After the Halftime Break, we came out for the Second Half, ready to finish off Ichinan by grabbing another goal. We were ready, we were confident, we were sure of victory. And why wouldn't we, we shut down their attacks throughout the First Half, we kept their Strikers quiet, completely cutting them out of the game and we were in the lead.
We were doing everything right so our Coach saw no need to replace anyone. We came out with the same players that started the First Half. We lined up in formation and the Referee blew the Whistle to signal the start of the Second Half. I passed straight to our Midfielder and we moved up, ready to get going for another Goal.
56th minute, a long ball from behind came towards our Right Winger which he deftly controlled and started moving forward. Seeing a chance, I ran across him, drawing the Defender that was trying to cut him off, he took the opportunity to run into the Ichinan Penalty Area but was immediately cut off and had the ball stolen from him and cleared before he could do anything meaningful with it. The cleared ball ended up at the feet of the blue-haired Ichinan Striker, the No.11, and he quickly started making his way up the field. I quickly ran back to help out in defence as Ichinan was currently on the counter, passes were flying left to right as Ichinan were breaking away at pace. Speaking of pace, using my high speed, I was able to make it back to slide in and block a crucial pass that would have left the same blue-haired Ichinan striker in a One-on-One with our Goalkeeper, our Defence recovered in time to get into defensive formation after I had quickly gotten up off the floor and started pressing them again, but because I had used up a lot of energy in sprinting full speed to cover for our Defence, I couldn't press as hard as I usually would so they easily got past me, they sent a high cross into our Box, toward the far post. Our Center-back managed to get his head on the ball to clear it away but he didn't clear it far enough and an Ichinan Midfielder ran in, planted his foot and sent a beautiful left-footed volley towards the other post. The ball flew at great speed, brushed past the outstretched hand of our Goalkeeper, bounced off the post and into the Net. Ichinan had equalised with an absolute peach of a Volley.
Aramaki 2 - 2 Ichinan
Every single player on the Aramaki side was absolutely stunned, even some players from the Ichinan side were shocked too but they celebrated regardless. The Home crowd were stunned into silence and our Goalkeeper was questioning how in the world he was supposed to save a shot like that. I just shook my head and thought 'It's impressive enough that he even came close to saving it. His fingertips tipped it onto the Post but as luck would have it, it went in. Nothing he could do about it.'
We took a bit of time to compose ourselves, gather our thoughts as Ichinan celebrated their wonder goal. Two minutes later, the ball was back on the Center Circle, ready for Kick-off again. At the Referee's Whistle, the game resumed. I kicked it back to our Midfielders and we moved up to attack and retake the lead.
Throughout the remainder of the match, Ichinan and Aramaki went back and forth, everyone throwing everything they had at each other, fouls were happening almost every 20 seconds. I even got a Yellow card for a particularly rough foul on an Ichinan's striker as I tried to steal the ball from him.
This desperate back and forth continued until the 87th minute when our striker had the ball and he was moving up the field on a solo run. I joined him in the attack, running at full speed to catch up to him and offer him support. He saw my incoming run and sent a long ball over the top of the entire Ichinan Defence. I ran with everything I had, focusing solely on getting to the loose ball first which I barely managed to do. Inside Ichinan's Penalty Area, I had only one defender in front of me with the remainder of Ichinan's Defence trying their hardest to get back and stop a potential winning goal, but along with the recovering Defence was support in form of our striker. Using a few stepovers, I managed to create a bit of space which I quickly took dvantage of and escaped towards the Goal line. The desperate Defender and Goalkeeper from Ichinan came rushing full speed at me but before they got to me, I cut the ball back with a quick Cruyff turn but the trailing leg of the sliding Defender caught my standing leg, pulling me down in the Penalty Area.
Immediately, the Referee's Whistle sounded for a Foul and he pointed to the Spot, indicating a Penalty had been awarded to Aramaki.
In that instant, a fresh wave of Hope had ignited in the heart of everyone on the Aramaki side, the Home fans were buzzing in delight at the decision. The burning Question on everyone's minds now was, 'Who is going to take the Spot Kick?.'
At that time, I had barely been able to get to my feet with the help of one of my teammates. I made my claim to take the Penalty kick but so did almost everyone else on the Aramaki team. In the end, Tendo Abarai had been chosen by the Coach to take it. How did I know this? Simple, I got substituted off after gaining the foul and I heard the Coach telling the new Sub to immediately let the others know about his decision. In the end, I had done all I could and my time on the Pitch was up.
Tendo picked up the ball to take the Penalty. He was ready, the Ichinan Goalkeeper was ready, the entire Stadium held its breath, absolute silence. Soon, the Referee's Whistle sounded and Tendo, a left-footed Attacking Midfielder ran up to take the all-important shot. He moved, steadied himself, swung his favoured Left Foot as hard as he possibly could and....BANG!! Straight off the Left Post and out for a Goal Kick. Just like that, the chance for a winning Goal was gone. The entire Stadium erupted in outrage, some hurling curses at Tendo, some screaming in disappointment and Tendo...Tendo was absolutely heartbroken. His chance to finish the game, kill it off and send Aramaki to Nationals, his one moment of Glory had slipped from his grasp and evaporated right in front of him and there was nothing he could do.
After retrieving the ball, Ichinan's Goalie kicked the Goal Kick, firing it long and high into the sky, sending it upfield where the ball was contested and won by Ichinan's striker and was now firmly in the grasp of Ichinan. They moved and passed around with urgency while Aramaki, all out of sorts and disoriented from the Penalty miss could barely respond to their movements. Drenched in sweat, I could only watch on the sidelines as in the 89th minute, Ichinan was bearing down on Aramaki's goal, with their striker leading the charge. Crisp, fast and fluid passes were flying all over the place and the shattered Aramaki Defence had no response and the result, a simple one-two pass unlocked the shaky defence and Ichinan's striker found himself in a One-on-One situation with our Goalkeeper. Our Goalkeeper rushed out to block his shot but that didn't deter him. He went for the shot and it went past our Goalkeeper and into the Net. Goal.
Aramaki 2 - 3 Ichinan .