The Rise of the Iron Chapter 190: The Third Round’s Opponent!

Chapter 190: The Third Round’s Opponent!

With the second round of the tournant being concluded, the team started to shift its focus to the third round. This was where the real deal happened, since only eight teams were remaining on the bracket. Now, it was the desolate world where the best among the best had to fight for their survival, or they would be buried deep into the annals of history.

Hakodate Nishi also started their preparation quite early. Kumiko didn’t even give them a single day to take a break after the last ga yesterday. Even though they only did light training, she still demanded the best from the others, not wanting to see them slacking off.

"Even the better team than you haven’t really stopped grinding to get better, so what right do you have to play around like this? You can stop once we have won everything, or we are eliminated from the tournant, nothing in between!"

At least, that was what Kumiko said to kill all the complaints here. Not that there was any, surprisingly, as all the 16 players ran the training obediently. Hell, so of them even tried to push harder before Kumiko took notice and warned them not to cross the line.

"I know you feel bad about yesterday’s ga and want to show your attitude here, but that won’t do, Takaaki-kun. We cannot afford for you to get injured at this mont, and I also don’t want to see you get sent to the hospital. Just show your usual state, and I will be satisfied with your performance, okay?"

These were Kumiko’s words when she saw Takaaki trying to outlast everyone and even crossing his own limit in the training session.

Honestly, the girl had more headaches currently compared to the last two or three weeks. It was as if all the players here were doped by so sort of drug, wanting to kill themselves in the na of training.

While Kumiko was happy about their change, as their head coach, it was also her role to hit the brakes when she saw soone was about to cross the line, and this was what she did today as well. Now, the girl had to make sure that they didn’t do anything stupid behind her back, and that was definitely an impossible task.

Fortunately, it stopped the next day, when Kumiko brought the news of their opponent for the third round.

"We are going to play another away ga." She announced, making the others stiffen instantly. "This ti, our opponent will be a big school, the Hokkaido University of Science High School, which is affiliated with Hokkaido University. This is going to be a tough matchup."

The others just frowned, probably the first ti hearing the school’s na here. However, one person noticed this, and that was Yuji, the fan of all sports in the prefecture.

"You an the one who had just advanced to the National Tournant last sumr for the volleyball tournant? What are they doing in football?" The boy frowned, asking the question in his head.

"The volleyball?" The others echoed in confusion.

"Indeed, Yuji-kun is right in this case. Just last sumr, their volleyball team won the first prefecture tournant since they were ford, even advancing to the top eight of the National Tournants." Kumiko nodded to confirm the boy’s words. "Well, you should’ve expected sothing like this from an affiliated school. They have so much money to burn, anyway."

Unfortunately, that was the harsh truth in this case. Compared to those who had to scrape every little money they could get, the school that was affiliated with the local university usually had more money to burn, and that was how they ensured their quality.

"In the first two gas of the tournant, they won the ga in quite a dominating fashion. You all still rember Engaru High?" Kumiko suddenly asked.

While no one really knew why the girl ntioned that team, they still nodded along, especially Higo. The boy recognized the na as the first team he beat in an official tournant last April.

"Well, you can say that this team is an upgraded version of Engaru High." Kumiko added. "They have won their first two gas without giving too much possession to the opponent. Overall, their average possession rating is around 82 percent, controlling the ball for so long that the opponent gave up their resistance in the 80th or 85th minute of the ga."

This brought silence to the entire room imdiately. While the freshn didn’t know about it, the others could still rember, albeit vividly, how their ga against Engaru High in the past was, and honestly, they were not impressed. While yes, they lost in possession, but when it ca to scoring goals or even defending their territory, the opponent was playing like shit that day.

However, it seed this Hokkaido Science High was different here.

"Unlike Engaru High, they have a truly prolific scorer on their squad." Kumiko continued her explanation. "I haven’t gotten any recording of their gas, but officially, their striker, Abraham Nori, is a beast in front of the goal. In total, he has scored 6 so far, only one behind Yuwell Carlsen as the top scorer."

Once Kumiko showed the picture of the boy, everyone scanned it thoroughly, not wanting to miss anything else here. There, they saw a half-Japanese boy with darker skin, having broad shoulders and muscular arms as if he was going for a bodybuilder competition. Honestly, just looking at him was quite intimidating here.

"Still, just one striker, right? I an, we have done great so far in containing a single threat like this, right?" Jun suddenly threw a question.

Well, when they thought about it, the boy seed to be right in this case. From Yuwell Carlsen to Park Han-Gyeol, they had been doing amazing in the past, and this Abraham Nori shouldn’t be sothing special.

"I am more worried about the fact that we are playing another away ga, though." Hiroshi bit his lips nervously. "I didn’t really do well in the last ga, so I don’t want to repeat the sa mistake again next ti."

The others shuddered unconsciously when they rembered the disastrous ga in the second round. This was the mory they wanted to burn into ashes, not wanting to rember it again for the rest of their lives. Still, this was definitely a good lesson, as everyone was alerted imdiately when they heard this.

"Okay, I know that we didn’t do great last ti, but let’s move on for now, because we have another big ga coming next week!" Kumiko clapped loudly, snapping their attention instantly. "For the next three days, we will have several simulation gas, and let’s see how everything goes after that! Whoever still has the shadow of the last ga will be benched, do you understand?!"

Right after that, everyone straightened their back instantly, replying in a unison shout, "YES, MA’AM!"