Captain Tsubasa

Tsubasa Ozora moves to Nankatsu city in Shizuoka. He is a passionate soccer boy and instead of helping with the move, he runs away to dribble his ball around the city. Along the way, he has a fateful encounter and meets Genzo Wakabayashi, a genius goalkeeper of Shutetsu Elementary School. Tsubasa sends a “Challenge” ball by kicking the ball into Wakabayashi's house from the top of the hill!

Wakabayashi received a challenge from Tsubasa. He couldn’t hide the confusion about the immense power of Tsubasa’s kick and says that he will accept his challenge if Tsubasa can dribble through the B-team of Shutetsu elementary school of which Wakabayashi is the captain. While Ishizaki complains about the unfair conditions, Tsubasa accepts without hesitation.

The former Brazilian professional soccer player Roberto Hongo started freeloading in Tsubasa’s house. He also declared himself the trainer of the Nankatsu Elementary School soccer club and prepares a ‘special present’ for Tsubasa. It turns out it was a practice game against Nishigaoka Elementary School lead by Hanji Urabe.

10, the tricot number of desires. Roberto shows Tsubasa his old tricot from the time he played for Brazil and Tsubasa gets all excited and says, “One day, I will become a player of the Japanese national team and will fight the world!”. Roberto shows a strange expression, halfway between happy and long face. On Roberto's desk was an envelope sent from a university Number hospital.

To prepare for the inter-school tournament against the Shutetsu elementary team lead by Wakabayashi, Tsubasa trains every morning with Roberto. When Tsubasa and the rest of the soccer club find out that Shutetsu will have a practice game, they head out to watch the game. Shutetsu team is full of great players, including Wakabayashi, Izawa, Kisugi, Taki, Takasugi, and more.

The game against Shutetsu Elementary School has started! After the schools competed in baseball, volleyball, and judo, now the final game is soccer, and it will decide which school will win the inter-school tournament. On the other hand, Wakabayashi enters the field looking very relaxed and once again declares that this is a match between him and Tsubasa.

Wakabayashi is furious about Nankatsu’s unexpected strategy to keep striker Tsubasa in defense and commands his own team to score 50 goals to challenge Tsubasa. Wakabayashi thinks it will be easy to score because Nankatsu previously lost in a practice match to Shutetsu with a 30-goal difference. However, Tsubasa’s active play is keeping Shutetsu away from the goal.

The second half of the match starts with Shutetsu’s first goal. Tsubasa and Roberto keep the spirits of the team high, but it does not easily lead to a goal for them. In addition, Nankatsu struggles with Shutetsu’s winning strategy “Rondo”. Somehow, Ishizaki manages to break their strategy, but in the process, he hurts his leg. The team now faces a need to search for a substitute player.

Wakabayashi’s powerful shot pierced the goal of Nankatsu. With not even five minutes extra time left, Nankatsu lost their lead. They swear to make a counterattack to tie the game again but Shutetsu also keeps up the attacks for an additional goal. As the final whistle approaches, Nankatsu or Shutetsu, who will be blessed with a smile from the Goddess of Victory in the end?

Nankatsu Youth Soccer Club has been established as a selection team for the National Youth Soccer Tournament! Tsubasa and the others were among 30 other boys who were chosen to start training together and have a chance to become a part of the final 15 boys who will form the team. They will be split into two teams with Wakabayashi and the others from the Shutetsu Elementary School.

The National Youth Soccer Tournament for Shizuoka prefecture has started. Nankatsu SC is on a roll by scoring a hat-trick from the first match and proceeded to the semifinals without problems, and is now facing their next opponent, the Shimada SC. Instead of Wakabayashi, who hurt his leg, the team decided to use Morisaki as the goalkeeper for this match.

Nankatsu SC made it through to the final tournament of Shizuoka prefecture. Wakabayashi is back in the game and they will be able to face Shimizu FC with their full power. Shimizu FC is a solid defensive team with goalkeeper Kawakami. Even though Nankatsu SC often get close to the rival’s goal, they just can’t break through Kawakami’s protection.

Beating Shimizu FC, Nankatsu SC received a ticket to the national tournament! The winners of each prefectural competition meet at the national tournament, which is about to start! The Nankatsu team spend the last free day deep in their thoughts. Tsubasa was, of course, practicing with Roberto at the field when Wakabayashi meets them.

With a high-pitched whistle, the National Youth Soccer Tournament kicks off. Tsubasa and his team will face Saitama representative Meiwa FC from the first round of the qualifying league, which is the favorite in the tournament. Tsubasa is tense since he received advice from Wakabayashi to ‘overthrow Kojiro Hyuga’. As Tsubasa dashed toward the goal of Meiwa FC, Kojiro came close...

Tsubasa proved with his play that ‘the ball is my friend’. Morisaki also recovered and with their newfound energy, Nankatsu SC starts a counterattack! The golden duo of Tsubasa and Misaki also starts to work better again. The game finally reaches its second half. Meiwa and Nankatsu both work hard to get a chance of scoring a goal.

After a long, intense battle, Nankatsu suffered a defeat by Meiwa. In order to still qualify for the finals, they have to second in the preliminary round and win against the Akita prefecture representative Hanawa FC. Hanawa’s game against Meiwa had ended in a draw. To beat Hanawa, Nankatsu has to find out how to break up the attacks of the super duo Tachibana twins.

Hanawa have caught up to Nankatsu thanks to the Tachibana twins’ Triangle Shot. As nobody can move on in the final tournament if the match ends in a draw, Tsubasa and Misaki start their offense. With Hanawa getting in the lead, Nankatsu are in real bind. Although they are doing their best to attack, the team just cannot seem to break Hanawa’s defense, and the end of the game approaches.

It has been decided that Nankatsu SC gets to participate in the final tournament! Unlike the preliminary round, this time they have to fight hard because losing once will mean that it’s game over. Wakabayashi plans on coming back soon from his break due to injury and leaves his dream of playing in the final game in the team’s and Tsubasa’s hands. The game with Osaka’s representatives starts.

The semifinal of the National Youth Soccer Tournament finally started. The first game is played by the Hokkaido representative Furano FC and the Saitama representative Meiwa FC. Hyuga started a strong one-man game from the beginning with fierce attacks and showed Furano FC the strength of the favorite for the tournament. But Matsuyama won’t be defeated that fast either.

After the Furano FC and Meiwa FC’s match, the second match of the semi-finals has started in which finally Nankatsu SC with Tsubasa will face Musashi FC lead by Jun Misugi. In the previous rounds, Musashi FC was undefeated and continues to attack Nankatsu’s goal without a break. This is a game like never seen before and so Tsubasa has to go and challenge the ball off of Misugi personally.

Repeated off-side traps. Advanced jumping volleys and overhead kicks of extreme levels. Tsubasa has lost the will to fight against Jun Misugi, who seems to be better than Tsubasa even with his heart defect, because of his exceptional technique, leadership skills as captain, and talent. When Tsubasa falls to his knee and doesn’t get up again, the rest of the Nankatsu team stand silently.

Two minutes before the end of the game Misugi's fierce attacks land a goal against Nankatsu. Nankatsu tries hard to catch up with the tie, but Musashi FC's thorough mark on Tsubasa keeps them away from the goal. While Misugi manages to give exact orders to his team, one moment after the other passes.

The finals of the National Youth Soccer Tournament. The fateful game between Nankatsu SC and Meiwa FC has finally started! Tsubasa told Hyuga that he would take the win. Together with Misaki, the Golden Duo starts to attack the goal of Meiwa, but the mysterious goalkeeper who is playing with Meiwa since the semi-finals prevents every chance. Hyuga on the other hand also fights with all his power.

Nankatsu starts the second half of the game in the lead with one goal. Hyuga has realized his mistake after Takeshi Sawada’s advice and changes his tactic in the second half and makes the whole team attack violently with the mindset ‘win the game no matter what’. At one point, the impressive and aggressive duo play of Hyuga and Takeshi lets them take the ball and they get into the penalty area!