As Team V reconvened to resume the game, there was a strong drop in their confidence levels. And it was quite understandable. Throughout their run in Bluelock's 1st Selection, they hadn't felt even the slightest hint of pressure. The closest they ever got to competition was against Barou's Team X and that was minimal at best. Barely noticeable. Barou was basically alone against 3 footballing prodigies. He never stood a chance. The rest of the teams fared no better. They were absolutely decimated with one unlucky team even conceding 8 straight Goals without even the slightest hint of a reply. Now, from nowhere, came Team Z who looked, and felt, far different from the rest of the competition. They had two choices now. Rise and face the ferocity head on, or crumble and fall under this new pressure. If they were half the Team they showed they were in the previous matches, they would obviously choose the latter and we were ready for that too.Slowly but surely, their resolve reignited. So what if they conceded 3 goals, the First Half alone wasn't over yet, let alone the match itself. If they've conceded 3, they can just score 6 and be done with it. They were Team V, the most dominant team in all of Bluelock (as far as they knew, that is. Remember, there are 5 other buildings in Bluelock and we, in Building 5, were the lowest ranked Building.) With their fighting spirits reignited and burning with a renewed and intense fury, the whistle sounded to resume the match and resume the match they did. Passing quickly, Reo passed to Zantetsu again and this time, he made no remarks that would drop the collective IQ of every single person on the Pitch. Zantetsu quickly passed backwards to his teammates and pushed upfield to meet me as I took position to mark him. This time, Team V didn't shrink, they didn't play like a beaten team. Instead, they fought back and fought hard to get one back, equalise and most importantly, take the lead. Obviously, we weren't about to let that happen and so began an intense back and forth of passing, tackling, running, shooting and blocking that showed the desperation of a Team fighting for every second of possession they could get. Both teams played with a manic intensity that left the entire pitch in complete disarray. A chaotic melee of body checks, sliding tackles, pushes, pulls and every bit of contact that would most definitely earn multiple Yellow cards in a normal Football match. Before anyone could process it, the match had devolved back into a "0". A mirror of our first match here in Bluelock where everyone was playing and fighting for themselves. But this time, we were fighting not to score, not for personal glory, but for Victory so this time, the fighting was a lot fiercer. Multiple notifications of Yellow Cards were flaring up every few minutes as fouls and tackles were flying in from both sides in droves. On our side, Me, Kunigami, Raichi, Gagamaru, Imamura and, very surprisingly, Chigiri had all collected Yellow Cards. Luckily, no one had received a Red Card....yet. This "0" state continued until the 34th minute when Raichi, almost expectedly, fouled Nagi by shoulder barging him just as he had controlled the ball from 37m (40.5 yards) away from Goal and to the left. This position was a particularly dangerous one as a decent Set Piece Specialist, like me, could deliver a strong in-swinging cross into a crowded area of the box for whoever was ready to head it in. I quickly stepped forward to form the Wall to block anything, as did Raichi and Kunigami. Iemon, in Goal, arranged us to the best of his abilities and prepared to prevent anything from going in. Zantetsu stood at the edge of the Box on the Right but he was tightly marked by Chigiri while Nagi, ever the threat, roamed around just in front of the 18-yard Box, but I had no problems with that. Isagi was tracking his every single move, supported by Gagamaru who was ready to intercept any high passes to him. The rest of Team Z flooded the Box, determined to not let anything come close to threaten Iemon in Goal.As one would expect, Reo was the one standing behind the ball on Set Piece duties. How good he was on that mattered little to me. He definitely was nowhere near my level when standing behind a Dead Ball. He steadied himself, ran up and shot a shoddy, high-arcing ball towards the crowded middle of the Box and everyone jumped their highest to meet it for two different reasons, to head it in or to clear it out. Noticing the height of the ball in the air, I was internally relieved as I thought the ball was too high for anybody to reach and normally, I had every reason to be relieved. I mean, the Ball was a whole foot above the Crossbar for Christ's sake. Oh, how incredibly wrong I was as I and the rest of Team Z watched on as a tall, brown-haired player, probably a Midfielder from Team V, jumped with so much force that he left deep grooves in the ground. Mouth agape, I watched on with increasing dread as he rose higher and higher until, impossibly, he rose high enough to reach the ball, swung his head forward with all he had and crashed it into the ball, sending it down and hard towards the Bottom-left corner of the Net. Iemon was left stranded and couldn't do a thing about it. The same could be said about the entire Team Z who were stunned into absolute silence as the guy quickly collected the ball from the net and ran to the centre of the Field, eager to resume the game. In one heaven defying miracle, Team V had cut the deficit to only one. 10 minutes left on the clock for the First Half, If Team V somehow found another Goal and equalised, it would spell disaster for Team Z. There was no denying it now. The momentum had shifted massively in Team V's favour.
Team Z 3 - 2 Team V
On their way back, I managed to catch the name of Team V's new Weapon, Wataru Kuon. That didn't matter in the slightest. We had absolutely no counter to his Weapon. His incredible jumping ability which would normally seem like an 'average' Weapon now seemed like a Cheat Code to us. For the first time in this match, Team Z faltered. We showed hesitation and Team V knew it. They smelt Blood and they would hunt it to the very last Whistle. The Match resumed at the blast of the Whistle and Kunigami kicked the ball down to me and I had to quickly pass it to Isagi in the middle to stop the on-rushing Zantetsu who was more motivated than ever now that they had the momentum. Kuon's Goal was a massive shock to our System. That shock woke us up from our delusions. The slowly surfacing delusion that just because we were motivated enough, we could walk out here and walk all over Team V. In a sense, WE had become the ones who underestimated our opponents. Our 2 goals in the first 5 minutes of the game didn't do us any favours. If anything, it suddenly started to feel like an eternity ago where we were scoring for fun. As expected of Bluelock, it has a way of shutting down any baseless Pride or budding Arrogance before it started. The question now was, how do we respond? The answer was incredibly simple. FIGHT EVEN HARDER!!!!! This is Bluelock. Nobody is going to roll over and give you the win. Every single Goal was to be fought for with every scrap of Skill, Ferocity and Hunger that you could collectively muster. We knew this already. For a long time we had known this. But now...….now we truly comprehended, now we truy understood. Win, or watch your dream die right in front of you. It was one or the other. Once again, Ryosuke Kira's fate flashed into our minds. Clear as day, we remebered. The Desperation, the Fear, the Rage and most importantly, the piercing, soul-crushing Despair that ran through him as Jinpachi Ego uttered those two dreaded words that sealed his fate, "Lock off."This....this was what snapped something inside me. The Fear of getting locked off, the fear of losing my dream of becoming the Greatest payer in the History of Football, the fear of losing my dream of surpassing players like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr. Pele, Ronaldinho amd most importantly, Noel Noa.In that very moment, like pieces falling into place, it finally clicked in my mind. Everything flashed through my head at astonishing speed. Every training session, every dribble, every pass, every shot, every Goal, I could finally see it. The pattern, the culmination of every drop of sweat shed during the course of chasing my dream, I could finally see it. My Formula for Goals had finally arrived.With a raging inferno burning in my eyes, I bolted forward at full speed. I could see everything. The Midfielders moving to intercept my run, my own movements to lose them, my Speed, the probability of my current movements succeeding in me scoring a goal was high in a certain area near the Box. That was my target and it seems I wasn't the only one who sensed it. Yoichi Isagi, using his Spatial Awareness, had snapped his focus to me and sent a low, hard ball towards the area I was running into down the Left from the middle of the half-way line. Zantetsu was already chasing to close in and that's when, from the corner of his eyes, he saw a blur of red blow past him. Chigiri had also tracked my run and followed from behind for support but I never had any intention of releasing the ball to anyone. It was 1 me against the whole of Team V's Defence and that was totally fine by me. Bring it on.
My eyes grew intense as I received the ball without stopping. Zantetsu had already broken off his run to shadow Chigiri so that left me alone with the rest of Team V. Moving at high speeds, I was besieged by 2 Team V Midfielders coming at the same time but I charged towards them regardless. Pushing the ball forward, I cut left at full speed to go around them and one of them charged in to slide tackle the ball away. I merely boosted the ball forward and hopped over his body. The second one charged in to stop me where his teammate failed miserably but what befell him was so much worse. Catching up to the ball almost instantly, I used my Left Leg to do a Ronaldo Chop, cutting the ball inside from behind me and followed after it, leaving the sliding Midfielder sliding out of the Field entirely. Just like that, 2 players were left in my dust and I moved on to chase my Goal. After reaching the edge of the 18-yard Box, I slid the ball through the legs of a Defender, cut further inside and sent my Right foot at the ball at full force...….just to stop inches short of contact. A feint that sent the defenders, who threw their bodies in the way to block the shot, falling pathetically and leaving me with an open clear shot to Goal which I gladly took. BANG!!! My Right Foot connected hard with the ball, no curves, no spin, just a straight laser-like shot into the Bottom-right hand corner of the Net that even Professional Goalkeepers would struggle to get to. The ball impacted the Net at maximum speed but the Net safely caught it.
My Formula was finally complete.
Dribbling and Speed + Accurate Curling Shots from outside the Box = Goals
Once again, Team Z had doubled their lead.
Team Z 4 - 2 Team V
That goal in the 43rd minute sparked a resurgence in Team Z's fighting spirit. Isagi smiled dangerously, Kunigami had a fierce look of determination, Bachira gave his usual mysterious smile and laughed happily and Raichi…..looked ready to kill someone especially with his sharp, glinting, Shark-like Teeth on full display. But then again, when doesn't he ever look like he has Murder on his mind?This scoreline ended the First Half of the final match of Bluelock's 1st Selection.