Chapter 853: The Next Two Games

Well, indeed, this was the greatest disadvantage that they had. Not Higo’s position as a goalkeeper, but their team’s standing in the European competition, or the lack of it, would affect their visibility in people’s eyes.

After all, their rival was in a great spot, like Rodri from Barcelona or even Jude Bellingham from their annoying rival Borussia Dortmund, who could play and even go further in the Champions League, making their name resound far as the best youngsters in the world.

Compared to that, Higo and Morita were just two players in the Bundesliga relegation team, fighting to avoid the bottom three while also pushing their luck in DFB Pokal. This was definitely not appealing for a player who aimed to be the best.

Still, it seemed that Morita couldn’t care less about it.

"Just like I said, as long as we dominate the whole thing so badly that no one could beat us, all eyes would be on us immediately! Come on, Ryusuke! You will be responsible for the defense, and I will take over the offense! Together, we will conquer the world!"

As the midfielder raised the glass full of apple juice, Higo couldn’t help but snort, clinking his own glass to respond to the gesture.

"Well, cheers for our great future, I guess!"

"CHEERS!"

With that promise between those two in mind, the Japanese gang started to go crazy in the next couple of weeks, dragging Schalke that should be fighting for the bottom row to fight for the top spot of the league.

After playing against Werder Bremen, they went to Leipzig in the eastern part of the country. This was definitely the biggest test for Higo and Morita, who had just declared that they would conquer the world, as RB Leipzig was one of the best teams in the country right now.

Hell, with so many talented players on their squad, some people even hailed them as the third-best team here, only behind Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. This alone should make any team tremble in wariness and probably fear, especially those who fought to get as far away from the relegation zone as possible.

However, if anything, this only made Higo and Morita excited more, as they both knew that if they couldn’t get through this problem, they would never have the right to stand on top of the world.

As a result, they went crazy in that game, with Higo finally showing why he could be considered one of the best in the business right now. From right to left, from top to bottom, everything was sealed, as nothing could escape from his grasp.

His performance was so good that he drove RB Leipzig attackers like Emil Forsberg, Christopher Nkunku, and Dani Olmo batty. It didn’t matter how hard they tried or how many defenders they got rid of, but in the end, any of their attacks would always get the ball to find Higo between the posts.

Then, in the most crucial moment, about 25 meters from RB Leipzig’s goal, Morita finally sealed the deal with a strong free kick that curled straight to the top bins, going untouchable before it hit the back of the net quite violently.

Their goalkeeper, Peter Gulacsi, was so helpless that, even though he had dived with all of his strength, his hand still failed to reach the ball, giving Schalke the only goal of the day.

This was considered a big upset, as Schalke shouldn’t be close enough to beat RB Leipzig. However, that was what football could do. It wasn’t the strong team that won, but it was the one that won who was the stronger team.

This gave Schalke the second win in a row, something that no one expected from them at all. Now, they were at the seventh position, and while their position was still not that stable since it was still early in the season, at least they had announced themselves as the dark horse that was ready to catch everyone off guard this year.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t maintain this performance into the third win in a row. No, in the next game, Union Berlin managed to stop their momentum, with them stealing a goal from a penalty kick that Higo failed to stop.

Honestly, this was probably the most annoyed Higo was with his defensive line. After all, he had done his best, and once again, it took a stupid mistake from Timo Becker, who ’accidentally’ pushed the opponent too far in the penalty box, to destroy all of his effort today.

In this game, Morita was also far from the luckiest person on the pitch. Oh, he still played amazingly, creating so many threats from his position and giving so many good killer passes that should at least have given the team a goal.

However, Mark Uth and Goncalo Paciencia somehow wanted to test everyone’s patience, wasting every single chance that came straight in front of them.

As a result, they had to swallow their second defeat of the season, losing 1-0 against Union Berlin in front of their home supporters.

This pushed them back to the 12th position on the table, far from enough for Higo and Morita’s standard.

However, those two could be happy, as their names started to echo throughout the whole competition right now.

At this point, Higo had already proven why Lewandowski was right at that time, with him so far managing to bag 30 saves in 4 games and only conceding 4 so far. This meant he made at least 7.5 saves per game, and all four goals that he conceded came from either own goals or penalty scenarios.

Now, whenever any team fought against Schalke, they would always get a headache, having to think of a way to break through the iron wall at the back.

As for Morita, his record might still be quite plain here. Just two goals and one assist, it was definitely not enough for someone who aimed to be the best youngster in the world next year. However, besides those two main stats, everyone could see that he was the team’s heart, controlling everything in the midfield.

Not only that, but his number of attempted assists was also quite high, touching 3 per game so far. It was so unfortunate that the attackers couldn’t solve the problem on the frontline, which made all the threat that he created nullified.

Nevertheless, even amidst Schalke’s lackluster performance, those two had already succeeded in making a name for themselves. However, everything was still far from over, as the next big test came in the next week, the fifth game of the season.

After all, they had to go to their noisy rival, trying to steal a point from Westfalen Stadion that started to regain its life.