Stories that land

The day we finally beat the school next door

Hamaguchi recalls a middle-school soccer rivalry, a change to the starting lineup and a comment from the opposing coach.

Before the story

Hamaguchi (浜口), who introduces himself in this story as a member of Sādomen (サードメン), recalls his middle-school soccer team.

Trying a different lineup

I played soccer in middle school. The school next door was our rival, but their team was strong. We kept losing to them, six–zero, five–one, scores like that.

One of my classmates on the team was a fast runner, though he wasn’t especially good at soccer. He was usually a substitute.

We’d lost so often that, one day, the coach decided to take a chance and start him. But he just kept running around in open space without helping much, so the coach took him off for the second half.

The second half began. Somehow, there he was, still running around.

Hang on, I thought. I counted the players.

Twelve of us.

Twelve against their eleven. We won, three–two. For the first time.

Their coach looked disappointed. He was used to beating us.

“Congratulations. Your midfield was really packed today. It felt like we were playing against twelve men.”

Drawing of twelve soccer players arranged in two rows, wearing shirts with indistinct markings.

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