Soccer Practice

*FWUMP* The sound of the ball hitting the ground broke the silence that had been hovering over the field, as Ryuu continued to dribble his soccer ball, it was a one of kind blue and white soccer ball, signed by Shunsuke Nakamura himself. He was wearing the blue soccer jersey that Shunsuke Nakamura is usually seen wearing, with his number, 10, on the back and front, his signature on the left sleeve, white basketball shorts with three blue stripes on the side, shin guards, and white Adidas shoes. As soon as Ryuu reached the field, he stopped the soccer ball with his foot, and picked it up. Ever since he was a young kid, Ryuu loved to play soccer, and when he had been in elementary school, every recess break, he would play soccer along with the other boys in his class. Heck, when Ryuu went to high school back in Tokyo, he had joined the soccer team as soon as he had entered high school. So why was this high school any different from his old high school.

Walking onto the field, his soccer ball tucked underneath his arm, Ryuu saw Matrim was already here, and kicking the soccer ball he was playing with hackey sack style. "Hey Big Blue!" Ryuu called out as he walked towards Matrim, why did Ryuu call Matrim big blue? Well Matrim was pretty big, and besides, it seemed to fit him very well. Better than calling him the Green Giant. As soon as Ryuu reached Matrim, he tossed his soccer ball down on the ground, and began to dribble the ball down the field, before reaching the front of the net, and pulled his foot back, before power kicking the ball into the net, as he held his pose for a few seconds, before running to the net once more, and picked the ball up. He then turned around, and faced Matrim. "I want to try out for the soccer team. I was on the soccer team at my old high school in Tokyo, so why not try out for the team here."

Having learned karate when he was young, and continually trained in it, both of Ryuu's arms and legs were powerful. He had the control and power and speed needed for it, but Matrim was the Varsity Captain, and probably was the one who had the final say for who was on the team, and who wasn't. Ryuu knew Emi liked soccer as much as he did, since he had seen on her cell phone she had a metal soccer strap hung on it just like he did, and he was secretly hoping she would show up. He then dropped his soccer ball onto his knee and began to bounce it up with his knee, as he waited for others to show up.

Soccer season, yes! Olesya walked onto the soccer field, dropping her sports bag onto the grass and taking a long swig from her water bottle. Her own personal soccer ball tucked under her arm was purple and white, nothing fancy, but it was hers. Dropping it from her arm, she kicked it up before bouncing it from one knee to the next to warm up her eye-leg coordination. She was a little rusty from lack of activity from the move to San Fran and all, so it was good that she was going to get back out on the field. She had on black shorts and a gray beater with a black sports bra underneath, long white soccer socks and shin guards, and her cleats. Her hair had been pulled back in a small messy ponytail, and a bandana was twisted and wrapped around her forehead to pull her hair away from her face. She was ready to play.

"Hey Big Blue!"

Big Blue? Olesya looked as a kid walked over, offering to tryout. Apparently he was talking to Matrim, but she didn't see what exactly was blue about him. Maybe it was some sort of inside joke. Not too far off, a purple haired youth was also warming up..while wearing what looked like gardening gloves. Ookay..well, despite not understanding the choice of hand-wear, Olesya could appreciate the eccentric hair color, as her own hair had a massive streak of purple in it as well.

"Ok but call me blue one more time and you aren't going to be on this team." "Fair enough." Ryuu replied, shrugging his shoulder casually, it's not like he ever planned on calling Matrim that every time he saw the guy. Ryuu then saw a girl with purple hair show up, wearing... gardening gloves? Ryuu looked at them a bit puzzled, but shrugged and continued to warm up, bouncing the ball on his head now. "Stryker, good, you're here. Get stretched out a bit and get ready, you're going to be practicing as goalie today." So the girl's name was Stryker? Ryuu assumed that was her last name, though he wasn't completely sure about that, so kept quiet about it. And then another girl with a purple and white soccer ball showed up, she had a massive streak of purple in her hair, seemed purple was the in color for hair these days. Right after the girl showed up, all of the non-transfers showed up, looking to rejoin the soccer team once more. Ryuu may be a non-transfer, but he had only been in San Francisco for a year, and so he had a very small group of friends, some of them had shown up to the soccer tryout, and greeted Ryuu in Japanese, since his friends were all Japanese.

"Alright, we're going to start warming up, I want a line of people to start taking shots at the goal to get the goalie warmed up and so I can see your aim. I want you all to tell me what position you are trying out for, nine times out of ten that isn't the position you'll end up playing. I put you where I want you, and I pick the team for chemistry. I won't pick the most talented single player out there, I'll pick the best team player out there."

Nodding, Ryuu caught his soccer ball in his hands and lined up beside his friends, facing Stryker, who was in goal. He placed his ball down, but before he was about to kick, he turned to Matrim. "I'm trying out for Right Winger, though I don't really care where I'm placed," Ryuu said, "As long as I can help my teammates win, I don't really care where I'm placed." With that said, Ryuu backed up slightly, getting into the perfect position to kick. "If you got a problem with that to bad, now get to the field and start trying to score with Stryker in the goal," Ryuu heard some of the boys laugh at this, including some of his friends, as Ryuu elbowed one of them and told him to shut up in Japanese, as he saw Matrim stare them down, "Oh stop being such children." "Yeah Taku," Ryuu said to the guy on his right, "Stop being such an idiot." Ryuu then faced the goal, a focused look on his face, as he took off, running at his ball, and stopped at his ball, his right foot reared back, as he power kicked the ball right at Stryker, aiming for the top left corner of the net, exactly where he was aiming for it to go, as he waited to see if Stryker could block his shot.

Well at least I know Ryuu can actually kick the soccer ball. Why do I get the feeling Stryker is one of those goalie's who likes to go heads up with a challenger? Either way it doesn't matter much to me, so long as she can stop the goals. I'll do her a favor and make sure that the defenders don't try to pull any of that offside trap bullshit. I'd hate for the ref's to let them get a shot at going heads with her when I'm not exactly sure how great of a goalie she is....

"What are you waiting for?" Matrim yelled. All the kids started getting the firing line. A lot of them were probably going to shoot wide, hell maybe he would hear a crossbar ring. Either way the next ten kids went up to hit, he wanted them to go relatively fast. He himself would practice, but he was saving up for his arms to be healed. That way he'd be ready for the game. And he'd play, but he'd stay off the field most of that game, mainly sticking to the striker position whenever they needed a quick goal. He had some pretty fast footwork so it should work out pretty well.

Matrim really wished he had a whistle, but he'd see how Stryker did against these next ten wannabe chumps. And he'd wait to see of Olly decided to go take a crack before any of the other weaklings joined in on their reindeer games.

((Sorry I haven't been on in the last few days... I've been feeling wrecked lately.))

Everyone was aiming for the outer corners, of course. She had to run around to catch as many as she could. Those she missed went wide. It was technically a perfect streak, except for getting faked out once and diving the wrong way as the ball sailed high enough to clip the top of the net's frame.

It was the seventh shot against her that was going to prove most revealing of Kanika's ability to be vindictive. The boy that showed up to kick was a shaggy-haired blonde with a crooked smile. "You're pretty good at handling balls. I hope you don't mind handling mine!" She glared at him as he kicked. Kanika took two steps left and caught the ball firmly with her hands in a "W" shape directly in front of her chest. Normally, she'd have felt it hit her chest, but the kick was pathetically weak.

The kid rolled his eyes and shrugged as she walked back towards the line. "What can I say? I asked for it. And she put her hands on it." Kanika then took two quick steps forward, dropping the ball in front of her right foot and punting it. The punt was rather low though. Low, and fast. Not to mentioned aimed at the back of the kid's head.

"FWUMP!" If she'd kicked it any harder, the kid's eyes would have been bulging out of their sockets. As he fell forward, his face hit the ground first.


A couple more kicks, all good. Then a girl with a streak of purple in her hair jumped ahead a few spots and rushed the goal. Kanika had to react to the shot rather than being able to anticipate it. Like it would happen in a corner kick or most in-game situations. Most of these had just been free kicks. So she saw the direction and elevation of the ball, immediately moving to intercept. It was too wide for her running, so she had to dive. Most of the time, she had to dive anyway. Her hands extended in the "W," she reached out and felt the ball hit her hands. But only the tips of her fingers. And the ball bounced off her fingers, slipping past her and into the goal. Kanika slammed the ground with both fists before getting the ball and throwing it back to the girl, shaking her head.

Ah shit... Kanika feared the Varsity Captain's skills. There had to be a reason why he was in that spot. He wasn't the captain because he could fight. He was captain because he could lead a team by example. As she got set and ready for his kick, she began to assess the situation. His arms would kill his balance. And with them in casts, he couldn't swing them too much, reducing his power. Unless he wanted to hurt himself. And that was the last thing a sports player would want to do. Not out of being afraid of pain, but out of being afraid of not being allowed to play. So many people injured themselves playing sports, and could never play professionally again. They were heroes for giving their all on the field. But nobody was happy to be in that position.

She checked the leg's trajectory as it went forward. It looked pretty straight-forward, so she had some space to react to the ball going either halfway left or right. Instead, it chipped up. A slight amount of relief came to her. Chips relied on the height of the blocker not being high enough to reach the ball as it sailed in slowly. And it was dead center too. So she didn't have the ability to get a running start on the jump. That gave her nine inches of jump height. Plus a foot and a half above her head form her arms. Add that onto her five feet, eight inches, and she could miss the crossbar by one measly inch, more than enough to catch the shot. And her timing was fine.

But the ball was too high and bounded right off the crossbar, bouncing back towards Matrim and away from the goal. She ran forward after landing instinctively and got the loose ball. Rolling the ball back to Matrim, she was surprised he'd overshot. Must have been the balance.