Just to be clear, I would very much appreciate no more breaks from Ao Ashi (not to mention an immediate second season announcement).  This is one of those Seinfeld-ian “I could watch it if my hair was on fire” shows.  It sits right in the sweet spot as a sports anime, balancing the on and off-field elements perfectly.  One of these every season would be great, but we’re not always so lucky.  At least we’ll have Yowapeda next season to pick up the slack (not that many will notice it amongst that ridiculous hype-fest).

Tokyo Musashino (presumably) isn’t going to be the climactic opponent for the season, but they represent a pretty big milestone to be sure.  As the main trio head off in Kaneko-san’s car to scout their match, Anri is left holding the Aharen-sized bento she made for you-know-who – which she winds up offering to Togashi.  He’s understandably reluctant but once he sees the target skipping off with Hana, he relents.  The boys meet the much-discussed manager Satake Kouji (Maeno Tomoaki) at the field, and he greets Tachibana warmly.  On hearing that the boy has asked out of the next match, Satake tells him he’s glad he’s struggling, because that means he made the right choice in leaving.

Satake-san is an interesting figure, a product of the J-Youth system who struck out on his own and found success with an unheralded school team.  He’s made quite an impression of everyone he’s coached, including Tachibana, and once the match starts it’s clear that his team is superbly drilled.  They rely on an intense “super high” press  – so much so that they’re quite content to leave spaces seemingly vulnerable to attack.  Satake’s motto is to always take risks, because that’s what makes the opponent feel pressured.  And the younger the level, the easier (and more devastating) that is.

The high press is relatively common these days.  Some power clubs who dominate possession like Pep’s Man City and Klopp’s Liverpool use it.  It’s also used by less dominant sides as a means of covering for a lack of individual brilliance – Marcelo Bielsa and his successor at Leeds, the Yank “soccer coach” Jesse Marsch, are big proponents.  The key to the success of this system for such a team, (as Musashino is) as Ashito quickly realizes, is the level of trust and the interplay between the players.  If that trust didn’t exist, the courage to take the necessary risks Satake-san demands wouldn’t exist either.

There’s one exception to that – Kaneda-san.  He’s a free agent, a wild card – a soloist and not part of the orchestra.  Satake lets him operate that way, presumably because it works, and it highlights the inherent paradox of strikers.  Perhaps as much as any role in team sports it often rewards selfishness, and a huge ego seems to be a common prerequisite for success.  The other ten Musashino players disrupt the opposition, and Kaneda carves them up clinically on counters.  He’s a first-class jerk, including to his teammates – even his sempai and even his captain – about as shocking as cultural taboos get in Japan.  But his form as a striker is dialed in and he’s playing with huge confidence, and Satake doesn’t seem keen on fixing something that’s not (yet) broken.

There are many ways to succeed as an attacking player in football, and while Tachibana-kun will clearly never do so the way Kaneda does, that doesn’t mean he can’t at all.  It’s clear he made a big impact in Musashino and his teammates genuinely loved him. but the “servant leader” route gets more difficult the higher you rise in soccer.  The confrontation between the Esperion boys and Kaneda was very much in-character for both, but as big an A-hole as Kaneda is neither Ashi-kun or Souichirou are really in a position to talk back – he’s producing, backing up his arrogance with results.  And for a striker that justifies anything.  Ashi isn’s a striker anymore, of course…

And then we have Hana.  She’s obviously jealous of Ashito bonding with Anri over soccer, though he’s genuinely unaware of this.  She’s tagged along hoping to give him the photo Kaneko-son took, but finally can muster the courage only to slip it into his pocket (which he mistook for feeling him up).  Ashi’s discomfort when Hana tells him she’s doing meal plans for Kuribayashi – after initially being puzzled why she felt she needed to inform him – is the first real sign that on some level he’s aware that he and Hana are more than just friends.  Ashito is a very good boy but he’s a small-town kid in the big city whose true love is soccer – I don’t envy Hana-chan with this one.

So then, Tokyo Mushashio looms as a huge character and level check for Esperion B – especially Tachibana and Ashito.  I’d hoped Tachibana would react to the challenge to his resolve by asking back into the team, but Date-san has put him in anyway.  As for Ashito, having Kaneda around to remind him what it’s like for a striker on fire represents a different sort of challenge, as he still hasn’t really come to terms with what Fukuda-san has forced him to do.  He still wants to be the guy who scores the goal, not the one who sets it up or prevents it.  But neither he nor Souichirou can succeed by trying to be someone else – who they are will either have to be good enough, or not..