At Shinsei High School, soccer is nearly a combat sport, and the new team coach, Teppei Matsuki, is a fully paid-up sadist who will push his team as hard as necessary to win. The headstrong school bad boy Shingo Tamai and his friend Ohira are determined not to be bullied into joining Matsuki's team; instead, they form their own squad, initially playing just for fun and struggling to keep up with Matsuki's team. As their skills improve, they play against other teams, becoming stronger and craftier, until they face the elite Asakase High School squad and its star player, Misugi Yan, in the schools' final. Amid a tangle of subplots involving old rivalries, injuries, and a mixed-race player seeking his identity and his lost mother (who turns out to be in jail), Shingo develops his skills as a center forward and looks forward to playing a visiting Brazilian squad. He is seriously injured in a game, but his talent, which even the legendary Brazilian Pele recognizes, is matched by his determination. With the help of a friend of his old rival Matsuki, he recovers to help the team to victory. Definitely melodrama rather than a proper sports series, this is the first in the line of Japanese soccer soaps that stretches to Captain Tsubasa and beyond. Based on a manga by Ikki Kajiwara and Kosei Sonoda.