Background[]
TBA
Main Story[]
Eisaku Ōtomo first appeared during the Tokyo City Esperion's Youth team entrance exam, when he presented himself to Ashito Aoi.[1] Otomo confessed being nervous, but realised that Ashito was more excited than nervous. He participated in a 7-vs-7 match, in which he was paired with Ashito, Akinori Kaneda and Junnosuke Nakano among others.[2] After being three goals behind the other team, Otomo blamed Ashito for losing so many balls and playing selfishly, and did not hide his disappointment towards him as a forward, though he acknowledge Ashito's bravery. However, when Ashito received a ball from Otomo, and protected it in front of their own goal, Otomo understood Ashito's intentions and commanded Kaneda to break away so that he could receive a long pass from Ashito.[3] That play ended up in a goal from Kaneda.
After that match, he took lunch with the members of his team, while Esperion's coaches were deliberating who were going to be the eleven players that would participate in the last phase of the entrance exam.[4] After the lunch, Tatsuya Fukuda announced the eleven chosen players and Otomo was one of them.[5] Before the start of the match, Ashito proposed a meeting to share their play styles and feelings about the exam, to understand themselves better. Otomo joined him, together with Kaneda, Nakano, Sōichirō Tachibana and Hōichi Fukatsu. Otomo shared how determined he was to drastically change his future and become a professional footballer. At the end of the meeting, Fukuda presented to the candidates the players of Esperion's Youth.
Just before the start of the match, Otomo looked at Ashito, who was visibly fired up by the challenge.[6] Otomo played as a left midfielder during the match.[7] In the very first play, he received a ball from Tachibana and sent it to Ashito, who shot to the post. In the next play, he got the ball from Mamoru Izumi and sent it to Tachibana, but his shot was blocked by the goalkeeper Enshin Akiyama. Later on he had an incident the lead to his nose bleeding, and had to be treated by Mamoru Hotta and Hana Ichijō . Otomo saw how Esperion's Youth team scored two goals by Jun Marchs Asari and Nagisa Akutsu before the end of the first half.[8]
During the half-time, Otomo convinced Yonshiku Ri and Yūdai Hasegawa to join their meeting in order to have higher chances for a come-back in the second half.[9] At the beginning of the second half, he tried to steal the ball from Yūma Motoki, but was dribbled.[10] He praised Fukatsu for deflecting the shot from Taira Nakamura in the subsequent play. Before defending a corner kick, Otomo encouraged the rest of the players to forget about the result, since losing was expected for a team created less than an hour ago, and to focus on showing their worth during the match. After the corner kick, Otomo listened to Fukuda's words, revealing that Esperion had been playing in a reverse formation during the match.[11] They quickly received two more goals, with Kunitaka Matsunaga and Itsuki Nagano as authors. A few minutes later, Otomo asked Ashito and Tachibana to let him kick a free kick that was given due to a hand touch by Yuma.[12] Ashito asked him why is he so different with respect to his anxious self before the match, to what Otomo answered that this was due to his love for football. However, his free kick was deflected by Akutsu, and Yōichi Kiriki cleared it.[13] In the last play of the match, Otomo received a cross from Tachibana but his shot found the opposition of Akutsu.[14] However, Ashito smashed the loose ball into the net, scoring the only goal for the candidates. He effusively celebrated the goal with Ashito and Tachibana.
After the match, Otomo, Ashito and Tachibana were summoned by the Esperion coaches.[15] Before leaving the facilities, he exchanged his phone number with Tachibana's. A few weeks later he received the news that he passed the entrance exam.
Otomo casually found Ashito when he arrived to the Esperion's training field, where he could observe Esperion's senior team.[16] Tachibana arrived soon after that and the three of them celebrated reuniting again. He revealed to Ashito and Tachibana the fact that he is from Asakusa, but in spite of that, he will sleep in the dorms, as Ashito and Tachibana.[17] Two nearby Esperion's supporters, Midori Haruta and Emi Kasahara, asked them for an autograph. After signing their notebook, Ashito pointed out the signature of a player called Haruhisa Kuribayashi, and after realizing that he did not know who he was, Otomo forced Ashito to look to the training field, where Kuribayashi was training with the senior team.
When they arrived to the dorms, they found Yuma and Asari, and introduced themselves. They revealed that during the entrance exam, they were still players from Esperion's Junior team that were called up because of a lack of players, and that Yuma and Asari were a forward and a defender, respectively. After that, they were interrupted by Toshimune Mibu, Esperion's public relations, who provided them with information, showed them the dorms, and handed them their uniform.
The day after, all the players met in the photography room to take the pictures for the Esperion's official book.[18] Otomo also revealed that Asari was his roommate in the dorms. Kanpei Kuroda, Tachibana's roommate, introduced the new members to the other first-year players in Esperion's Youth team. Otomo participated later in a meeting with the coaches in Esperion that was interrupted by the arrival of the last member in the team, who was scouted by coach Fukuda himself: Keiji Togashi.[19] At the end of the meeting, Fukuda proposed to do a practice match involving first-year players only. The coach Aki Tsukishima announced the line-ups for the match, and Otomo was paired with the goalkeeper Kengo Myōjin, the defenders Asari, Ryūichi Takeshima and Yui Masuko, and the forwards Tachibana and Roan Mino.[20]
During the match, Otomo played calmly and was able to pick Tsukishima's interest, who realized he was the new member in Esperion who was better able to keep pace with those coming from the Junior team.[21] Due to his performance, only Yuma was chosen by Fukuda to be promoted directly to the Esperion's Youth A-team, remaining in the B-team the rest of the first-year players.[22]
After the first practices, Otomo realized Ashito's struggles with his individual skills and how he was secretely practicing at night, and both him and Tachibana decided to join and help him.[23] At some point, Ashito refused to practice with Otomo and Tachibana because he said that the coach of Esperion's Youth B-team was suspecting that Ashito was not following the schedule of the dorms.[24] However, both Otomo and Tachibana realized that, at the end, Ashito decided to train with Togashi, and later on, Otomo and Tachibana joined them nonetheless.[25]
One day, all members of the B-team had lunch together, and Otomo discovered that Ashito had an abnormally good vision.[26] The day after, the B-team had training with the A-team, Otomo met the captain of Esperion's Youth, Kenta Yoshitsune, and realized the big skill gap between members of both teams.[27]
In the next day-off, Otomo decided to spend the day trying to get women, taking advantage of his new position as a member of a professional football club's youth team.[28] However, he did end up spying on Ashito and Hana, who spent the day together.[29] Otomo told him that Ashito should try to understand better other people's feelings.
A few days later, in their classroom, Otomo witnessed how Ashito, inspired by the words Otomo told him during the day-off, was debating with Kuroda and Asari about a play that occured during the training practice with the A-team.[30] Otomo felt the need to intervene when Asari undermined the effort of the new members in Esperion's Youth, saying that many teammates from the junior team were dropped to let them enter. Otomo replied that the entrance exam was just as tough, and that those who passed it, deserved to be in Esperion as much as any other member in the team. Otomo and Asari ended up fighting.[31]
Otomo was chosen in the first match of the season against Seikyō High in the midfielder position.[32] Before the start of the match, he talked to Ashito and Tachibana about how much tense the situation was because of his fight with Asari a few days ago. When the match arrived to its half time, the result was of 0-3 against Esperion. Otomo argued with Asari again during the half-time because the latter insinuated that all the blame should be put on the players who passed the entrance exam and not the whole team.[33] The argument was quickly interrupted by the captain Taira Nakamura. At the beginning of the second half, Ashito talked to Otomo and Togashi and told them that until then, he never paid attention to what his teammates were doing on the field.[34] When the partial result was already 2-3, Ashito instructed Otomo to wait for the ball while he was clearing the path by dragging a few defenders along with him. Otomo received the pass from Asari and managed to enter inside the box unmarked to score a goal and tie the match 3-3.[35] Ashito scored the last goal of the match and Otomo celebrated with him and the rest of the teammates Esperion's victory with a final result of 4-3.[36]
All the team went for dinner that night to celebrate their first win in their debut, together with Toshimune, Hana and Anri Kaidō, the daughter of the owner of Kaido Electronics, the Esperion's sponsor, which paid for the meal.[37] During the dinner Tachibana forced Otomo and Asari to apologize to each other for the fight both had days ago. After that, Anri asked to switch on the TV to watch Kuribayashi's debut with the senior team, and Otomo watched him together with his teammates.[38] Otomo realized that Kuribayashi was on a complete different level, even outstanding in the senior team.[39]
In the next week, Otomo was chosen to be a starter in the match against Kurume Daiichi High as a midfielder.[40] In the first play, Otomo received a ball from Taira and passed it to Ashito, but the latter wasted the chance with a very deficient pass to Kio Fujimiya. On the second half, Otomo received a pass from Ashito, and after running towards the backline, he sent a low cross to Ashito to score, in the minute 56, the first goal of a match that ended 3-0.[41]
After the match, the coach Nozomi Date announced that Fukuda had promoted Asari, Kuroda, Taira and Nagano.[42] Otomo felt sad because a goal and an assist in two matches was not enough for him to be promoted. However he was puzzled because Ashito, which two goals and two assists, was not promoted either. That evening in the dorms, the team found another message by Nozomi saying that Ashito was going to switch his position and become a defender, and, since he was not there, Otomo left the dorms together with Tachibana, Asari and Kuroda.[43] He did not find Ashito but he arrived later on to the dorms by himself while Otomo was in the entrance with Tachibana.[44] He saw then Ashito asking Akutsu to teach him how play as a defender.
In the next days, there was a practice match between the A-team and the B-team members to adapt Ashito to his new position as left full-back and Akutsu as center-forward (in his case as a temporary replacement to the recently injured Yoshitsune).[45] Otomo was chosen in the B-2 team, together with Myojin, Masuko, Togashi, Takeshima, Ashito, Takumu Numatsu, Roan and Tachibana. Before the start of his match, he observed the struggles of Kuroda and Asari in their match with the A-team. At some point in the game, Roan tried to pass the ball to Otomo after being pressed by Taira, but the pass was intercepted by Osieck Mino.[46] The chance was aborted by Numatsu. Later, Otomo passed a ball to Ashito, but the latter lost it after being pressed simultaneously by Makoto Shimizu and Tōji Kobayakawa. Akutsu scored after receiving Shimizu's cross. In a later play, Tachibana lost a ball, which arrived again to Osieck, but his long shot was blocked by Otomo with his face.[47] Ashito apologized to Otomo for defending so badly, but Otomo, who already realized that Ashito was not concentrated due to the frustation he was feeling for having to play as a full-back, told him that he did it gladly and for his own sake. After the pratice match, Takeshima presented his girlfriend Tae Koba to his teammates, which made Otomo outrageously jealous.[48]
He continued practicing with the B-team in the following days.[49] Otomo played in the following four matches (not confirmed in one of them), in which Esperion lost 1-0 in all of them.[50] In order to improve the morale of the team, Otomo proposed Ashito, Tachibana and Togashi to have dinner together outside and the four of them went to Musashino. On the road to Musashino, Otomo tried to cheer up Tachibana, who was depressed for not being able to score a single goal in the first six matches of the season despite being a forward.[51] Once in Musashino, the four of them casually found Nakano and Kaneda, and it was revealed that, after the entrance exam for Esperion, both of them were scouted and became new players in Tokyo Musashino FC, Tachibana's former team. Kaneda was visibly upset because he did not pass the exam, and he blamed mainly Ashito because he encouraged Kaneda to play as a team, stating that if he would have been more individualistic, he could have passed the exam. Besides, Kaneda mocked Tachibana for not being able to score any goal, and said that he had already scored seven.[52] That worried Otomo, who was already very concerned about Tachibana's current state of mind.
Otomo was chosen to be a starter in the match against Tama Sports University High. Before the start of the match, Togashi explained to Katsuyori Isshiki that Ashito was doing laps, and when Isshiki tried to get the aproval from Yoshitsune to report that as unacceptable behavior, Otomo said that Ashito used to do that before a match to calm down. That made Yoshitsune to let Ashito continue doing laps.[53] At the beginning of the match, Otomo received instructions from Ashito and covered the Tama Sports player with the number 26. This, combined with Shimizu's positioning, allowed Ashito to intercept a pass.[54] Later on, Ashito instructed him to move more centrally.[55] However, he did not move centrally enough, and Tama Sports took advantage of the open space to start a counter-attack, but Yoshitsune covered for the positioning mistake. The following individual play that Yoshitsune realized left Otomo speechless.[56] In the second half, Esperion received a goal because of a misscommunication between Togashi and Takeshima.[57] Otomo discussed with Roan how did that happen.[58] He then proposed Ashito to move forward and triangulated with him and Yoshitsune. The play led to a scoring chance for Otomo, but the goalkeeper saved his shot. However, the rebound arrived to Ashito, whose cross was headed by Togashi, who scored the last goal of the match, for a final result of 2-1.[59] After the end of the match, Otomo overheard Tachibana asking Nozomi to not let him play in the next match against Musashino.[60] He shared this information with Ashito, who decided to go to Musashino with Tachibana and see the team play.
The journalist Aoi Kaneko gave Otomo, Ashito, Tachibana and Hana a ride to go to Musashino and watch Tachibana's former team play against Kanto Combined Academy.[61] Upon their arrival, Otomo observed Musashino's facilities and compared them to Esperion's. They were later encountered by the coaches of Musashino's Youth team Koji Satake and Keisuke Shinagawa. They observed the match and discussed Musashino's high press.[62] Musashino won that match 3-0 with two goals scored by Kaneda and one by its captain Chiaki Muto.[63] After the match, Hana left the grounds, and Otomo, Ashito and Tachibana were spotted by Miyako Tachibana, Sōichirō's twin sister. They later hid, and saw a discussion between Kaneda and three of his teammates: Nakano, Muto and Mikami. Ashito and Tachibana got involved in the discussion but Muto managed to solve the situation.[64] Otomo, Ashito, Tachibana and Mikako left the grounds and met back with Hana, and soon after, Otomo received a message from Masuko, saying that Shimizu and Yoshitsune were going to be promoted to team A, Asari and Kuroda demoted to team B, Isshiki going into a rehabilitation after his injury against Tama Sports, and that his roommate Takeshima picked up a fight against Togashi.[65]
When Otomo, Ashito and Tachibana returned to the dorms, they found Togashi and asked him about his fight with Takeshima, but Togashi refused to explain his motivation and justified himself by saying that he knows he is right. In an immediate meeting with coach Nozomi, they received the information about the chosen line-up against Musashino, in which Otomo was chosen a starter. That night, after the meeting, Otomo and Ashito asked Asari about the relationship between Togashi and Takeshima and discovered Togashi's past in Esperion when he was in elementary school.[66] They were later joined by Tachibana and Yuma, and, after hearing the story, Otomo considered that Kuroda was right about the fact that in order to become a professional footballer, one has to take into account the long term and not to put the physical integrity at risk.[67] After the end of the practice in the day after, Otomo joined Tachibana's proposal of training on the field a bit longer.[68]
Before the start of the match, Otomo was visible nervous.[69] He was accompanied by Masuko, Myojin, Ayuta Shima, Wataru Kameyama and Roan when Takeshima apologized for missing the first ten minutes of the meeting and left the field with Tae. The tension went down when Takeshima reappeared in the locker room with a new haircut made by his girlfriend. In the first play of the match, Otomo received a ball from Tachibana and, after being under Ishikura's press, he passed to Roan, but the ball was cleared by Mitsuya.[70] Later on, he passed the ball to Takeshima, who sent a long ball to Roan, but he missed the shot.[71] Esperion received a counter around minute 15 that was stopped by Ashito with a foul.[72] Otomo formed the barrier together with Ashito, Roan and Takeshima, and, while in the barrier, he discussed with Ashito about how Musashino already adapted to the direct football Esperion was implementing. After receiving the first goal, by Muto, Tachibana dribbled past Ishikura and Mitsuya and sent a pass to Otomo, who was wide open in the left flank, unfortunately, a late agressive press by Mikami on Tachibana triggered the latter sending a too strong pass that Otomo could not control.[73] However, Ashito managed to complete the cross before the ball left the field, and after a failed attempt by Kio Fujimiya to head the ball, the cross reached Tachibana, who scored with an acrobatic shot. In the next play, Tachibana made a post play while Ashito instructed Otomo to move to the left flank, so that he could drag Nakano with him.[74] Ashito took advantage of the open space, and received a pass from Tachibana to score a goal, but it was not valid due to Ashito's off-side position.[75] After that play, Otomo received another ball from Ashito, who instructed him to send it to Tachibana, but Otomo was too slow at sending the pass and Tachibana received it when he was in an off-side position.[76] After receiving the second goal against, by Kaneda, Otomo instructed Asari to send a long ball, but he lost the ball trying to dribble past Mitsuya.[77] That provoked a play in which Kaneda almost scored, but Kuroda prevented the goal in the very last moment. The first half ended with a partial result of 1-2 for Musashino.[78] In the locker room, Otomo reprimanded Asari for not taking responsability for losing the ball in a bad spot in the last play of the first half.
At the beginning of the second half, minute 55, Otomo had the ball in front of the box.[79] He hesitated about who to pass, wether Ashito, who was marked by Muto while doing a diagonal run, or Tachibana, who was marked by Nakano.[80] Ashito instructed him to pass to Asari instead, who was making a diagonal run from the other flank. Madoka was the only Musashino's defender left in the play, but he was caught off-guard with Asari's heel pass back to Otomo. Otomo entered in the box unmarked and beat Saeki with a shot with his right foot. That was Esperion's second goal, which managed to tie the game 2-2. 13 minutes later, Otomo received a cross from Ashito.[81] He was under Muto's press, but managed to shot to the post. The subsequent rebound was kicked by Ashito into the net, to score Esperion's third goal.[82] Later on, Otomo sent a pass to Roan, who assisted to Tachibana for him to score his second goal and last goal of the match, for a final result of 4-2 for Esperion. Just after the match, Otomo was resting with his teammates when they received Fukuda's visit, who announced that Otomo, Ashito, Togashi and Kuroda were going to promote to Esperion's Youth A-team starting the day after.[83] That night, Otomo celebrated it in his bedroom with some of his teammates.[84]
The day after the match against Musashino, Otomo had his first training with the A-team. The practice consisted in an Osim-style rondo (named after Ivica Osim, former coach of the national team of Japan) with the reserve players of the A-team: Taira Nakamura, Matsunaga, Osieck and Masanori Baba.[85] Otomo clearly struggled in it, and barely kept up with the rest of the members of the rondo.[86] Taira, Matsunaga and Osieck invited the four newcomers to join for dinner that night, however, Togashi refused.[87] They were joined by Yuma, who shamelessly attended the dinner even though he was not invited. During the dinner, they talked about different aspects of the Youth team, such as the four members that are currently Japan U-18 representatives: Yoshitsune, Yutaka Yamada, Eita Takasugi and Kiriki; Kuribayashi, who is currently in Japan U-20 team; Matsunaga's condition as a scouted player and Akutsu being the only player that succeded on the entrance exam the year before and considered by Fukuda as a possible candidate to join the Japan U-18 national team. The group was later casually joined by Kuribayashi, Miyako, Anri and her butler. He did not contribute much to the conversation after that due to Kuribayashi's odd conversation timing.[88] When Kuribayashi left, Otomo discussed the concept of the meaning of complete full-back, something that Kuribayashi introduced during the conversation, with Ashito, Anri and Yuma.[89] Until the next match, Otomo kept practicing with the reserve players. Otomo was not chosen to play or to be in the bench for the match against Kashiwa Dai Business High.[90]
Before the match against Kashiwa, Otomo, Ashito and Anri watched the B-team play against Tokuzen High School in a match Esperion won 4-0 with two goals from Tachibana, one from Kento Sugawara and one from Asari.[91] For the match, as he was not on the bench, he had to watch the match from the grandstands with Kuroda and Togashi. Next to them, Kaneko, Anri and her butler were watching the match as well. At the end of the match, which ended 3-0 for Esperion, Otomo saw the discussion between Togashi and Anri, in which Anri told Togashi how he had been looking down on Ashito.[92]
The days after the match, Otomo continued practicing with the reserve players, in a practice in which Fukuda gave a lot of instructions.[93] After being asked by Fukuda to make an effort to keep up with the regular players, Otomo and Kuroda decided to ask Nozomi for advice.[94] Nozomi told Otomo that he possesses the qualities of a captain.[95] When they came back to the dorms, they were told that Togashi, Ashito, Asari, Takeshima, Yuma, Tachibana, Miyako and Anri had done a practice during the night and had been joined by Fukuda. Togashi invited them to join for the next nights. Otomo started to plan a way to escape from the dorms during the nights unnoticed. In the next Thursday, Otomo participated in the training practice during the night with Fukuda's help. He was seen participating in an attack, in which he passed to Kuroda, who later sent the ball to Fukuda, who dribbled Ashito, passed to Yuma and he assisted Anri for her to score a goal.[96] At the end, Fukuda gave advice to everyone but Ashito, Yuma and Otomo. When Otomo, Tachibana, Miyako, Anri and Ashito were waiting for the bus to go back to the dorms, they were met by Kuribayashi, who was looking for Ashito.[97] The other left the two of them talk in private, though they actually hid behind the brush to listen the conversation. In the following training with the team, Otomo was again assigned to the reserve players.[98] They had a match against the regulars, and, in one of the first plays, Otomo received a pass from Osieck, but he was in an off-side position. In the following weeks, all the other first-year players joined them during the practices at night.[99]
Otomo was not chosen a starter in the match against Tokyo Vans, but he was on the bench.[100] In the second half, Otomo made his debut with the A-team when he replaced Baba in the defensive midefielder position.[101] He was heavily marked by Sakai Kento, and during the first minutes, he played conservatively, focusing on backpasses to keep possession.[102] At some point, Sakai's man-marking became looser and Otomo could send a pass to Kiriki in a good spot to start a counter-attack. Otomo continued with this tactic, that served the purpose of solidifying the defence.[103] Later, he was tackled by Tatsumi Juri, and, though that was not a foul, Tatsumi did commit a foul against Ashito when the latter covered for Otomo and tried to steal the ball back from Tatsumi. In a later play, Otomo received a ball from Ashito and sent a long pass that, thanks to Osieck's as a decoy, reached Kiriki.[104] His cross was shot by Yuma, who scored the first goal of the match at the minute 81. After that goal, Kiriki apologized to Otomo and the rest of the first-year players for underestimating them.[105] Esperion won that match 2-0 thanks to a second goal from Ashito at the minute 89.
Three weeks later, Otomo watched the conference press for the promotion to the senior team of Yoshitsune, Yamada and Kyō Shimura.[106] Some weeks after, Fukuda announced that Otomo was chosen to be a starter for the match against Funabashi Academy High. [107] That same day, Taira told everyone about his retirement after that match. Taira promised to explain his decision to whoever visited him that evening.[108] He attended with Tachibana, Kuroda, Asari and Takeshima, and, when a fight between Takasugi and Akutsu arose, Otomo realized Ashito was not there. He attentively listen the rest of the conversation until the group decided to make a difference against Funabashi so that Taira, who was a reserve player, could have play time in his last match.[109]
The match against Funabashi arrived.[110] In the beginning of the match, Otomo had problems with Naofumi Futahara's speed.[111] When Ashito started to man-mark Futahara, Otomo worked together with him with the goal of nullifying Futahara's speed and managed to steal a ball from him.[112] For the next minutes, Otomo contributed to the five-lane strategy that Fukuda tried to implement for the match against Funabashi.[113] In the last play of the first half, Funabashi had a counter-attack, but Gō Tokitō's shot was saved by Akiyama.[114] This made Esperion and Otomo himself to lose confidence on their strategy after realising how risky it was.[115] Otomo discussed with Togashi wether Funabashi regained confidence after the last play despite losing the match 1-0 at that, based on the smiles on the faces of the players.[116] At the beginning of the second half, Otomo realized that Futahara and Trepone Rufin switched their positions, and given that they are right and left-footed, respectively, that meant that they were going to play diagonally and therefore strengthen the central lane.[117] Ashito lost a ball in the minute 58 that provoked a counter-attack from Funabashi.[118] While withdrawing, Otomo and Ashito tried to corner Trepone, but the latter used his body and height to make Otomo's and Ashito's efforts futile. Trepone passed to Futahara, who, after facing Togashi, sent a cross, that Trepone introduced into the goal. Besides, while trying to save the goal, Akiyama collided with the post and got injured, and had to be replaced by Kanji Nikaidō.[119] In the minute 73, Ashito touched the ball with his hand inside the box[120] and Funabashi scored the subsequent penalty kick.[121] The play ended up with Taira not replacing Ashito, as Fukuda intended to do, and Osieck replacing Otomo instead. While leaving the field, Otomo tried to cheer Ashito up. After the match, Otomo and Togashi were very depressed because of their bad performance, and claimed having been useless against a team like Funabashi.[122]
After the match against Funabashi, Otomo, as other first-year players, did not play with the A-team, and did not even have the chance to be in the bench, being only Yuma the one playing, and Togashi and Myojin, the ones in the bench (the latter because of Akiyama's injury).[123] He did play in the eight-final J-Youth Cup's match against Iwata Allegrio as a regular and in the midfielder position.[124] Esperion won 3-0. He was also chosen to play against Ganon Osaka in the quarter-final.[125] Esperion lost that match 5-1, despite Yuma's initial goal.[126] Just after the match, Baba was extremely disgusted with Esperion's performance, specially the one of the first-years.[127] Otomo interceded to say that having a meeting just to blame teammates would make the loss meaningless because nothing would be learnt from it. Otomo left after saying this. Otomo had the chance to play in the next Premier Leagure match against Funabashi, which Esperion lost 1-0 due to a goal from Sammy Rufin.[128] Otomo received a message from Fukuda saying that he was going to be a starter in the match against Aomori Seiran High.[129] He sent a message to Ashito arround 5 a.m, thinking that it was already about time for Ashito to be a starter as well. The two of them went for running outsie together. During the morning, Otomo discussed with Ashito the current state of the team after several consecutive defeats, and he claimed that Esperion's shape was great. The reason was that after experiencing all the anger and frustration in the team, he was believing that finally, first-year players were finally treated as equals. After that, Otomo asked Ashito to help into convincing their teammates into realizing that they were slowly becoming the team that Fukuda is trying to build, and therefore, that Esperion was in the correct path. Finally, Otomo proposed Ashito to go watch the match between Funabashi and Aomori.[130] A few days later, he watched an interview to Ren Kitano, Aomori's best player, together with Yuma and Takeshima.[131]
Otomo went to see the match between Funabashi and Aomori, and invited Ashito, Hana, Yuma, Anri, Miyako, Takeshima, Tae, Tachibana, Asari and Kuroda.[132] Before the start of the match, there was a discussion in which Otomo compared Funabashi with Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool. During the half-time, Otomo made a comment about how Aomori, who was winning 2-0, has been able to exhibit a tactic that has never shown before in an official match in such an effective way, and pointed out how important was Ren for this.[133] He also mentioned that Aomori's defensive style is something that the Japanese national team had to face when playing against smaller teams in Asian competitions. When Tachibana, Kuroda and Asari, who were late, arrived, Otomo was visibly happy and gathered the whole group to go back to the grandstands with the exception of Ashito, Hana and Anri, who were left behind. Otomo observed how Aomori changed its playstyle in the second half, and scored a third goal.[134] This made Otomo and other teammates wonder wether Esperion could win against the current Aomori or not. The match ended with a final result of 3-1 for Aomori. After the end of the match, the group talked about the possible line up that Fukuda would choose against Aomori, and both Tachibana and Yuma revealed that the coach trusted them to play as forwards from the start.[135] Otomo shared with his teammates how excited he was about the match against Aomori.
Some days before the start of the match, Fukuda announced to the team the line up that he decided to use against Aomori.[136] Just before the match, while in the locker room, Ashito asked Otomo for help to put a headband on.[137] After a first play for Esperion in which Aomori was completely unable to touch the ball, Otomo compared the situation to the moment back to when him, Ashito and Tachibana participated in the entrance exam and entered in a state of desperation.[138] After a corner kick, Otomo received the ball from Kiriki, and sent a pass to Yamada, who assisted to Takasugi.[139] However, Eito Makimura blocked the shot. A few minutes later, Otomo attempted to pass to Ashito from a throw-in, but after realising that he was heavily marked by Ryūki Haneda, Otomo passed to Togashi instead.[140] After that play, an intense press from Haneda to Ashito provoked him to send the ball to Otomo, who was also heavily pressed by Hayato Sasaki.[141] Otomo managed to protect the ball and get a throw-in for Esperion. At some point in the game, Akiyama got the ball and after drawing the press of Damian Jay Yamagai, sent the ball to Akutsu, who passed to Otomo.[142] He sent a ball through to Yamada, but his shot was again saved by Makimura.[143] At some point, in order to counter Esperion's strategy consisting of moving Akiyama into the defense line, Aomori's players intensified their press, and forced Otomo to send a ball back to Ashito.[144] Later, Otomo lost a ball against Ren, and, after he dribbled past Tachibana, Otomo and Baba surrounded Ren to steal the ball back, with no success.[145] During a break due to an injury from Kurama[146], Fukuda used the time to give two instructions: make Baba man-mark Ren[147] and ask Tachibana to use his tiredness as an advantage and to try to fool the Esperion's defenders.[148] As Tachibana was unsure about him being able to do it, Otomo calmed him down by saying that it was just a bet in which Tachibana had nothing to lose.[149] While Baba was man-marking Ren, the latter managed to dribble past him and Otomo, who was trying to cover for Baba's mistake.[148] The play was saved by Akutsu. Yuma got the loose ball and sent it to Kiriki.[149] Kiriki passed to Otomo, who sent a long ball to Tachibana for him to make an individual play. Tachibana did not manage to score due to Makimura saving the shot, but Otomo congratulated him regardless, because that play put fear in Aomori's minds.[150]
Just before the start of the second half, Otomo found Miyako and both talked about Tachibana's performance in the first half.[151] Already on the pitch, Asari and Shimura replaced Baba and Tachibana, and Otomo tried to calm down Asari, who was panicking.[152] In one of the first plays of the second half, Otomo received a pass from Togashi, and, though he was immediately under Ren's pressure, he could pass the ball to Ashito.[153] A few minutes after Yuma scored the first goal of the match[154], there was a break due to the clash between Ashito, Yuma, Sasaki, Renard Sho Moriyama and Kentaro Tsutsumi.[155] During the break, Otomo discussed the fact that Aomori was replacing Sasaki for a first-year player called Naoki Kiso.[156] When the match was resumed, Otomo received a pass from Ashito, and received a high press from Kiso, Ren and Taiyo Fujinaga. However, he did not lose the ball because he forced a throw-in for Esperion. Before the throw-in, Otomo discussed with Ashito that Aomori was putting more effort into the high press and therefore, they were making more mistakes. After Otomo realized that the Aomori players were playing more comfortably in their new N-box tactics around Ren, he switched positions with Kiriki, so that Otomo had to place a less experienced player like Kiso and let Ren to Kiriki.[157] However, Kiriki was unable to stop Ren in any possible. Otomo could not steal neither block a pass from Kiso to Ren in a play at minute 78.[158] Ren sent a cross to Yamagai, but could not reach it thanks to a good marking by Shimura. However, Fujinaga managed to reach the ball before it crossed the baseline, and sent cross a cross that Haneda used to score Aomori's first goal, tying the match 1-1. A little bit before the start of the stoppage time, Otomo could effectively press Kiso with the aid of Kiriki, which led to Ashito, who had move to the midfield, to steal the ball.[159] In a later play, Ashito missed a pass to Togashi, and Ren intercepted it.[160] Aomori sent a long ball to Yamagai and Otomo tried to run back to defense but Ashito instructed him not to do it, that Esperion needed a goal, midfielders were needed to balance the five midfielders of Aomori and that they were forced to trust the two defenders left: Akutsu and Shimura. Akutsu managed to steal the ball from Yamagai making use of his body. In the last play of the match, Otomo passed the ball to Takasugi in a throw-in.[161] The two teams ended up fighting to get the ball under their control until Ashito got it and sent a long pass to Akutsu.[162] After a run with Moriyama, Akutsu reached the box, faced Makimura, and introduced the ball into the net, scoring the final 2-1 for Esperion. Otomo celebrated with his teammates the victory against Aomori, which implied that Esperion had become the champions of the Takamadonomiya U-18 Premier League East.[163]
Some days later, Otomo was in the gym with Asari, Takeshima, Togashi, Tachibana and Ashito, when the latter informed them that Hernán Garulla, the coach of the senior team, invited him to participate in a three-day training. Otomo wished him luck and felt sad for not having him for the final of the Takamadonomiya U-18 Cup.[164] The day of the final, Otomo and his teammates went to Saitama, were Esperion was going to play against Ganon Osaka.[165] In the bus, Tachibana told him that he received a message from Nakano saying that Musashino lost the promotion against Urawa Sogo Risshi. Fukuda chose him as a starter. At some point during the match, Otomo received a ball from Asari, and, after dribbling pass one of Ganon Osaka's players, Otomo passed the ball to Kobayakawa.[166] Esperion won the cup thanks to a goal from Yamada, which allowed them to be chosen to participate in a competition called Alkass Cup, played in Qatar.[167] He celebrated with the team afterwards on the field.[168] That night, the whole team went to a restaurant to celebrate the end of the season and they were joined by Ashito and Yuma, who could not play against Ganon Osaka because they were invited by Garulla to train with the senior team.[169] At the end of the dinner, Tae appeared and left together with Takeshima, which made Otomo feel very annoyed, as he interpreted that as a provocation.[170] After that he felt sad because he did not have any girlfriend and started to cry. Baba and Matsunaga acknowledged Otomo after misstakenly believing that he was crying about the third-year players leaving the team. At the end of December, Otomo was still very upset about now having a girlfriend and he even wanted to make sure anyone had a girlfriend either, asking first Togashi, and later Shima, Kameyama and Masuko.[171] When Masuko replied that he did have a girlfriend, Otomo assaulted him. After that, Otomo asked Asari, and as he replied that he was single, all the girls around had a feeling of relief. This further infuriated Otomo, and Kuroda told him that he actually had a girlfriend, which made Otomo cry. When a depressed Otomo was leaving the school, he found Tachibana and Miyako, and asked Miyako to give him her phone number after telling her a compliment.[172] Miyako gave him her phone number after knowing from Otomo that he does not give compliments to every woman he sees.
At the beginning of the next year, Esperion's Youth team had a friendly match against Esperion's senior team to help the youth team prepare for the Alkass Cup tournament in Qatar.[173] The week after, in February, Otomo and his teammates took a flight to Qatar.[174] During the first flight, Otomo first discussed with Kuroda about the usefulness of neck pillows. The two of them later talked to Ashito, who was terrified in his first flight. After that, Takeshima commented that Esperion players should not waste the oportunity to play in this tournament because of the large number of scouts. Asari contributed by revealing his dream of playing someday in the English Premier League, in his father's country. They had a 4-hour layover in the airport of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They found a classification with the teams and their likeliness to win the tournament, and they were surprised that Esperion was ranked in the last tier. Otomo realized that this was not bothering the most experienced Esperion players. He also spotted a new player besides Akiyama: his brother Rindō Akiyama. Otomo also realized that in the list of best players of the tournament, only one was from Asia: Haruhisa Kuribayashi. Once they landed to Qatar, Otomo and some first-year teammates went to try the local cuisine.[175] Otomo also remember that their first match was going to be against Barcelona FC When they arrived back to the hotel, Togashi was watching an interview to two players from Barcelona: Alex Falco and Emmanuel Gato.[176] Otomo, Asari, Tachibana, Takeshima, Yuma and Kuroda joined them. Otomo was surprised with how mature Barcelona players looked like.[177] Before the match against Barcelona, Otomo attended the meeting accompanied by other first-year players and Rindo, asking about Ashito's whereabouts.[178] Later on, he discussed with Asari his desire of playing in England and asked himself about the implications of taking such a decision.[179]
Otomo was not chosen a regular against Barcelona.[180] Just before the start of the match, Otomo introduced Ashito to Rindo, since he barely remembered him from the practices he had in the previous days.[181] From the bench, Otomo witnessed how Barcelona was changing gears during the match, which gave bad memories from the entrance exam both to Otomo and Tachibana, who was also on the bench.[182] During the half-time, Fukuda replaced Kuroda for Otomo.[183]
References[]
- ↑ Volume 1 Chapter 3
- ↑ Volume 1 Chapter 4
- ↑ Volume 1 Chapter 5
- ↑ Volume 1 Chapter 6
- ↑ Volume 1 Chapter 7
- ↑ Volume 2 Chapter 8
- ↑ Volume 2 Chapter 9
- ↑ Volume 2 Chapter 10
- ↑ Volume 2 Chapter 11
- ↑ Volume 2 Chapter 12
- ↑ Volume 2 Chapter 13
- ↑ Volume 2 Chapter 15
- ↑ Volume 2 Chapter 16
- ↑ Volume 2 Chapter 17
- ↑ Volume 2 Chapter 18
- ↑ Volume 3 Chapter 23
- ↑ Volume 3 Chapter 24
- ↑ Volume 3 Chapter 25
- ↑ Volume 3 Chapter 26
- ↑ Volume 3 Chapter 27
- ↑ Volume 4 Chapter 33
- ↑ Volume 4 Chapter 34
- ↑ Volume 4 Chapter 36
- ↑ Volume 4 Chapter 37
- ↑ Volume 4 Chapter 38
- ↑ Volume 5 Chapter 40
- ↑ Volume 5 Chapter 41
- ↑ Volume 5 Chapter 43
- ↑ Volume 5 Chapter 44
- ↑ Volume 5 Chapter 45
- ↑ Volume 5 Chapter 46
- ↑ Volume 5 Chapter 47
- ↑ Volume 5 Chapter 48
- ↑ Volume 5 Chapter 49
- ↑ Volume 6 Chapter 53
- ↑ Volume 6 Chapter 55
- ↑ Volume 6 Chapter 56
- ↑ Volume 6 Chapter 57
- ↑ Volume 6 Chapter 58
- ↑ Volume 6 Chapter 59
- ↑ Volume 6 Chapter 61
- ↑ Volume 7 Chapter 62
- ↑ Volume 7 Chapter 63
- ↑ Volume 7 Chapter 65
- ↑ Volume 7 Chapter 66
- ↑ Volume 7 Chapter 67
- ↑ Volume 7 Chapter 68
- ↑ Volume 7 Chapter 69
- ↑ Volume 7 Chapter 71
- ↑ Volume 8 Chapter 73
- ↑ Volume 8 Chapter 74
- ↑ Volume 8 Chapter 75
- ↑ Volume 8 Chapter 76
- ↑ Volume 8 Chapter 77
- ↑ Volume 8 Chapter 78
- ↑ Volume 8 Chapter 79
- ↑ Volume 8 Chapter 80
- ↑ Volume 8 Chapter 81
- ↑ Volume 8 Chapter 82
- ↑ Volume 8 Chapter 83
- ↑ Volume 9 Chapter 84
- ↑ Volume 9 Chapter 85
- ↑ Volume 9 Chapter 86
- ↑ Volume 9 Chapter 87
- ↑ Volume 9 Chapter 88
- ↑ Volume 9 Chapter 89
- ↑ Volume 9 Chapter 91
- ↑ Volume 9 Chapter 92
- ↑ Volume 9 Chapter 93
- ↑ Volume 9 Chapter 94
- ↑ Volume 10 Chapter 95
- ↑ Volume 10 Chapter 96
- ↑ Volume 10 Chapter 100
- ↑ Volume 10 Chapter 101
- ↑ Volume 10 Chapter 102
- ↑ Volume 10 Chapter 103
- ↑ Volume 10 Chapter 104
- ↑ Volume 11 Chapter 105
- ↑ Volume 11 Chapter 110
- ↑ Volume 11 Chapter 111
- ↑ Volume 11 Chapter 113
- ↑ Volume 11 Chapter 114
- ↑ Volume 11 Chapter 115
- ↑ Volume 12 Chapter 116
- ↑ Volume 12 Chapter 119
- ↑ Volume 12 Chapter 120
- ↑ Volume 12 Chapter 122
- ↑ Volume 12 Chapter 123
- ↑ Volume 12 Chapter 124
- ↑ Volume 12 Chapter 125
- ↑ Volume 13 Chapter 126
- ↑ Volume 14 Chapter 137
- ↑ Volume 14 Chapter 139
- ↑ Volume 14 Chapter 140
- ↑ Volume 14 Chapter 143
- ↑ Volume 14 Chapter 144
- ↑ Volume 14 Chapter 145
- ↑ Volume 14 Chapter 146
- ↑ Volume 15 Chapter 149
- ↑ Volume 15 Chapter 150
- ↑ Volume 16 Chapter 165
- ↑ Volume 16 Chapter 166
- ↑ Volume 16 Chapter 167
- ↑ Volume 16 Chapter 168
- ↑ Volume 16 Chapter 169
- ↑ Volume 17 Chapter 173
- ↑ Volume 17 Chapter 174
- ↑ Volume 17 Chapter 175
- ↑ Volume 17 Chapter 176
- ↑ Volume 17 Chapter 179
- ↑ Volume 18 Chapter 180
- ↑ Volume 18 Chapter 182
- ↑ Volume 18 Chapter 183
- ↑ Volume 18 Chapter 188
- ↑ Volume 18 Chapter 189
- ↑ Volume 19 Chapter 190
- ↑ Volume 19 Chapter 191
- ↑ Volume 19 Chapter 193
- ↑ Volume 19 Chapter 194
- ↑ Volume 19 Chapter 198
- ↑ Volume 19 Chapter 199
- ↑ Volume 20 Chapter 202
- ↑ Volume 20 Chapter 207
- ↑ Volume 21 Chapter 211
- ↑ Volume 21 Chapter 212
- ↑ Volume 21 Chapter 215
- ↑ Volume 21 Chapter 216
- ↑ Volume 21 Chapter 217
- ↑ Volume 21 Chapter 219
- ↑ Volume 21 Chapter 220
- ↑ Volume 21 Chapter 221
- ↑ Volume 22 Chapter 222
- ↑ Volume 22 Chapter 225
- ↑ Volume 22 Chapter 228
- ↑ Volume 22 Chapter 229
- ↑ Volume 22 Chapter 231
- ↑ Volume 23 Chapter 232
- ↑ Volume 23 Chapter 234
- ↑ Volume 23 Chapter 235
- ↑ Volume 23 Chapter 236
- ↑ Volume 23 Chapter 237
- ↑ Volume 23 Chapter 239
- ↑ Volume 23 Chapter 240
- ↑ Volume 24 Chapter 242
- ↑ Volume 24 Chapter 245
- ↑ Volume 24 Chapter 246
- ↑ Volume 24 Chapter 247
- ↑ 148.0 148.1 Volume 24 Chapter 248
- ↑ 149.0 149.1 Volume 24 Chapter 249
- ↑ Volume 24 Chapter 250
- ↑ Volume 25 Chapter 253
- ↑ Volume 25 Chapter 254
- ↑ Volume 25 Chapter 256
- ↑ Volume 25 Chapter 261
- ↑ Volume 26 Chapter 264
- ↑ Volume 26 Chapter 265
- ↑ Volume 26 Chapter 267
- ↑ Volume 26 Chapter 269
- ↑ Volume 26 Chapter 271
- ↑ Volume 27 Chapter 272
- ↑ Volume 27 Chapter 278
- ↑ Volume 27 Chapter 279
- ↑ Volume 27 Chapter 280
- ↑ Volume 28 Chapter 283
- ↑ Volume 29 Chapter 300
- ↑ Volume 30 Chapter 308
- ↑ Volume 30 Chapter 309
- ↑ Volume 30 Chapter 310
- ↑ Volume 31 Chapter 311
- ↑ Volume 31 Chapter 312
- ↑ Volume 31 Chapter 314
- ↑ Volume 31 Chapter 315
- ↑ Volume 34 Chapter 350
- ↑ Volume 33 Chapter 338
- ↑ Volume 33 Chapter 339
- ↑ Volume 34 Chapter 340
- ↑ Volume 34 Chapter 341
- ↑ Volume 34 Chapter 344
- ↑ Volume 34 Chapter 345
- ↑ Volume 34 Chapter 346
- ↑ Volume 34 Chapter 347
- ↑ Volume 35 Chapter 353
- ↑ Volume 36 Chapter 368
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TBA