The Rise of the Iron Wall!

Chapter 356: A Ridiculous Situation!

Hiroshi also noticed this. No, it wasn’t like he noticed, but the boy crafted the situation so carefully to give Yuji room to run. While holding the ball carefully to avoid it getting poked by the left back behind him, the boy glanced with his peripheral vision, noticing that Yuji had already stepped back a little.

’He has already escaped from the offside trap? Well, come on, Yuji! Start running!’

Thud!

It was a cheeky backheel pass without looking at the target. The left back was caught off guard, and not just him, even Ritsu Onishi was also the same. However, the latter was more panicked, especially since he saw someone blitzing right in front of his eyes.

"SHIT! I CANNOT STOP IT!"

"KEEPER! MOVE!"

Ritsu Onishi scowled as he tried to grab Yuji’s jersey instinctively. However, his rational mind took over as he withdrew his hand, not wanting to get a red card. As a result, though, Yuji truly left him one step ahead, and now, the boy was going to face the goalkeeper directly.

"Come on, Yuji! This is your moment!"

"Get it done!"

Yuji also grinned, feeling the wind hit his long hair. His eyes moved from the ball in front of him to the goalkeeper who was rushing toward him, and his brain calculated everything immediately.

’He will not be quick enough to get me, so his best attempt is to cover the angle as much as he can. ’ However, with him moving forward...’

Thud!

Yuji used his left foot to chip the ball, and it flew just one meter above the goalkeeper’s head without the boy being able to stop it. Poor boy, he was so startled by the sudden chip that he only wiped the air, as the ball slipped through his defense.

Everyone held their breath unconsciously, waiting for the ball to go in. Yuji himself was ready to celebrate here. However, the ball just bounced gently on the ground, and right before it could cross the line, a pile of snow there acted as an emergency brake, stopping the ball’s movement immediately.

"Wait... What?!" Yuji froze instantly at this ridiculous scene.

Before he could do anything, though, the boy could hear the opponent’s defender shout, "CLEAR IT AWAY! CLEAR IT AWAY!"

BAM!

Ritsu Onishi, who tracked everything from behind, came in time to get the ball, destroying all the snow around with his powerful kick. Of course, that was the least of people’s concerns here, as right after that, Yuji instantly complained to the referee.

"Sensei~! This is ridiculous! That should count as a goal!" He pleaded.

"Yeah, you saw the trajectory! Without the snow here, it is a goal for us!" Hiroshi also came in to make his case.

"Step back! Step back!" Makino also rushed, dragging those two boys from making too much ruckus. However, he also said a piece of his mind here. "Sensei, we are getting stopped by the pitch’s condition, literally! This is unfair for us!"

The referee himself was so dumbfounded here. In his five years acting as a referee, this was probably the first time the man saw a goal being denied by the snow. However, he didn’t know what he should do here, so the man finally ran away to the sideline.

"Let me discuss it with the linesmen first." He said to the boys in front of them, not daring to make any promise.

While the referee went to the sideline, all the Hakodate Nishi players also clicked their tongues in frustration. They were just a few inches away, and this was definitely not the players’ fault that the goal was delayed—or even not acknowledged—here. After all, they couldn’t really fight against nature, right?

"My debut goal... Now it is for nothing!" Yuji moaned indignantly.

Makino couldn’t help but snort here. "You were so cool before, so how could you lose all the charm instantly like that?"

"Well, if your goal is denied by such a ridiculous thing like that, you will also react the same, probably even bigger than me!" Yuji retorted.

"Still, the snow is getting thicker there. I think we will have a delayed game for a moment to solve this situation." Hiroshi glanced at the thicker snow in front of the goal.

While their discussion was quite casual, the same couldn’t be said on the opponent’s side. The atmosphere was somber as everyone knew that they had just escaped from a needle thread.

"That new striker... He is rapid." Taiga Nagai made an assessment. "Not the quickest dude that we face, but he knows how to use his pace. Not only that, but he is also good with his positioning skills. Ritsu, you saw it yourself how he beat your offside trap, right?" He turned

"Yeah, he suddenly backed down, startling me for a moment. Who would’ve thought that it is to escape from the trap and beat me with his speed." Ritsu Onishi nodded solemnly.

"Tch, this is not good." Kei Murakami frowned. "How could they still have a hidden weapon in their bench? If I don’t know better, I would think that they are a powerhouse team, you know?" He glanced at all the players with the golden-orange jersey on the other side of the pitch.

"So, what should we do now?" One of the defenders asked.

This question was followed by a dead silence since no one knew what they should do. While both Ritsu Onishi and Taiga Nagai could deal with a speedster like Riku, they were not built to do that. No, their speed was not up to par, and with Yuji being fresh from the bench, dealing with the boy head-on would be a nightmare for them.

"Shall we ask for Sensei’s help?" One of them asked hesitantly.

Before anyone could answer it, the referee finally came out of his hiding place, calling both Kei Murakami and Makino the team’s captain. Those two tensed immediately, knowing that this could decide their fate in this game.

In the end, the referee announced, "With some games in Europe as our reference, we decide that the snow interference is valid, so we will not give the goal to Hakodate Nishi High. However, to avoid this incident from happening again, we will delay the game for fifteen minutes to clean up the pitch. Any question?"