Chapter 1024: Ao Tanaka in Action!

For a moment, everyone held their breath unconsciously, with Wolfsburg’s goalkeeper, Koen Casteels, taking off the ground with one hand stretching far to reach the ball.

The goalkeeper gritted his teeth tightly, feeling something strained in his arms as he forced his way to at least deflect the bullet.

’Come on! I have to get this!’

The unfortunate part, though, was that the ball was way faster, and his hand came one second too late to get it first.

Fortunately for the home team, the ball curved a little bit outwardly, and before anyone knew it...

CLANK!

The sound of the ball hitting the goal post could be heard echoed the whole stadium, and not only that, even the goal was also quivering from how powerful the shot was.

"KUSO!" Tanaka couldn’t help but curse when he saw the ball failing to find the back of the net. "Fuck the wind! It has to be it!" He clicked his tongue in annoyance, blaming the wind for the failure of his shot.

It took a moment before everyone realized what was going on, and once their consciousness was finally back to the living plane, they couldn’t help but gasp here.

"Fuck! Good shot, Tanaka!"

"That’s how you do it! Come on!"

"Unlucky! Unlucky!"

All the Schalke players applauded, trying to encourage the boy for that amazing effort. It had only been a month since the boy was here, and not a lot of players knew that Tanaka had a long shot like that in his arsenal.

That was why, besides the astonishment, they all were so excited about it, knowing that the team finally had another weapon to utilize later.

Even Frohling himself also gave a nod of approval, finding this situation to be far better than what he imagined.

’Yeah, this is why I got Tanaka on the team, to add more dynamic to our offense and bring us a little bit of surprise here and there. As expected of my vision...’

The man was so full of himself when he thought about that, and if only Waldoch could hear his thoughts, the assistant coach would’ve slapped his boss on the head already at this point.

Meanwhile, all the Wolfsburg players also let out a relieved sigh, even if some of them were still having cold sweats on their backs. Still, their expressions were so solemn as this attack revealed one important piece of information about the opponent’s new midfielder.

That shot was incredible, but what troubled them here was how Ao Tanaka went undetected from the way he initiated the attack to him getting the second ball.

It was as if he was blending into the shadows, only appearing whenever the ball was close to him.

"I will keep my eyes on him." Arnold finally took the initiative; his tone was grave. "Josh, you will have to take care of the midfield alone in the counter, okay? That Japanese boy... Let me deal with him later..." His eyes fell on Tanaka for a second.

Josuha Guilavogui just nodded along, knowing that the captain had already decided this matter. It wasn’t like he would reject it, as instead of marking the opponent directly, he was still a better defender when it came to protecting the zone.

Now, with Arnold taking the initiative, Tanaka himself could feel that his movement was being guarded tightly at this point.

It wasn’t like Arnold was sticking to him so closely, but the man would always be within reach whenever Schalke wanted to attack from his side.

However, Tanaka didn’t mind it. If anything, he found this situation to be advantageous for him, as he couldn’t help but grin after simulating something inside his head.

’Yeah, you can keep your eyes on me, but that works in both ways, right?’

With that thought in mind, the moment Arnold received the ball in the midfield, Tanaka managed to sneak from the man’s blind spot, and before anyone realized it, he had already charged into Arnold with full speed, bodying the taller man with his thin body.

BAM!

"Wait, fuck!" Arnold cursed when he realized that he had just lost his balance here.

This was also the advantage of his lack of physical strength. The one thing that made him stay on the bench for the first three weeks here now worked on his side, as his charge was not enough to throw Arnold to the ground.

No, the man just lost his balance, and as a result, the referee didn’t even think that it was a foul by the Japanese player.

As a result, the boy got the ball, leaving Arnold behind, and at the same time, Hoppe and Fabian Reese started to rush to the penalty box to receive the pass.

"Come on, Tanaka! Bring it there!" Hoppe sprinted while also pointing at one spot inside the box.

"Give it to me! No need to be too high!" Fabian also did the same while trying to spread the opponent’s defense thin by running on the wing.

However, unlike Morita, who would never hesitate to pass the ball directly, Tanaka had a different approach here.

He didn’t pass, and instead, the boy dribbled the ball forward to get closer to the penalty box.

Seeing this, the rest of the Wolfsburg players also gathered around him, trying to encircle the boy from all directions.

That was when he finally took action, as a quick pass to the left side, where Fabian Reese was standing, was sent decisively.

This time, though, they were already close enough to the penalty box, and since Tanaka managed to force the opponent’s defense to shrink deep into the middle to follow his run, Fabian was left in a wide-open position, only needing to worry about the goalkeeper between the posts.

’Fuck! You Japanese players with your clever pass... Damn, I will take it!’

With a big grin on his face, Fabian didn’t even blink here. He used his inside foot with a curl technique, sending the ball to the bottom corner of the far post.

BAM!