Chapter 1027: The End of the First Half

BAM!

Before Higo could warn anyone to shut down the space in front of Maximilian Arnold, the German midfielder had already launched the rocket, ten meters away from the penalty box.

The distance was far, but the shot was powerful enough to pierce through the air like a bullet without even losing its speed in the process, zooming straight in front of Higo’s face.

The most troublesome part, though, was not that. No, it was the fact that right before the ball went straight to his body, it curved outwardly in a sharp movement, going to the left side of the goal without any warning.

The execution was so nasty that if it were any other goalkeeper, they would be frozen on the spot, not being able to react even for a single second.

Hell, Higo himself considered this to be a lucky occasion as his clairvoyance ability appeared at the right second to allow him to react to that shot.

Still, even with that in the equation, the boy gritted his teeth as he had to shift his positioning a little bit to not get blown away by the power, and as a result, he had to stop it with his awkward stance.

"Fuck! That hurts!" He couldn’t help but curse.

Fortunately, the ball didn’t hit his injured finger. No, Higo managed to block it with his palm, transferring half of the energy to a bigger surface to reduce the force.

Even with that, though, he still could feel his hand quivering, finding the power was way greater than he initially thought.

’Fuck! What the hell is going on?! How strong is his right foot, for fuck’s sake?!’ He grumbled in disbelief.

It wasn’t just him, though, who was in disbelief. No, if anything, all the Wolfsburg players were so bewildered, never expecting a young goalkeeper would be able to stop a launcher like that so easily.

"Fucking hell... How strong is he, truly?" Maximilian Arnold whispered, looking at Higo like the boy was a fucking monster.

That was one of the best weapons in his arsenal, a long shot from distance to catch the opponent off guard. Hell, even Manuel Neuer suffered from that in the past, showing that it was never an easy ball to handle.

However, here Higo was, not even flinching to block that shot with ease.

This changed their perspective on the goalkeeper to the very fundamental core.

Before, they thought that Higo was just a talented goalkeeper at shot-stopping and game-reading.

However, his stopping Arnold’s rocket shot and winning the duel against Wout Weghorst was enough for all the Wolfsburg players to realize that Higo was also a strong goalkeeper, one who could handle even the most powerful shot from the opponent’s strikers.

This changed everything, since Wolfsburg’s hidden weapon was always a shot from distance. Now, they had to think twice to do that, since Higo seemed to not be bothered by that.

This also made them helpless for the rest of the first half, as, somehow, whatever method they tried to pull, Schalke would always be able to find the right countermeasure for that.

In the end, the rest of the first half went pretty much at a slower tempo, which gave Schalke the advantage since they were ahead.

After a while...

FWEEE! FWEEE! FWEEE!

The referee finally blew the whistle three times in a row, ending the first half with the away team leading the game.

Higo followed the rest of the team to go to the tunnel quickly, wanting nothing more than warming himself in front of the heater there.

Even though the snow was already gone, the temperature was still quite cold, and coupled with the windy weather, it still felt like they were in the middle of winter here.

After occupying the best spot straight next to the heater, the boy let out a relieved sigh before finally letting his eyes scan through the entire room, watching his teammates’ expressions one by one.

Some could be seen joking and laughing with each other, while the others just took a deep breath while also taking a big sip of the bottle of water that the team provided.

However, it was clear that everyone here was in their relaxed state, finding that they were more than satisfied with how the first half went.

’Oh, well... Let them just relax a little bit. As long as they didn’t carry that attitude back to the pitch, everything would be okay.’ Higo mused while shutting his eyes, letting his body fall into an ease state.

Right after that, the coach also came in, and the man started to praise the players one by one, especially Ao Tanaka for his creativity in finding the best position to attack.

Higo’s name was also mentioned, but the boy just smiled a little without saying anything else. After all, the boy felt like his performance in the first half was ordinary, only making 2 saves so far.

Little did he know, though, that this was the result of his careful command from behind, allowing the defenders to clear all the attacks before they could reach his side.

In the end, Frohling didn’t make any adjustment, but the man kept reminding the players to be careful for the second half.

"Wolfsburg will definitely raise the tempo, so don’t make any half-asses or laid-back passes, okay?! Remember, safety is number one! If we conceded a goal because of anyone’s stupidity, the culprit will be in the gym with Waldoch for a full week!"

Some of the guys shuddered instantly, not even daring to glance at the Polish man whose face was still flat as ever.

Frohling had so many methods to punish the team, but the most unpleasant one was definitely a gym session with Waldoch. The man was quite harsh and demanding when it came to their physical state, wanting to force everyone to their limit before letting them rest properly.

The players who had just done a session with Waldoch usually left the gym in a half-dead state, so no one wanted to experience that voluntarily.

After making sure that everyone got the message here, the coach nodded in satisfaction before clapping loudly once again.

"Come on! 45 minutes left! As long as we can maintain our momentum, we will go back with three points! Let’s do this!"