We gathered in the Break Room for the Half-time Break and the entire Team Z were in high spirits. Everyone was practically glowing with excitement as we finished the First Half with a seemingly insurmountable 2 goal cushion. If things stayed like this, we would guarantee our survival in Bluelock's 1st Selection and we would all move on to the 2nd Selection together, thereby taking us one step closer to fulfilling our dreams. With our confidence running sky-high, we settled down and I, as usual, took the lead in our Half-Time team talks.
"Alright, guys, we currently have a relatively safe 2 goal lead. They will have to produce a monumental amount of effort if they want to turn this deficit around and believe me, they will do exactly that if we let our guard down.", I began with immediately bringing us back down to reality. It killed the mood, sure, but it was necessary. The excitement in the room suddenly deflated immediately. "Kaido's right. Let's not kid ourselves. This is Bluelock, where everyone is fighting for something, we are fighting to guarantee our automatic qualification spot for the 2nd Selection and Team V is fighting to protect its perfect record. We have to stay focused." Kunigami chipped in and that caused everyone to regain their sense of Urgency.
"Now that we've got that out of the way, let's discuss how to shut them down. I'm 100% sure they'll be doing the same thing right now."
Meanwhile with Team V, the mood had plummeted significantly. The usual jovial, confident expressions that used to follow them into the Half-Time Break had been utterly erased from their faces. All that was left was varying degrees of Despair, Fear and for a certain few, Rage. Those few were, as I'm sure you've guessed, Reo, Nagi and Zantetsu. The one who was hit the hardest was Reo. All his life, all he's ever known was Victory. Draws were nonexistent, let alone Losses. He came to Bluelock, along with Nagi, to chase his dreams of one day winning the World Cup for Japan, as did everyone who was chosen to enter bluelock. And now, for the first time in his Life, he was on the verge of defeat. For the first time in his Life, he was staring down the barrel of a Loss. For the first time in his Life, the sense of Defeat, the looming Despair of losing was closer than it has ever been. Bluelock had been a breeze. Teams were dropping left and right. With two absolute monsters on his team, his Confidence soared to heights never seen before. Victory was assured. But not anymore, because from nowhere, Team Z had appeared and turned his entire world on its head. What was supposed to be another routine victory had turned into an absolute nightmare.
"Man, Reo, you never told me Football could be this interesting. Hey, Reo, what do we do now? I mean, we can't lose, right? We're supposed to be the strongest in Bluelock. I'm actually very excited right now. I'm ready to give it my all. I'm ready to win.", of all people, Nagi was the one to step up and drag thenteam out of its funk, inadvertent as it may be. With a fire in his eyes never seen before, the monster genius was finally ready to give his all.
Beside him, Zantetsu, was fuming. He had never been beaten for Pace before. He had always been the fastest on the field. But now, he had been absolutely humiliated at his Specialty by not just one, but two people and they were from the same cursed Team Z. What's worse is that they both dared to call him 'stupid'. That right was reserved only for his friends. Anyone who dared to call him stupid would pay. He would make sure of it.
"Alright, now that we're sufficiently fired up, it's time we discussed tactics.", Kuon stood up and tried to take over the Team talk but-
"Tactics? We don't give a shit about Tactics. Just get out there and score more goals than Team Z. that's all the tactics we need. How we score doesn't matter. It never did. What matters is putting the ball into that damn net. Now sit the fuck down."
-He was immediately shut down by an incensed Reo Mikage.
Very quickly, the 15 minute Half-time Break was over and we all filed back onto the Field, took our positions and waited for Kick-off again. The air had grown heavy on both sides. Both sides were itching to jump at each other's throats. Team Z were desperately fighting to secure their Automatic Qualification Spot in Bluelock's 1st Selection and Team V were fighting for pride, to protect their perfect record so far. Both sides needed a win. Anything else is considered a failure and in Bluelock, failure is unacceptable.
The time ticked down into the seconds and before you knew it, the whistle to start the Second Half sounded and this time, it was Team Z's turn to kick off.
Kunigami immediately played a Back Heel pass to me and I quickly sent the ball back to Raichi and moved to join the attack. We had a 2 goal lead but we knew that wasn't enough. We had to kill this game off from the very start of this Second Half. The importance of just 1 goal had skyrocketed instantly. This goal would heavily swing the fickle pendulum of Momentum in the scorer's team's favour. Team Z needed a goal to widen the gap while Team V needed it to close the gap.
As we started moving about the field, I noticed something about Team V's formation. Reo had instinctively dropped into the midfield while Kuon took his position at the front with Zantetsu and Nagi keeping their positions on the wings. The only problem was they switched the Wings they were playing. Zantetsu, who was on the left Wing and had immense trouble getting past me and Chigiri on our side had moved to the Right Wing while Nagi, the dangerous Ball control monster, had moved over to the Left, putting me directly in his line of fire.
In this new position, they came at us with an increased ferocity from the First half. A ferocity we matched as we surged forward to score.
Raichi passed to Bachira who took the ball and moved up while Isagi, Kunigami and I moved up to support him, taking advantage of the space he created with his dribbling. What we did not see coming was a Team V midfielder charging him down and shoulder barging him off the ball, stealing it back for Team V. Now, as you'd expect, we protested that but since the Whistle didn't sound for a Foul and a Freekick to us, it was a clean tackle.
Reo, receiving the ball, sent a high long ball towards Kuon who had advanced upfield, stopping just in front of our defensive line. With a powerful leap, contested by Gagamaru and Raichi, he still managed to win the aerial duel and head the ball to Zantetsu on the Right. With neither me nor Chigiri on that wing to chase him down, he had free rein to flex his Speed, blew past Isagi, Bachira and Naruhaya. Now, here comes the problem for us due to them switching positions. Zantetsu was a Left-footed player so when he was on the Left wing, not only could he not take a shot due to my and Chigiri's constant harassments, he didn't have a good angle for a shot but now that he was free on the Right side, he could finally showcase the second part of his weapon.
Zantetsu received the ball and after blowing past Bachira and Isagi, he came up against Raichi who was ready to stop him. He moved further to the right and Raichi moved in to close the angle, forcing him closer to the Touchline. Zantetsu, experiencing a flash of inspiration, flicked the ball back inside from behind him, a perfect Ronaldo Chop, that left Raichi, who had overcommitted on his attempt to tackle, stunned as he muttered, "This bastard can dribble too?". Zantetsu, taking advantage of his sudden freedom, boosted inside, towards the center of the field, just outside the 18-yard box at an angle towards the Left-hand side of the Post.
Steadying himself, he fired a left-footed straight shot towards the top-left corner.
Iemon, determined to prevent this from going in, flung himself with every bit of energy he could muster and sent his hand at the incoming ball, barely managing to get his hand on it and tip it towards the crossbar. The ball ricocheted off the crossbar and into the air. Imamura and the rest of the Defence waited for the ball to come to them but what they didn't notice was Kuon who hadn't been static throughout this sequence. He had already made his way into the Box and leapt into the air, soared over the entire defence and connected with the ball, heading it into the opposite corner of the Goal.
In the 47th minute, Team V had reduced the gap to just 1 goal.
Team Z 4 - 3 Team V
Team V didn't bother with rejoicing for their goal, they just urged Kuon to gather the ball and bring it back to the Center Circle so we can resume the game a quickly as possible which he did.
This was expected. We had slightly let our guard down around them due to our 2 goal lead. Now that it has been reduced to 1, some members of Team Z were slowly starting to panic. "Damn it, just one goal in it now. We can't let them equalise. Guys, what do we do?", Igaguri asked with a light panic slowly blooming in his chest but he was completely shut down by Raichi. "The fuck kinda brain-dead question is that, Monk boy? What we're going to do is so obvious. Just keep scoring. If they score 1, we'll score 2, 3, 4, 5, it doesn't matter. Just keep attacking as if your Lives depended on it. WE'RE STRIKERS, GODDAMNIT!!!!!".
"Typical Raichi. Stating the obvious again. You're too loud. We already knew what to do. Of course we're going to keep attacking. We're gonna win this, damnit!!!" I retorted with a steely edge to my voice and he nodded at that. "Then what the hell are we waiting for? Its our ball to resume the game. Let's give them hell." Isagi, caught up in the storm of emotions, commented and moved into position on the field. The rest of us followed suit and we prepared to resume the game.
We kicked off and resumed the game as Kunigami passed the ball to Isagi, I had already rushed ahead into enemy lines with the rest trailing behind me.
We started passing around to try to find a way forward while still keeping the ball because we knew that if Team V couldn't have the ball, they couldn't use their weapons, at least to a dangerous degree.
That didn't last long as Team V stole the ball back minutes after. This time, it was our turn to chase the ball and that's what we did. We fought back and stole the ball back. This back and forth continued until the 65th minute where Team V had the ball. Once again, their attacking play all started from Reo as he received the ball and moved forward towards our Goal. He played a One-two with a Midfielder and got past Kunigami and Bachira. As he kept advancing, I ordered Chigiri to stay on Nagi at all times as I moved in for the tackle which Reo easily escaped by powering past me. This guy, to his credit, had good strength and could hold on to the ball quite well. But me holding him up for a few seconds was enough for Raichi to come barreling in and crashing into him, nearly flipping him over as he crashed to the ground outside our Box. This didn't earn him a Yellow card but he got a stern warning from the VAR System which, I'm pretty sure, went through one ear and out the other.
Anyway, it was time to defend a Freekick in a dangerous position. 20m from Goal and straight down the middle, this was every Dead Ball Specialist's dream position. The options from this distance and this angle are damn near endless, especially if you have a very good Freekick taker on your squad. Its as guaranteed a goal as you can ever get and we both knew that, Reo and I, which was why I immediately moved to form a part of the wall. Kunigami, Raichi and Gagamaru joined in to make a 4-man Wall to block a potential shot.
Reo is Right-footed so he stood at an angle to the left of the ball, poised and ready to strike. Iemon arranged us to his preferences and we adhered, taking our position.
As we steadied ourselves, I looked around our defensive setup. Chigiri had left Nagi and partnered up with Isagi to mark Zantetsu who was outside the box, Imamura was left with defending Kuon and Nagi was keft to roam around the edge of the Box.
Breathing and ready to shoot, the Whistle sounded and Reo ran up, stepped in and, without hesitation, fired a curling shot towards Goal. I and the rest of the Wall jumped and Kunigami managed to get a nick on the ball, deflecting it from its original flight path and, luckily, away from Goal. The ball, flying past everyone, was quickly pounced upon by Zantetsu. He accurately judged the flight path of the ball, used his immense Speed to arrive there first and headed it back inside the Penalty area where the biggest aerial threat, Wataru Kuon, was waiting. He jumped but Iemon, taking advantage of his longer reach with his arms, managed to swat the ball away and out of the box and Reo was coming in to shoot. Isagi had seen that coming so he had already bolted in and slid in front of him, blocking the shot Reo took. The ball, flying at high speeds, impacted Isagi's calf and flew into the air where, this time, Kuon won the header and placed it for Nagi, who had ghosted into the Box, to equalise for Team V.
He was poised and ready to shoot but he wouldn't get the chance because Naruhaya, who had been silent almost throughout this match, had ghosted in from behind and smashed the ball away from him, up the field and away from the Post.
The ball, flew high and away up the field, landed at the feet of a Team V Midfielder who couldn't control it in time and I immediately pounced on it, rushed him down and stole the ball off him.
Before I could move up to counter, I sent the ball to the left where Kunigami had rushed in and received it well. Using his strong body, he kept the ball well until he was completely swamped. Isagi had quickly taken position behind him. "Kunigami, back!!", he called out and Kunigami immediately sent a Backheel pass to him. Quickly receiving the ball, he moved towards me as if ready to play a One-two pass but he rushed past me as I blocked off his markers from following his run. He smiled at that and kept moving up towards Goal. Kunigami, who had just been released moved up down the Left and I took his position as the central Striker, moving down the middle.
As Isagi kept moving upfield, he was rushed down by 3 Team V players and, knowing that he would definitely lose the ball if he got any closer, he played a slow pass to the right where 2 people blurred past him with the red-headed one barely in front and receiving the ball. Chigiri who was marking Zantetsu on the Right during the previous Freekick chance had stormed up the field with Zantetsu giving chase hard. Slowly but surely, Chigiri was widening the gap between them.
Noticing that Chigiri's path would only lead him to the Corner Flag, I made a diagonal run towards him ready to support him. He faked a pass to me and Zantetsu took the bait, leaving Chigiri and rushing towards me. Chigiri, seeing his sudden freedom, quickly cut inside and fired a shot towards Team V's goal but the ball, taking a deflection off a Team V defender, had flown away from the Box and out of danger....or so we thought because Kunigami was boosting with all his strength towards the loose ball but with Nagi hot on his heels, he knew that losing him would not be easy. I was already marked tightly by two Team V players, Isagi was nowhere to be found, at least I couldn't find him in time, Chigiri was marked by Zantetsu but the rest of Team Z were coming forward to join in the attack.
With no choice left, Kunigami did what he knew best, he steeled his resolve, ran up to the loose ball and, with a resounding BOOM!!!, connected dead center on the ball and sent the ball flying towards goal with all the power he could muster and taking into consideration that he was running at full speed, the power behind the shot was immense.
The ball flew dead center towards goal but midway, it started to wobble and weave in the air, up and down and left and right, no one could predict the flight of the ball and neither could the Goalkeeper. This resulted in the ball booming into the net with barely a drop in its power. Goalkeeper didn't stand a ghost of a chance. Once again, Team Z had doubled their lead thanks to Kunigami's scorcher of a shot.
Team Z 5 - 3 Team V
(The goal came in the 68th minute)