Chapter 895: Next Opponent - VS Eintracht Frankfurt!

Still, that was the problem for the management team. For Higo and Morita, all they could do was focus on the next game, as the competition had to continue. It was already the end of November, and they had to face a strong opponent who was in 4th place in the standings.

Eintracht Frankfurt.

"This is definitely not an ordinary opponent!" Frohling stated beforehand. "They have two dangerous strikers! Andre Silva, who they signed permanently from AC Milan this year, and Luka Jovic, who they brought back on loan from Real Madrid! Those two are elite in this league, enough to wreak havoc on our defensive line!"

Everyone was so tense immediately, knowing how capable those two names were.

They were not as fearsome as Lewandowski and Erling Haaland, but at least those two had their own strength that could give a headache to any defensive line in this country.

They both were perfect strikers in the box, having a good sense of position and also good at being a focal point, and while it was rare for a team to find success in playing with two similar strikers, somehow, Frankfurt managed to find the balance, allowing them both to shine brighter when they were together.

Still, while everyone was focused on those two names, Higo caught one that was down on the list, the place where all the forgotten people gathered.

Nassim Boujellab.

This was his good friend who decided to leave the team last summer, wanting to get close to his family. Even though some people forgot about him since the Moroccan winger only played for the first team for several months, Higo couldn’t forget the man, especially when he was also the one who carried the team’s offense together with Morita last year.

This year, though, the young winger seemed to fail to establish his name in Frankfurt. He got injured during the pre-season this year, having to be sidelined for the first three weeks of the competition.

It was unfortunate, since that period was the most crucial one for any new player to establish his name, and once they miss that, it would be hard to adapt, and that was exactly what Nassim suffered right now.

So far, the man has only played for 3 games, and two of them were him coming off the bench. During that time, he couldn’t produce any good stats, unable to either score or assist. Well, how could he when Nassim could only appear in the game for around ten minutes, not too long for him to make a change.

’Do you regret going to that place, Nassim?’ Higo couldn’t help but mutter under his breath when thinking about his friend that he was about to meet.

Still, that name wasn’t the only one that caught Higo’s attention. No, the second and third names that caught his attention were enough to make the boy turn around to Morita, and coincidentally enough, the midfielder also glanced at him secretly.

Those names were somehow quite familiar in their Japanese tongue, one that was quite rare to find in this foreign land.

Makoto Hasebe and Daichi Kamada.

’I have never heard of them before, but it seems that Morita-san recognizes them.’ Higo furrowed his brows deeply. ’Damn, if only Kumiko-chan were here, she would’ve already warned me about them. Man, what a drag...’ He cursed inwardly, finding this situation to be troublesome.

Still, those names were on top of the list, so Higo knew that the two senpai he would only meet for the first time later were formidable opponents, ones that successfully established their names in this foreign land as a solid player who could play regularly in a great team like Frankfurt.

’Damn, this is going to be interesting...’ Higo couldn’t help but smirk, finding the situation to be exciting.

Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said to anyone else, especially the coaching team. No, Frohling was the one who was sweating bullets right now, being under the biggest pressure on the team.

The team had just gone through two games without winning, with them losing against Wolfsburg and getting a draw against Borussia Monchengladbach. Even though it wasn’t the worst result, in hindsight, those were still quite bad.

It also helped that the team showed a decline in performance on the pitch, starting to struggle to handle whatever happened there. The offense that was quite problematic also became a headache that couldn’t be solved by him right now, and even though his position was still quite secure, some people started to question his capability right now.

Hell, the gossip about who would replace him started to emerge, and a list of names was mentioned in the media as well.

This was a painful reminder that even though he had already signed a formal contract, at the end of the day, his status as an interim head coach was there, and when a more established figure came, the team could just abandon him without batting an eye.

That was why, even though the team wasn’t truly in great danger, the head coach was in desperate need to win a game, at least to secure his position. Unfortunately, Frankfurt was one of the worst opponents that he could face in this situation, and honestly, he started praying for a miracle right then.

Then, time passed quickly, and before they knew it, they were already at Frankfurt, two hours away from the game. The team went by bus toward the Commerzbank-Arena, the home ground of Eintracht Frankfurt.

Just on their journey toward the stadium, they could see quite a lot of people walking in the same direction, and based on how loud they were even before entering the venue, Higo knew that this was going to be another difficult game.

’Yeah, fuck it! We are going to face another fanatical team. Great...’

Once he entered the pitch, though, what the boy didn’t expect was to be greeted by someone using his mother tongue.

"Are you Ryusuke Higo?"