the secondary protagonist, either a defender or a midfielder for the Japanese national team. Whenever Tsubasa is not playing for Japan, he'll serve as captain. He first appeared in the national tournament as the captain of Furano and faced off against Meiwa in the semi-finals, but lost because his shoot was stopped by Ken Wakashimazu. A few years later, he fought against Tsubasa's Nankatsu in the semi-finals, but lost once again. Matsuyama's then selected for the U-16 Japan team and serves as captain after a disaster match against Hamburg SV, only to give the captain to Tsubasa. He continues to play for Furano in high school and begins to date Yoshiko Fujisawa (who had left for the United States because of her father's work). During the hard times of the Japan U-20 team, he contributes a lot to the team so that they do not fall apart. During the battle of World youth arc, he was the first to find out about RF7 challenge set by Gamo. He's absent for most of the quarter-finals match against Sweden because Yoshiko was involved in a car accident, but returns to replace an injured Akai Tomeya and has a key in helping Japan win. In the Road to 2002 series, he plays for Consadole Sapporo and ties against Misugi, who now plays for FC Tokyo. In Golden 23, Matsuyama was selected in the Japanese Olympics team as the captain. Coach Kira put a lot of trust in him, Misaki and Misugi, called the "3M" (3 Shooting Stars) of U-22 Japan, allowing them to handle the team's balance. He believed that Matsuyama's leadership would be important during the Asian preliminaries tournament. Jun Misugi Jun Misugi (三杉 淳, Misugi Jun, kana: みすぎ じゅん) is the secondary protagonist, a Japanese player who is first introduced as a prodigy from the Musashi high school soccer team. Despite being one of the most skilled Japanese players of his generation, Misugi is pushed back by a heart disease that makes him only work for few time per matches. It's said that if Misugi was not hampered by his heart disease, he would have been the best Japanese player, even better than Tsubasa. He overcomes his heart disease by not playing for three years during high school and becomes a valuable player for the Japanese team in the Asian preliminaries and in the World Youth. At first, he played for