My system allows me to copy talents

Turning to look at their miserable state, opposing players as they moved forward, sniggered at them, making fun of their clumsiness.

"Will they be able to run later in the game, if they're already like this?" One of the Polish players remarked in a rather mocking tone, making fun of Japanese players.

"Haha, I hope that their fans won't reprimand us for bullying them later in the match..." Another player added, sounding extremely full of himself.

From the moment they had met the Japanese side in the tunnel, they had been aware of the air of anxiousness lingering around the Japanese side.

And that crappy mood in the opposing side had only acted as a fuel to boost their confidence. This is why, right now every single one of the Polish players was acting so full of themselves; completely looking down on the Japanese players.

To them, only one player was worth their attention. The captain of the team Takahashi Hiro.

Having studied their games before, even they could tell that their captain was of a different breed. And if left alone, he could tear apart their whole team singlehandedly.

Thus, right from the beginning, they were extremely careful while selecting the opponent they wanted to intimidate.

And Hiro for sure did not fall on the list of players, they wanted to provoke to deal further damage to the morale of the opposing team.

"Sorry for pausing so suddenly" Feeling the sensation of someone bumping into him, Hiro apologized as he turned behind only to notice the sight of a frightened Yutaka.

"Sorry..., sor...ry, I wasn't paying attention" As if he couldn't hear anything, he kept on apologizing while blaming himself despite it not being his fault.

From the looks of it, Yutaka appeared extremely frightened. It was almost as if, he had committed a heinous crime and was begging for forgiveness after being caught.

Even though Hiro was aware of the anxiousness lingering in their dressing room, he hadn't expected his teammates to be this anxious.

Especially Yutaka, he right now was a lost cause. Starting him in the match was almost akin to playing with a walking bomb in the team.

For a moment while looking at Yutaka's sorry state, Hiro couldn't help but ponder about the decision of the coach to let him start.

But then again, most of the other player's conditions would be the same as well.

Playing with them for such a long time, he had come to know about the mentality of most of his teammates— glorifying the European players as some sort of geniuses.

Devaluing their worth, they feared those who had already started playing professionally for a team in either Europe or South America.

Well, it isn't their fault too, after all these kids had grown up watching the brilliance of the players in Europe and hearing the stories about how good the academies are in Europe.

And since most of them haven't experienced playing against those so-called talented players whom they've been hearing so much about since their early days, it's only natural for them to feel nervous and also scared.

If not for the system's help in boosting his gameplay, Hiro's state wouldn't have been that different from his teammates.

Now what was he going to do after noticing such low self- esteem of his teammates? Would he ignore them or would he help them overcome their fear?

It was all up to Hiro to decide.

Sure, he could just focus on his game and try to complete the objective set by the system by himself. But in doing so, he'd be abandoning his teammates and would be playing with a handicap which would make the game even more difficult.

And there's only so much one could achieve by themselves in football. After all, football is a team sport and every head has its value in the match.

As much as he was aware of the problem his team was facing at the moment, he was also aware of the solution that could if not completely solve the problem but could solve the problem to some extent.

Words may work temporarily. But it wasn't a permanent solution.

Thus, he'd only be tiring his mouth by trying to encourage these lost causes of teammates using his words.

What his team needed right now was a boost of confidence.And what better way would there be to achieve such a result than by exceeding the hopeless expectations of his teammates who had already admitted defeat even before the start?

Thus, for now, Hiro chose to ignore the matter regarding the low self-esteem of his teammates and continued to tread forward while thinking about ways to complete the quest provided by the system.

Getting an opportunity to copy the talent of one of the future superstars, how could he back out from the challenge?

Well even if he wanted to back out, he didn't have any choice since the quest was mandatory.

But more than the temptation of the reward, he was worried about the punishment. Why you may ask? It's because their next match was against Argentina.

And to beat them, he couldn't afford to lose any of his skills.

Both the teams then lined up next to each other as they awaited the speaker placed in the stadium to play the national anthem of their respective nation.

Even though the stadium appeared mostly vacant, more than four thousand fans showed up for this match.

Shortly after, as the coin toss ended, players of both teams traded a friendly handshake and walked towards their position to start the match.

The small number of fans present in the stands was as loud as ever, passionately cheering for their team while fluttering the flags of their respective nation.

Finally, the game then began with Team Japan's kickoff.

Beep!!

No sooner had the referee sounded his whistle, than the lifeless field came alive with the movement of the players. Passing the ball back to his teammate, Nijichi started the kickoff.