[188] Germany vs. France — The Final Match of Phase One (3)

[Beautiful! It's a brilliant link-up between Shidou and Charles! Charles actually used Isagi as a decoy, pulling off an unbelievable rebound pass that completely fooled everyone on the field! And sharp instinct from Shidou to read the intention and time his run perfectly was crucial too. Thanks to this play, P-X-G extends their lead once again!]

"Hahaha, I'd bet anything that dumbass Shidou had no idea Charles was going to pass like that," Aiku laughed loudly as he exposed Shidou's real intentions. "He was just charging toward the most exciting spot on the field. Still, credit to Charles for threading a pass like that while getting double-teamed by Isagi and Kaiser."

"No kidding. Whether it was Isagi and Kaiser immediately shutting down Charles' obvious passing lanes, Rin quickly repositioning to support for a secondary play even after being used as a pawn, Hiori blocking any option to reset through Zantetsu, or Shidou syncing up with Charles' madness—the field vision these guys have is terrifying," Niko said in amazement, unable to tear his eyes away from the screen.

"All of them, except maybe Shidou, are clearly using 'Meta Vision' at a level way beyond anything normal players could hope to match. And even Shidou seems to have some kind of instinctual perception that lets him exploit weaknesses without relying on it. Watching these battles is like a masterclass."

With the game briefly paused for a restart, the players eagerly discussed the shifting momentum.

"This is bad news for Bastard München," Niko continued. "Having Shidou lurking as a wild card when you're just one goal away from losing... that's a huge threat. You can't predict anything between him and Charles—they're totally outside normal logic."

But while everyone was pessimistic about Bastard München's chances, Shinichi had a different take.

"That's not necessarily true," he said calmly. "The biggest weakness of Shidou and Charles is that even they don't understand how they pulled that move off. That goal was just a perfect storm—two flashes of genius happening to collide at the right moment."

He pointed toward the screen where Shidou and Charles were celebrating with arms around each other.

"That play can't be reproduced. It only happened because Rin's usual solo attacks struggled to break through Bastard's defense, especially against the duo of Isagi and Kaiser. They had no choice but to try something crazy."

"On the other hand," Shinichi continued, "take a look at Bastard München's goal earlier. Isagi's goal wasn't a fluke. That was a textbook execution of their system's normal offensive structure. As long as P-X-G doesn't find a way to shut that down, Isagi and his teammates can keep replicating that scoring pattern."

"So basically," someone concluded after Shinichi's analysis, "P-X-G can only rely on unpredictable flashes of brilliance to barely score, while Bastard München can consistently score just by executing their system properly. Unless those flashes of genius keep happening nonstop, Bastard München has the higher chance of winning..."

Hearing Shinichi's explanation, everyone nodded thoughtfully.

When you put it that way, it made a lot of sense. For any team, relying on a solid tactical system was the best-case scenario.

Banking everything on individual brilliance wasn't necessarily wrong—it's what stars are for—but it also meant the team was close to its limit.

If that fragile thread snapped, if even one mistake happened, the whole team would collapse instantly.

It was just like their own experience with Uber.

Since the start of the Nee Hero Battle, Shinichi had rarely been forced into situations where he had to defend multiple attackers at once.

Most of the time, he acted more like a last resort, a safety net—proof of how solid and complete Uber's structure was.

In contrast, while Shidou and Charles' link-up looked spectacular under Bastard München's suffocating defense, it also exposed how stretched P-X-G already was.

Just as Shinichi was about to expand on his thoughts while watching Rin on the screen, the viewing room door creaked open.

"Still so immature," came a cold voice from the entrance.

Everyone turned to see Sae Itoshi step inside, hands casually stuffed in the pockets of his long coat, his sharp gaze immediately locking onto the screen as he openly criticized Rin.

"Even after all this, he still hasn't grown out of his childish emotions and selfishness. What a fool."

"He has no intention of actually integrating the team," Sae continued bluntly. "Compared to Isagi, who's managed to assimilate Kaiser into his system to make their offense even smoother, Rin and Shidou look like two entirely separate teams. The squad's completely divided between them. As a result, P-X-G can only leverage one side's attack at a time, and without proper system support, the ordinary players are basically useless."

"In other words, Rin has intentionally isolated half his teammates. How can they possibly win like that?"

Sae's words came out like rapid-fire bullets.

"And what's worse," he added, "is that Rin's personal dislike for Shidou means he's actively sabotaging the team's chances. In professional football, victory comes first. If you can't even set aside your emotions for that, you should just quit. Good thing I didn't pick that half-finished product for the U-20 team back then. Otherwise, people might've started questioning my eye for talent."

Sae's ruthless evaluation silenced the room. Shinichi, meanwhile, simply shrugged.

"The problem is," he pointed out, "Charles clearly prefers working with Shidou. Right now, everyone's still focused on boosting their own transfer value during the first stage of the League. Only after that will they really care about winning. Rin probably sees Shidou as a threat because if Shidou scores, it could lower Rin's own value—or worse, make Shidou outshine him."

Sae gave Shinichi a glance but didn't argue.

Meanwhile, back on the screen, the match unfolded exactly as Shinichi predicted: after the restart, Bastard München relentlessly pressed P-X-G back. And this time, Rin focusing too much on marking Isagi ended up freeing Kaiser.

With his terrifying physicality, Kaiser smashed through Shidou and Charles' combined defense like it was nothing and hammered home the equalizer.

Germany's Bastard München 2:2 France's P-X-G.

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