With the second round of the tournament 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 game 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 tournament, 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, some of them even tried to push harder before Kumiko took notice and warned them not to cross the line. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"I know you feel bad about yesterday’s game and want to show your attitude here, but that won’t do, Takaaki-kun. We cannot afford for you to get injured at this moment, 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 some sort of drug, wanting to kill themselves in the name 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 someone 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 game." She announced, making the others stiffen instantly. "This time, 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 time hearing the school’s name here. However, one person noticed this, and that was Yuji, the fan of all sports in the prefecture.

"You mean the one who had just advanced to the National Tournament last summer for the volleyball tournament? 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 summer, their volleyball team won the first prefecture tournament since they were formed, even advancing to the top eight of the National Tournaments." Kumiko nodded to confirm the boy’s words. "Well, you should’ve expected something 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 games of the tournament, they won the game in quite a dominating fashion. You all still remember Engaru High?" Kumiko suddenly asked.

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

"Well, you can say that this team is an upgraded version of Engaru High." Kumiko added. "They have won their first two games 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 game."

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

However, it seemed 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 games, 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 mean, 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 seemed 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 something special.

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

The others shuddered unconsciously when they remembered the disastrous game in the second round. This was the memory they wanted to burn into ashes, not wanting to remember it again for the rest of their lives. Still, this was definitely a good lesson, as everyone was alerted immediately when they heard this.

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

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