A bunch of kids who've never seen a soccer ball learn the game from a single teacher who believes they can actually matter. This isn't about talent or a secret prodigy, it's about a group of ordinary students discovering they can build something together that none of them could alone. Shingo's charm doesn't win games; his refusal to quit does.
Local residents open a new school, Shinsei High, where teacher Teppei Matsuki brings soccer to the students and coaches his team with ruthless severity. Shingo Tamai, a headstrong troublemaker whom the girls find irresistible, sings out of tune and tends flowers. He and his friend Ohira refuse to be pressured onto Matsuki's squad, so they start a team of their own. At first they play purely for fun and have trouble matching Matsuki's players, but they grow sharper and more cunning as they take on other schools. Along the way come old rivalries, injuries and a mixed-race player searching for his missing mother, while Shingo develops as a center forward. Based on a manga by Ikki Kajiwara and Kosei Sonoda, the 52-episode series from 1970 leans toward melodrama and is an early forerunner of later soccer stories such as Captain Tsubasa.
