Let's go back a few weeks ago, in the Takumi household, Kaido was prepared, burning with excitement. This was a big day, probably the biggest day of his Life. One match, one game, 90 minutes, get past them and then....NATIONALS!! This was their chance, this was their time, but their opponents, Ichinan Prefecture Highschool, were not going to be easy opponents. They were in the same boat. One more win for them and they'd be one step closer to Nationals. Aramaki Prefecture Highschool, Kaido's school, were playing at home so the pressure to win was immense.
On his way to the Stadium, Kaido and his big sister he currently lives with, Takumi Hana, alongside the rest of his family, Mitsuki, his little sister and Mai, his mother, were riding in Hana's car with him in the passenger seat and the rest in the back seats. Mitsuki, the ever jovial little girl with eyes beaming with excitement, asked her big brother, "Hey, Kaido-onii-chan, how many goals will you score today?" Kaido only looked back, meeting her excited face with eyes filled with confidence and replied "As many as it takes for us to win. It could be one, maybe two or three or four, I might not even score at all. But there's one thing I'm 100% sure about, We're gonna win."
Hana, with steady hands on the Steering Wheel couldn't help but let out a small laugh. "Such confidence, Kaido. Just don't let it go to your head. Victory is never assured and from what you told us, your opponents are no pushover and you're both fighting for the same thing, just give it your all, okay?" she advised with a gentle voice but loud enough for everyone to hear. Mai, her mother in the back stayed silent and watched her son, smiling with all the Love in her heart, silently wishing him all the best.
Minutes later, they made it to the Stadium and everyone got out of the Car parked in the Parking Lot. Before he left, he gave everyone a big hug, especially his mother who whispered in his ear, "Go get 'em, son. Win this." He nodded resolutely and quickly made his way into the Locker rooms for the Teams and changed into his Jersey, carrying the number 17 behind him.
30 more minutes of warm-up training later, everyone was lined up in the Tunnel, Ichinan on one side and Aramaki on the other. In front of them both were the Referees, on whose signal, they filed out of the Tunnel to wild cheers and whistles from the raucous crowd. Parents, Children, Teachers, Fans, anyone and everyone was present and the 22,000-seater Stadium was filled to capacity.
After completing the pre-match necessities, both sides lined up in their respective formations, Ichinan going with the standard, tried and true 4-4-2 while Aramaki instead went for an attacking 4-2-1-3 with Ichinan kicking off first.
On the Referee's whistle, the blue-haired No. 11 from Ichinan kicked off the match with a pass to his teammate. The match was officially underway. Here we go!!
I played on the Left Wing so I quickly made my way into enemy territory, looking to press the nearest man and possibly block off passing lanes with the help of my incoming teammates. Ichinan, to their credit, passed around very well, moving in unison like a well-oiled machine, covering up whatever spaces were created from one person moving out of position. This continued for 9 minutes, Ichinan holding on to the ball, passing around and looking for a way through our high press. Eventually, in the 13th minute, an Ichinan left-back got the ball and I was already on him. In a rush, he quickly kicked away from him towards the keeper but our striker quickly pounced on the loose ball. The second the ball left the Ichinan left-back's feet, I was already sprinting into the Penalty area, dodged a charge from one of Ichinan's large centre-backs and found myself in a relatively open space. Noticing that, our striker fired the ball across the face of the goal. Reacting without hesitation, I stretched out my left leg to intercept the incoming pass, it bounced off my outstretched leg and flew into the roof of the Net.
Aramaki 1 - 0 Ichinan
Quickly getting up to my feet, I ran straight to the striker, jumping on him and thanking him for the assist. My teammates joined in on the celebration as the Home crowd screamed out in Joy.
A few seconds later, the Referee blew his whistle to signal Kick-Off again. Ichinan kicked us off again and we rushed in again to press them, trying to force an error so we could capitalise and steal another goal.
27th minute, Ichinan managed to compose themselves and keep the ball, even managing to get the ball in front of our Penalty box, swinging the ball from left to right and back again, never once getting it anywhere close enough to create a chance.
That is, until the 39th minute, when an Ichinan Left Midfielder got the ball on the right side of our Penalty Box. He steadied himself, took half a step to the left and suddenly boosted right, leaving our Centre Defensive Midfielder standing still. Using his immense speed, he blitzed past two of our players. I quickly rushed in to block a potential fast pass across the face of our goal. Sending a leg to block the pass, he instead cut inside from his left leg to his right and zoomed past me. Unbalanced, I fell to the floor and watched as he fired a quick shot towards the near post but our Goalkeeper was quick off his line to block his shot, which he did but the ball ricocheted off his body and into the air and towards the far post where another Ichinan attacker was ready to fire it into the empty net. Immediately in front of him was one of our Center-backs to block his shot, the Ichinan attacker shot it anayway and unfortunately, the ball squirmed through his legs and into the goal.
Aramaki 1 - 1 Ichinan
"Tch. I almost blocked it. Damn it!!". The frustrated defender screamed out but our Captain, the Goalkeeper, managed to calm him down and keep him focused.
I collected the ball and went to place it on the Center Circle, standing with out Striker. I nodded at the Referee and he blew the Whistle to resume the game. I passed to our striker who immediately passed to our Midfielder while our striker and I moved up ahead.
The 43rd minute came and I was holding on to the ball on a few meters away from the Ichinan Penalty Box, coming behind me was our Center Attacking Midfielder, we quickly shared 1-2s, quick give-and-gos with each other, one pass to him, I quickly moved to the side, towards the Corner flag, the ball came to me but just behind the ball was an incoming Ichinan Right-back sliding in, I quickly flicked the ball into the air, hopping over his legs before bursting into the Penalty Box. An Ichinan Midfielder rushed at me to cut me off. I paused for half a second, shifted the ball to the right with my right foot as bait, he fell for it, so I smiled and whispered "Psych. Got your ass.", and pulled off a smooth Roulette, getting past him in an instant. Free to move forward, I fired a quick pass towards the edge of the Penalty Box to our awaiting striker who calmly slotted it into the far corner, away from the incoming Ichinan Goalkeeper. Goal.
Aramaki 2 - 1 Ichinan
The First Half finished with that scoreline and we went into the break with minds full of confidence. We had this in the bag.