the same centre forward whom he played against in the match between the starters and reserves.

nBody which was neither shredded nor fat, his muscles weren’t much flashy. Black pupils, small nose and short dark black hair which was firmly cut in a buzz cut, his facial features were well defined.

n“That’s all for the starting eleven. Also Takekazu Yokodera, Kota Yui, Ryuma Takeuchi, Daichi Sugimoto and Kosuke Uchida will be the substitutes for the match against Chiba.”

nAs manager Nozomi finished making the announcement he retracted his step. Coach Fuji then took up the stage and added few more words.

n“Although this player’s are selected for the Sunday’s friendly match. It doesn’t mean that the spot is guaranteed. Since we still have three more days left for the match, the list could change anytime. So don’t slack and all of you give your best.” 𝙚𝙙𝙤𝒗𝒆𝒍．𝒄𝙤𝙢

nAfter that announcement, the evening training started in full swing.

nAnd as the players started to scatter around, Takekazu walked towards manager Nozomi without being noticed.

n“Sir thank you for accepting my request.” Sounding grateful Takekazu thanked manager Nozomi while bowing his head slightly.

n“No need to thank me. Just focus on your recovery.” Saying such manager Nozomi walked away, leaving him alone.

nTakekazu who played as a starting centre back for the opposing team previously had slightly hurt his ankle during the match. Hence, he had asked manager Nozomi to not play him in sunday’s match.

nHowever manager Nozomi couldn’t leave him completely out of the squad. And thus, instead he placed him in the reserves.

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nThe coach’s then began to assemble the players for the first training drill.

nFor the first training drill they were going to perform pass-turn-receive-shoot.

nFor that drill four players were chosen. Three players positioned in a triangular shape with the fourth player at the middle of the triangle who’d act as the pass maker. They would then coordinate with each other and perform multiple fast pace passes and finally the player in the middle would shoot the ball towards the post.

nThat drill could help the player to develop their vision, improve their passing and awareness and most importantly it would help them to coordinate better.

n“Hirato, Hiro, Sho and Yuya step forward.” Calling out their names, Coach Fuji asked them to step forward.

nAnd as they stepped forward, he began to position Hirato, Sho and Yuya at certain distance away from each other in a shape of traingle. He then positioned Hiro at the centre of the triangle and gave Hirato and Yuya one ball each.

nThat meant that they were going to perform the drill with two balls.

nWith Shun in the goalpost, after placing them all in their respective position, coach Fuji blew his whistle.

nBeep!!

nHirato then passed the ball to Hiro who was at the centre of the triangle. At the same time, Yuya too passed the ball in his feet to Sho.

nAfter receiving the ball from Hirato, Hiro released the ball to Yuya and quickly turned around to face Sho. Sho then released the ball to Hiro. At the same time Yuya released the ball to Hirato.

nAfter receiving the ball from Sho, Hiro then passed the ball back to Sho without trapping and quickly turned around towards Hirato to receive another pass.

nThe ball which Sho received from Hiro, he then passed the ball to Yuya. At the same time Hirato released the ball to Hiro as well. Hiro then shot the ball he received from Hirato towards the post and quickly turned towards Yuya to receive the final pass of the drill.

nAnd then he once again shot the ball he received from Yuya towards the post.

nThey continued to repeat the same pattern while switching the player in the middle for several rounds.

nAlthough the training looked kinda complicated, it wasn’t. Infact the pattern was quite simple.

nHowever the only thing that was difficult was the movement one would require to pull up those moves. One needed to be extremely agile and sharp to follow the pathway of both the balls.

nHiro executed the drill flawlessly without any fail for two rounds. However the others couldn’t execute the drill without any mistakes in both the rounds.

nNot because they couldn’t memorise the pattern and follow the ball. They couldn’t perform the drill because of the speed of the passes. The passes were simply too fast.

nAfter that drill, the coach’s then made them perform few other training drills. And finally they ended the training with a rondo.

nAnd by the time they completed their evening training, the sun had already settled down. With Stars and the luminescent Cresent moon becoming visible in the sky mixed with blue and black hues, the ambience around the ground had gotten chilly.

nThe fast pace training had completely exhausted the players. However it wasn’t anything out of ordinary.

nPlayers lying on the field panting heavily was an everyday sight at the field.

nWhile everybody were lying on the field, there was still one player who was juggling the ball. And that player was Hiro. Although he too was exhausted by the training, he hadn’t had enough yet. On the contrary he was enjoying the tiring drills.

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