Chapter 869: Post-Game Interview

After he had had enough of celebrating with the others on the pitch, someone suddenly dragged Higo to the sideline. Well, not just him, but Morita as well, and based on the man’s appearance, wearing big headphones and carrying a microphone in his hand, it was clear that the man was from the TV program.

"Hello, everyone! Back with me again, Alex Schlüter, reporting from Westphalia Stadion!" The man spoke passionately while letting the two Japanese boys prepare to enter the camera soon.

"0-1! What an upset from Schalke! No one has ever thought that they are capable of doing so with this squad, and yet, here we are! Now, we are connected with the studio already, and here I am, bringing the two main characters of the day! Ryusuke Higo and Koki Morita!"

Right after that, those two stepped forward a little bit awkwardly. Well, at least, that was for Higo’s part, as Morita just grinned foolishly while waving in front of the camera.

Somehow, though, they were connected to the studio in Munich, and from the screen behind the camera, those two could see the two people sitting in a high-end office on the other side of the call.

When Morita saw this, he frowned a little before his jaw dropped instantly in realization. "Wait, Michael Fucking Ballack himself is the pundit of our game?! How could I not know about it?!" He asked in a high pitch, clearly showing how shocked he was at this revelation.

The man, Alex Schlüter, just chuckled when he heard the hint of fanboying in Morita’s tone, while Michael Ballack in the studio just nodded quietly at the boy. It was clear, though, that he was pleased that his name still carried some weight with the younger generation.

Higo himself just stared at his friend with a deadpan expression. Inwardly, he muttered, ’Who would’ve thought that Morita-san could lose control like this?’

Hell, if not for the fact that Michael Ballack wasn’t on the pitch right now, Higo was so sure that Morita would’ve asked the man for a sign and a photo right at this point.

"Anyway, an important win on the derby day!" Daniel Herzog coughed to shift back the conversation to the post-game interview. "You two played a big role today! One assist, four key passes, and 10.8 km distance covered for Morita, and 11 saves for Higo! How do you feel about your stats today?"

Higo and Morita stared at each other for a moment, as if wondering who should answer first. In the end, it was the midfielder who stepped up here and said, "Of course, we are ecstatic! It doesn’t really matter if I have a good performance or not, though. As long as the team wins and I come back healthy, everything else is okay!"

"Well, that’s a good mindset." Alex Schlüter nodded slightly, approving the boy’s answer.

"Me as well." Higo shrugged nonchalantly. "I mean, at this point, the adrenaline starts to dissipate from me, and I’m sure that soon enough, fatigue will try to kill me. I would be crazy again tomorrow after reading all the news about the game, but right now, all I want is to have a good sleep."

The rest of the guys chuckled at the blunt and refreshing answer from Higo’s side.

"Still, your victory today couldn’t be separated by the three controversial decisions that the referee made, two including VAR as well. What do you think about it?" Michael Ballack threw a sharp question that made everyone hold their breath unconsciously.

This was definitely a trap question. After all, VAR still had a lot of controversies following, including so many teams that rejected this idea and thought that this would kill the future of football or something like that.

Supporting VAR would mean alienating himself from those teams, but not doing that would be like dismissing this new feature that helped the team win today. Whatever they said would be bad PR, something that gave everyone a headache later.

Still, Higo didn’t panic at all. If anything, he frowned before speaking his mind.

"Out of three controversial decisions that you said, I could confirm that I am only unsure about the disallowed goal from Haaland. Other than that, I can confirm that the other two are still aligning with the rule, and if you watched the game carefully, you sure would be able to see that as well, right? VAR just confirmed the decision, so if controversies still happened, does that mean there is a problem with the referee’s quality?"

Michael Ballack and Daniel Herzog had the corners of their lips twitching when they heard that, realizing that they were dealing with someone smart here. However, before they got carried away with this topic, Alex Schlüter took over the conversation immediately, not wanting to dwell on it too much.

"So, with this win, you will have 9 points so far, the same as Borussia Dortmund as well. Compared to your achievement last year, this is definitely a massive improvement. Does that mean we can expect something good from you this season?"

This time, it was Morita who answered the question. "I mean, you can expect something different, I guess. As for whether it would be good or not, this is still quite early in the season. Once we manage to gain consistency, I think we can start talking about whether we did well or not."

They talked for a while about a lot of things, and in the end, the conversation was over with Morita asking Ballack for a photo when they met in the future, a request that was met with a round of laughter in the studio.

After everything was over, though, Higo and Morita walked side by side to the tunnel; a huge grin formed on those two’s faces.

"We really fucking did it, huh, Morita-san?" Higo murmured.

"Yeah, stealing a win here and stealing the limelight, and even getting interviewed by the fucking Michael Ballack himself..." Morita nodded in confirmation. "We have achieved all of our targets today, huh?"

Silence followed before they turned, looking at each other. That grin turned so wide at this point, and right after that, they couldn’t help but exchange a high-five enthusiastically.

"Yeah! We did it! Good job, Ryusuke!"

"You too, Morita-san! The hard work is done; now let’s enjoy this win with the others!"