Chapter 2 - Trial Week (2)

"Three hours to get to Osaka?" Stopping in our tracks, I gave Bikei a look of confusion and regret as he told me the travel time to get to his club's training ground.

He looked back at me with another look equally as confused as if I said something out of the ordinary. "Yeah. Osaka's pretty far, why are you surprised?"

I took a second to think about his answer. He was right. Osaka was pretty far away from Tokyo, I never really thought about the distance since I rarely go there.

"Yeah but if you live in Tokyo and train in Osaka, that's one heck of a distance to travel just for club football."

Bikei nodded back at me, "True. But Cerezo was the only club that scouted me so I had to take the opportunity and sacrifice some of my time. It's pretty fun so I don't mind," he said as we walked out of the school.

Well, I guess that's to be expected of him. Bikei was always serious about football and would go the extra mile to achieve his dreams. That includes travelling miles to his club just to train week in and week out. Compared to me who's too scared to even go for a club trial.

"Have you got everything?" asked Bikei as he pointed to my bag. He texted me the night before what to bring for the practice match which includes a guest pass into the training ground. I looked inside my bag and everything was inside. My gloves, boots, water bottle, training kit ,etcetra. I nodded at him as we made our way to the bullet train station.

. . . . .

After a long journey, we arrived at the training ground at Minami Tsumori Sakura. I've watched a couple videos of the first team training here but I've never actually seen the place personally so this was a surreal experience for me.

Bikei showed me around the place and brought me to the coach of the youth team.

"Good Evening, Coach. Remember when I asked you if I could bring my friend for the practice match to help him warm up before his school trial?" Greeting his coach, Bikei introduced me to him.

"Good Evening, I'm Kiibo Yajin. I'm Bikei's friend since we were kids," I bowed my head out of respect.

The coach nodded and adjusted his cap, "I'm Matsuda. Cerezo's Youth Coach. We'll be starting our warm-ups in ten minutes so get yourself comfortable to the place."

"I will, thank you!" I responded back.

Bikei brought me to the changing rooms and I can't lie, I felt nervous since the other players were much older. I'm pretty sure Bikei and I are the only first-years from high school here.

I set my things down next to Bikei while he started to change into his pink, navy-sleeved tracksuit. While I was changing into my training attire, I started a conversation with Bikei to get my nerves down.

"Bikei, are we the only first-years here?" I asked.

Pulling down his shirt, he turned to me and nodded, "Yeah. The others are either third-years or have graduated from high-school. I'm the only first-year in the youth team."

"That's vintage for you, isn't it?" I said while putting on my training shorts, "It's kinda expected that you're already in the youth squad at sixteen," Bikei laughed my comments off as he put on his boots.

"Don't think too much about it, Yajin. It's a practice match meant for us to improve our game. We rarely make fun of each other," he said as he patted my back.

Biting off my sports tape and taping my hands, I rolled my eyes. "I wasn't concerned about that. What do you take me for?" Yet again, he started to laugh my response off. He waited for me to finish taping my wrists before walking onto the ground.

After our warm-up, the coach gave us a brief explanation of how the practice match was going to work. Depending on how each side played, players would be transferred in and out for a balance. This was to see how the chemistry and playing style works within players.

"Before we start, I'm sure you all know we have somebody new joining us today. At least get to know his name so you can familiarize yourselves," he looked at me and gestured me to introduce myself to the rest of the squad.

"Right. I'm Kiibo Yajin and I'm very grateful for this opportunity to train with everyone. I promise to do my best!"

And soon, the practice match began. I was fortunate to have Bikei on my team for now. Since he was the only person I knew here, it made communication easier with my defence. The quality of this professional youth team was extremely different compared to the quality of a school team. The fluidity of play was shown and each pass was made with quality and intent.

We lost possession and so we had to reform. The defence became tighter with the wingbacks performing their defensive chores. The right wing-back was able to block a cross but the ball couldn't be cleared as it fell to the feet of the other side's midfielder. Playing a smart through ball to the striker. I readied myself for the shot but Bikei was able to make a vital interception before the shot could've been made.

The other center-back cleared the ball and I could hear Bikei giving out instructions.

"Tora, Jonetsu, there was too much space for Tanaka to use. At least try to mark him or anticipate where the pass is getting played," he pointed to where the play was made. Despite being the youngest in the squad, Bikei knew his way around his seniors already.

I quickly snapped out of thought as play resumed soon after. They were pressing the defence hard. A cross was sent into the box which I had to jump out for. "Mine!" I shouted. I landed on my feet and our right wing-back was making a run. I ran to the edge of the box and threw it to him. He struggled a bit as he tried to make space for himself but a quick body feint did the trick as he managed to free himself a little. He crossed it into our striker's path who just barely put it wide. I could hear the frustrations from our team as Bikei clapped.

"It's alright, Taniguchi!" Bikei shouted while backtracking. Our striker gave him a thumbs-up as he got back to position. I stared at Bikei as he continued commanding the defence. He really does know his way around.

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Fifteen minutes which felt like a decade went by. Neither side were scoring and I barely had anything to do. I stood around my six-yard box stuck in thought. I quickly snapped out of it when I saw a loose ball. The opposite striker was getting close to it but I was able to get to it in time and boot it into the other half.

I didn't really care about where it landed since I had such little time to make a decision but it ended up creating a promising attack that ended with some great defending. I slapped my cheek as a reminder to stay focused.

Minutes later and our shape started to lose form. The other side's play was going fast and smooth. One-touch passes and drifting our midfielders wide was starting to take a toll in our formation.

It looked like we were trying to cover our tracks by making an attempt to man-mark whoever we can but as time went by I started to see that it was a bad idea. There was a good amount of space for the striker to take a long shot...

...and he did.

Had I not realized sooner, I doubt I'd be able to reach the ball. It was travelling with so much pace and I was positioned slightly to my left. I had to stretch as hard as I could just to tip the ball over the crossbar. I rolled over and got up quickly. I was slightly limping but I was more annoyed at how the defence was able to split itself open like that. I punched the post in frustration expecting words of anger to come out, but instead, "It's alright guys, I got it covered!"

I wasn't able to say what I wanted to say. Probably because I was afraid of lashing out at strangers. I didn't want to affect the morale so I tried to stay positive.

"Guys," Bikei started. "Right, we may have overlooked what Tanaka could do from there. We need to keep our defence fluid but also compact."

Bikei started talking to some of the guys in our team while the corner routine was being set up. They then ended it off by shaking each other off. Bikei only joined Cerezo last year but it's as if he's been with the youth set-up for ages. His confidence is really outstanding.

The ball was crossed into the box. I went out to punch it which conveniently went to the midfielder. We started a swift attack that involved Bikei making a tactical position change. He sprinted up while the defenders in the other half had trouble keeping up with. Acting like a false nine, he pulled the defenders wide just like how they fooled our defenders earlier.

This time, he made a swift stop and pointed to where he wanted the ball. The ball was played to his left foot as he broke apart from his marker and slot the ball into the net.

"Let's go! Nice one, Okazaki!" High-fives went around as the coach blew the whistle. He was making player switches which unfortunately meant he swapped Bikei out for another defender in our team. This meant I was on my own since I had nobody to talk to.

"Fuck," I muttered under my breath.

I really don't understand how goalkeepers can casually just shout at their defenders and give them orders to do. Are they not scared of the repercussions?

Again, the defence was dire especially since Bikei got switched to the other team. I knew their names since they introduced themselves earlier but I just couldn't find the heart to tell this guy in front of me to stop daydreaming.

He only came back to reality the moment the ball was played past him and he was trying to recover his tracks but it was too late. There was an equidistance between me, the ball and the striker. I charged for the ball and started to slant my standing position and smother the ball right as the striker kicked it. I immediately got up and punt the ball into the other half which found it's way to our attacker.

The striker got up from our colission, wiping his sweat.

"Hey," he said whilst staring at the other half, "You've got the guts to do that, don't you?"

"Not really, every goalie learns how to do that," I responded as I moved up the field.

"You'd be surprised by the number of goalkeepers who actually do that. You're fearless. I like that."

In response, I gave him a "Mhm". I didn't know what he was trying to say, let alone what point he was trying to make. I saw the attacker squander an easy chance and in frustration I punched the air. I wanted to say something but something held me back.

"You're a really fearless goalkeeper. You should try shouting and command your own team," he patted my shoulder and ran back to the center circle. That was sudden. I don't even know what that was about.

. . . . .

Minutes after the second half, we were hit with another counter-attack. At one point I forgot this was the youth team of a professional club because I kept getting little league football vibes from this. At least the defence was doing a bit better. The ball was slipped through to the wing which was crossed in. The striker from earlier got his head to it but it was in arm's length and I was just able to parry it away.

The moment I got up was when I realized the winger who got the rebound played a quick pass to the other winger. My defence took too long to realize and by the time I started diving for the ball, it had already gone past me and into the net.

"Are you fucking with me?" I muttered again.

Fast forward and the defence seemed to be picking up the pace again. I was seriously hoping for ninety minutes to be up. Just then, the coach blew the whistle and pointed to the spot. Apparently, one of the defenders put their hands up to protect themselves from the ball rather than taking it to the face.

I started cursing under my breath when Bikei came to me with the ball in his hand.

"Yajin, everything's alright?"

"Yeah, it's nothing," I waved him off. He went back and put the ball on the spot. Bikei's penalties were hard to figure out. I saw him looking at my right and his body position did make him look like he was going to shoot to the right. I was going to make my move and dive to the right but I noticed his body turning slightly to the left. I decided to go left and I felt the ball hit the palm of my glove.

Then it went in while none of my defenders even bothered to go into the box.

I'm pretty sure twenty minutes have passed since the coach said there were three minutes left. The other side started playing aggressively and a lot of their players were crowding in our final third. This led to the defenders crowding in front of my, blocking my vision.

I just managed to catch a glimpse of the ball but I was slightly too late. I took a step forward and jumped but I collided with my defender who lost balance. As a result, I ended up getting pushed back and whilst I managed to stop the ball from going in, I landed awkwardly. I didn't injure anything but I think that was my last straw as-

"Can you not?!" I screamed.

"Firstly it was letting the other side take a shot from so far, then it was one of you day dreaming, then one of you conceded a penalty because you were scared of the ball?" I started pointing out the mistakes made by our side once I got up.

"You guys are the youth team of Cerezo Osaka. So how is it you make so many mistakes? You made more mistakes than my junior high school made in an entire tournament!"

"Wake up! What's the point of a training match when you can't even play properly?!"

. . . . .

"Sorry Bikei, sorry Coach," I bowed my head to the both of them after the practice match. "I shouldn't have lashed out like that."

"It's fine, Yajin. Coach Matsuda was pretty happy to hear you start pointing out the flaws," Bikei tried to comfort me while the coach nodded.

"Listen. As a goalkeeper, you need to know when to start pointing out the various mistakes made by your team. Command is an important attribute that every goalkeeper needs to have. If you can get that sorted out, your game will improve immensely."

"Right," I said.

I walked out of the entrance of the training ground. It was past eight. I was waiting for Bikei to come out but he said he left something in the changing rooms.

Great.

BONUS (MAYA's POV)

"Man, Bikei. Your friend's quite good," I turned around as I grabbed my wallet inside the locker.

"Yeah! Yajin has always been serious about football, that's why he puts in his hundred percent," I responded.

"Maybe you can ask coach to come for a trial, he could give Nakayama a run for his money!" said Jonestu which triggered a response from Nakayama making the entire changing room laugh.

"I dunno, maybe!" I replied.

"He definitely has a character," Tanaka said as he leaned onto the locker, "He just needs to be more confident to unleash that side of him."

"Right! I'm two years older but I got the shivers when he started shouting!" exclaimed Tora.

"Ha-ha. You should probably stop being a scary cat, Tora," I snapped back at him.

"I've to go now, he's probably waiting outside. I'll see you guys next week!"

I turned around and left the changing rooms. I found Yajin outside the grounds and waved at him.

"Come on, let's go home."