Chapter 671: International Break (II)

Well, in the end, Higo didn’t really have anything to do in this town besides training. While he had some friends here, most of them had their own plans to do. Morita had just gotten to know a local girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, and they started planning for a date, while Fabian wanted to hang out with his fiancée on this rare occasion.

As for Randy... Well, the thought of him being invited by the Ghanaian striker to watch an anime together in that boy’s flat... With the boy spending most of their time talking in broken Japanese like a true weeb... Higo couldn’t help but shudder, not wanting to get associated with that.

Of course, his friends weren’t just the three of them. However, Higo wasn’t that close to his other friends on the team, and they mostly wanted to hang out in a pub and go for a little party, an activity that Higo himself couldn’t find enjoyable. As a result, he refused all the invitations there, letting them have their own fun.

As for Kumiko’s situation... Well, Higo would love to go to Cologne and hang out with her, but she had to take care of so many things before her university term began. The girl not only had to start taking a German Language lesson to supplement her studies, but the administrative tasks that she had to do for two programs at the same time were like a mountain.

Higo, who managed to get into this country without having to do all the infamous German’s arduous administrative tasks and let Fujita-san do everything there, was slightly confused when he heard this. However, the boy accepted quietly that Kumiko had just come here, and she needed to do a lot of things to settle in this country.

So, in the end, Higo only had the coaching staff to accompany him, making sure that he would not overdo his training.

"You know what, you are really a cruel boy, Higo." Tomasz Waldoch sighed in exasperation, watching Higo doing strength training in the club’s gym. "This is the first time I am forced to do fieldwork in the international break. Can you just stay relaxed in your flat and not do anything bothersome?"

"And what, getting scolded by Frohling-sensei for letting my body deteriorate? Never!" Higo retorted, wiping the sweat on his face. "Also, don’t whine like that! I know that I have just saved you from another boring administrative task, so be a little bit grateful, okay? Come on! We still have one more set to do!"

Waldoch just sighed helplessly before helping Higo adjust something on the equipment there.

With not much to do, the international break passed quickly, and soon enough, the players who were on their national duty also went back one by one to the team. Not that it was much, per se, since they themselves were just the second team. In total, they just lost two players, Nassim Boujellab, who had to go for the Morocco U-20, and Idrizi, who was called up by the Kosovo national team.

Still, looking at those guys who had just done their duty, coming back with a sense of honor after fighting for their country, Higo couldn’t help but clench his fists secretly, remembering his time with the Young Samurai team.

’I cannot be on the junior level again, but once the opportunity in the first team appears, I will be able to get into the Samurai Blue immediately! I have to keep working for that!’

The training session also started again, but this time, the one leading everything was Tomasz Waldoch, the Polish assistant coach who had always been with Frohling.

"The boss has a personal matter to attend, so he will not be here until at least the game next week." He said calmly.

Higo frowned a little bit when he heard that. The boy had known Waldoch for quite a while at this time, and he could see the man was anxious over something related to the head coach. Of course, he didn’t say anything else right now, not wanting to expose anything yet. However, the boy also put this on the back of his mind, intending to ask about it when he had an opportunity.

Fortunately, the coach’s absence didn’t affect the team’s momentum. Hell, even if they had a break for two whole weeks, they could still play at their normal level. In the first game after the break was over, they destroyed a small team, TuS Haltern, with the score 6-0.

Luca Schuler went berserk in this game, scoring a hat trick and bagging one assist. As for the others, Randy got one from a rebound ball, Brackelmann put his name on the scoreboard once with a header from the corner kick, and an own-goal ended their party in a bang.

As for Higo, the boy didn’t really do that much that day. The opponent couldn’t even get into his territory without losing the ball immediately, and in total, he made zero saves as no shot was launched in his direction. He just treated this game as a training session for his sweeper goalkeeper role, letting the possession flow while also strolling around aimlessly.

In the end, even if the win was nice, no one felt really happy about it. After all, the quality difference between the two teams was clear by day, and it would be shameless to rub it on the opponent’s face.

Still, this was the team’s biggest win in the competition so far, and they had done a great job so far even without three key players that helped them gain dominance earlier when the competition had just started. At least, this brought confidence to the players, enough to make them think that they were good enough to win it all.

Well, at least, until two days later, when Frohling suddenly called Higo to come to his office. Curious, he went straight without asking anything, just to find himself sitting in front of both the head coach and his assistant.

Seeing their solemn expression, Higo couldn’t help but mutter, ’Something bad should be going on, right?’