Chapter 664: Repelling the Opponent’s Dangerous Threat!

The counterattack itself wasn’t that quick. SC Verl players moved quite casually, passing the ball from one player to another. However, they moved forward so decisively, and Schalke’s defensive players wasted a lot of time recovering to their positions.

Seeing this, both Brackelmann and Higo, the last two players standing to guard the team’s defense, couldn’t help but curse.

"Fuck! Timo, move your ass!"

"Levent, where is your fucking sense of responsibility?! You are the one who made a mistake, go for it!"

Schopf, are you waiting for us to concede a goal or what?! Kill him now!"

The captain roared mercilessly, calling out his teammates one by one while also backing down slowly to make sure that the opponent didn’t dare to pass the ball so easily. Those whose names were called here couldn’t help but feel so flustered, trying to speed up and recover to their original position as quickly as possible.

Even Higo himself couldn’t help but click his tongue in annoyance. Out of everyone else, only Brackelmann was in the right position to slow down the attack, and everyone was still far behind, making it a 4v2 situation with him and the captain having to survive alone here.

With his clairvoyant ability, Higo’s brain ran faster than ever, trying to calculate every possible move from the opponent’s side. If anyone used their zooming feature on their phone, they would see Higo’s pupil move so rapidly, scanning all the opponent’s players in the last few seconds.

In that short moment, his brain calculated so many possibilities before finding the best solution to deal with this current situation. It wasn’t good, but this situation was a mess in the first place.

"Cap! Don’t back down anymore! Charge on him!" He shouted immediately.

Brackelmann didn’t even have any time to think about it. He stopped moving back instinctively, then rushed to the opponent’s player in front of him. That player was taken aback, but he also reacted quickly, moving the ball to the left where their winger was trying to cut in.

That was exactly what Higo was waiting for, though. Instead of prolonging the uncertainty by letting the ball holder stick with it for so long, it was better to force a pass to happen, and in that split second before the decisive pass was delivered, Higo got another timely piece of information inside his head.

His clairvoyant ability really worked wonders, allowing him to figure out where, out of the three opponent players around, the ball would go. Before that winger could even get the ball, Higo was already in front of him, and when that winger tried to push the ball further to get away from Higo’s defense, the goalkeeper stretched his left foot immediately, right in time to push the ball away from the winger’s possession.

Thud!

"OH! What a tackle!"

"It has to be Higo! Come on, Boy!"

The supporters who held their breath unconsciously earlier cheered immediately when they saw the goalkeeper managed to deal with this situation. Meanwhile, on the pitch, the goalkeeper also exploded, showing how excited he was.

"YES!" Higo roared right after realizing that his arrangement worked well. He turned to his captain, who was also getting flushed in excitement, and they couldn’t help but bump their chest to each other. "That’s what I’m looking for! Nice defense, Cap!"

"Hah! That’s all on you, you crazy bastard!" Brackelmann also laughed here, still finding them not conceding a goal to be an unbelievable miracle. However, when he saw the rest of the players coming back guiltily, his expression turned ugly.

"What the fuck are you guys doing, strolling around so casually like that?! A counter situation, and no one is willing to move their ass to return as quickly as possible?! Who the hell are you thinking you are, a fucking Cristiano Ronaldo?! Also, Levent, what the hell is wrong with your head?! This is the fucking third time today, and we are still in the first fucking half!"

Timo Becker and Levent Mercan winced unconsciously at the scolding. The latter, to be more exact, had the worst reaction, as he was indeed the one who gave away the possession earlier. Poor boy, he was just 19 years old and came from a far country, and getting scolded by a local like this should be the worst feeling possible. Hell, Higo could even see the boy’s shoulder trembling slightly, probably holding back the cry inside.

Still, Higo didn’t have any intention to console him. The fact that he didn’t say anything had already shown how big his patience was, as the goalkeeper was the one who should be the angriest in this regard.

In the end, he just patted the Turkish fullback on the shoulder before moving on, knowing that the attack was still not over. He managed to knock the ball out of the opponent’s possession, but it still went out of the pitch, giving them a corner kick to threaten his goal. Fortunately, the quality itself was bad, as the crossing curved so sharply it went above Higo’s goal before finding anyone in the box, not even enough to make Higo jump.

At least, this gave him time to sigh in relief after the adrenaline rush in the last attack.

Still, the rest of the first half basically went quite boring. While both teams were trying harder to get a goal, their defensive line also worked better than usual, kicking out all the incoming threats to their side. Higo also worked quite hard, making two more saves to get rid of the opponent’s attack.

The first came from the opponent’s header that got into his shoulder, then a deflection shot that almost fooled him, just for the goalkeeper sweeping his hand above to deny the goal.

Overall, he had already made 6 saves in this first half, becoming probably the best player in this game so far. However, Higo was far from being satisfied here. If anything, he got more anxious, hoping that the team’s offensive line could work better than now.

’Come on, Kumiko-chan is here...’ He glanced at the stand with an uneasy expression. ’Don’t you guys fucking dare waste all of my effort here just for a fucking draw!’