A comment: The japanese for soccer/football is ????, or "soccer" last I checked, or else ?? (juukyuu, literally "kickball"). Though some of the english in Japan is indeed British english, a lot of it these days is also American english, including, as you see, their word for soccer.
On the subject of openings, there are many devices to be used. Questions left unanswered are as compelling as the answered ones, and will keep a reader going if they feel connection. The trick is creating a connection within that opening paragraph. As for this, it is best to leave dialogue as far from your opening as you can safely put it.
The first questions you reader wants to know are the big W's:
Quote:Who is this?
This can be answered specifically or vaguely, or avoided by introducing place rather than person. But without a Who or a Where, the reader is left confused.
Quote:Where is this?
This is not easy to avoid as the story begins. Your readers will desire to know where they are meant to be. However it is possible to be almost obscuringly vague in answering this (see Herr Mullen's example above) and still catch the attention of the reader.
Quote:What is this?
OR
What is happening?
One or both of these questions will be necessary, even in as simple a manner as "It was raining." or "This is a box." People like things, and they like to know what things are and what they do, and what is going on. Giving some information about that will help catch their attention and hold it.
Quote:When is this?
People want temporal information, because we live in a temporal frame. This is the least important question, but it can help to set the stage.
Quote:Why is this happening?
This is what will really hook your reader to keep going. Give them a reason for what is happening, even if it's not immediately apparent.
Let's review the above from Herr Mullen.
Herr Mullen gives us a What (This is a box.), Who (Jyou rises out of the box...), and a Why (It has to be perfect!), then moves on to the "What is happening?" as Jyou works.
Lord Archive catches us with a What: "Normal." Then he explains the Why for "Normal". He then tells us Who, and she happens to be Hikari. Then he continues with the Why. We now know Why Normal, and Why our Who is NOT Normal.
Wisemon, in his summer 2004 entry cited here, tells us Who (Daisuke), Where (in his room), What is happening (he is sitting, staring and waiting), When it is happening (six months since MaloMyotismon), Why it is happening (he's asked her out repeatedly, and been snuffed repeatedly), and then asks another Why, without stating it. "Why doesn't she go out with Daisuke?"
Marine gices us a Who (A lone man), where (Shinjuku Stadium), and when (near midnight), without Why or What being answered.
Any three will give you a good hook if you play it right. It's about many things, though, beyond simply providing the reader with information. Now I'm going to give my own example, from a yet-to-be-completed story...
[quote]At the end of a dusty road, in the middle of a desert, there is an oasis. This oasis allows for a self-sustaining military camp to be built, for it is actually a series of oases, more than a dozen of them, so well spaced that a thriving forest exists within the Desert of Jarg