Blue Lock: Beyond Greatness

"Whew, I knew it beforehand, but still… you're amazing, Rin." Isagi let out a light breath and then shifted his gaze toward the two aces from both teams, who had barely made their presence felt in the recent exchanges. "But… is it just me? Why does it feel like…"

"It feels like just now, both Shinichi and Itoshi Sae's presence diminished significantly," observed Anri from the sidelines, sounding slightly frustrated. Many substitutes perked up their ears, awaiting Ego's explanation.

"Use your brain more, you errand-running fool." Ego's words were as sharp as ever, making Anri glare at him with an annoyed expression. Only then did he begin to explain. "When the U-20 team was on the attack, it was natural for Itoshi Sae to be neutralized—because Shinichi was marking him. Not only did he defend against Sae's attacking runs, but he also factored in his movement direction, passing lanes, and even his post-reception options. Because of that, Shinichi effectively erased Sae's presence."

"At the same time, Sae also deliberately vacated the midfield and moved toward the flanks, limiting Shinichi's ability to cover defensively. In essence, they traded roles one-for-one." At this point, Ego turned to the others. "Do you all remember that first goal?"

"Uh… you mean the one where Shinichi failed to track back in time to stop Isagi's shot?"

"Exactly. The reason Shinichi couldn't make it back was due to a bad habit he picked up from playing on smaller fields. He's used to making solo forward runs, but when an attack fails, the larger pitch doesn't allow him to recover as quickly as he could on a smaller one."

"Itoshi Sae's positioning choice was based on the same principle. On a smaller field, even when positioned out wide, Shinichi's speed would still allow him to support his teammates in the center. But on a full-sized pitch, once he gets dragged to the flanks, he can only focus on the opponents in his immediate vicinity."

"So under these circumstances, it's only natural that Shinichi's defensive presence disappeared."

"How about on offense? If it's Shinichi, shutting him down shouldn't be that easy, right?" Anri nodded thoughtfully at first but quickly raised another question. This time, Ego didn't immediately lash out with an insult. Instead, he gave everyone a strange look. "What about you guys? Don't tell me you forwards have the same dumb idea."

"..."

For a moment, the Blue Lock bench fell into an eerie silence. Just as Ego shook his head with a sigh, his face full of exasperation as if he had given up on them, Kira hesitantly spoke up.

"…Is it… passing?"

"Thank goodness. At least not all of you are complete idiots." Ego nodded in satisfaction at Kira's response. "That's right. It's a matter of passing. While self-sufficient attacking ability is a must for a forward, you can't ignore that scoring goals heavily depends on good passes."

"No matter how strong a player is, advancing while dribbling is far harder than moving the ball forward through passing. Against a U-20 team with constant defensive delays, it would take at least someone at Rin's level to barely push forward by ten meters while dribbling. But with passing? Even you forwards, with your sloppy ball movement, can easily advance all the way up to the penalty area."

"A forward has their own effective range. Take you, Kunigami Rensuke, for example. Your shooting range is 29 to nearly 30 meters. Now, under full defensive pressure, how far do you think you could push forward?"

Kunigami was startled when he was suddenly called out. After seriously considering the question, he responded, "If it's against a team at U-20's level, I'd probably only be able to push forward less than five meters. Maybe at first, I could use my momentum to break through a short distance, but once physical contact slows me down, my dribbling ability would make further advancement difficult."

"Very good. That means 35 meters is Kunigami Rensuke's effective range. Beyond that, his threat as a shooter drastically decreases, and he's reduced to nothing more than a passing station. This is what I mean by a forward's effective range—once they exceed it, their attacking impact diminishes unless they pull off a miracle-level performance."

"At that point, the only solution is relying on the midfielders to deliver the ball into the forward's effective range. This is the forward's limitation and precisely why top-class midfielders are in such high demand." Ego adjusted his glasses. "Don't look at Shinichi breaking through the defense twice and think that's something normal. On the contrary, those were rare, almost unrepeatable moments."

"The first time, Shinichi relied purely on his explosive speed to tear apart the opponent's formation. To put it simply, he outran most of their defensive efforts, and the only real obstacles he faced were Aiku and a few defenders at the end."

"The second time, after the opponent adjusted their defensive positioning, his initial breakthrough method became completely ineffective. That's why even Shinichi had to pass the ball to Zantetsu first, allowing Zantetsu to tear a hole in their formation before taking control again."

"But even then, Shinichi still ended up surrounded. If he hadn't entered the second stage of ZONE at the last moment, catching the defenders off guard and breaking through, he absolutely would have been dispossessed under just the first-stage ZONE."

At this point, Ego paused for a moment and turned his gaze toward Sae, who remained expressionless on the field. "Don't underestimate Sae just because he's struggling against Shinichi. The reason he's been beaten several times isn't simply due to skill. First, there's a clear difference in physical attributes. As a midfielder, Sae's build isn't suited for defending against a physically dominant forward like Shinichi. Second, his main role is to block Shinichi's passing lanes, which is why Shinichi often has no choice but to brute-force his way through when surrounded."

"Besides, Sae hasn't even entered FLOW yet. In their current normal states, while Shinichi's individual ability does have the edge over Sae's, the gap isn't as massive as it might seem. So, even though we have the lead for now, keeping it won't be possible if we expect Shinichi to carry everything alone."

"And we discussed this before the match, didn't we? Shinichi's ZONE mode has a time limit. If we want to maintain his overall performance throughout the match, he can activate first-stage ZONE for up to 20 minutes per game without affecting his normal condition. But once he enters second-stage ZONE, that limit shrinks drastically, capping out at five minutes even in optimal condition."

Hearing this, Anri quickly pulled out her notebook. "Uh, right! That's why our strategy was for Shinichi to enter ZONE early, create an immediate threat, and attract defensive attention, allowing the rest of the team to hold out until the second half—then Shinichi would take over the match."

"Exactly… so this current ace-for-ace trade-off is something we should be happy about. However, in this situation, it wasn't Rin who stepped up—it was Shidou who entered that state first…"

As he spoke, Ego cast a subtle glance toward Isagi, who was deep in thought on the field.

"Can he really achieve what he said before the match? Doubling his goals? Pushing himself to evolve under the pressure of his self-imposed expectations…"

"If he truly wants to score twice as many goals against a midfielder of Sae's caliber in an official match…"

"Let's see how far you can go."

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