The Franklin Match: A Horrid Comeback

The second half starts out with a bang. True to their style, the Franklin team quickly wins possession and storms into your half, ready to give their strategy another go in the second half. Well prepared for this strategy, you play compact at the back, shutting down their attack, while Daphne and Jack at the front are constantly weaving between the lines of their defense, ready to make a run the moment an opportunity arises.

Unfortunately, it seems like the Franklin team picked up a thing or two during halftime. When Jason spots an opportunity to go long, both Jack and Daphne are ready to sprint after it. Daphne, ever experienced, keeps her eyes on the defenders, timing her run precisely, but Jack’s overeager. He jumps the gun, sprinting down the pitch before the ball’s left Jason’s feet, and though he beats the defender to the ball, it’s not long before the ref calls offside. Your next attempt is foiled as their defense drops even further back, making it harder to execute your attack.

You’d think more space to work with would be a good thing. But with your midfield and strikers spread more spacey over the pitch, you’re leaving gaps that they can exploit. On a throw-in, they assemble a lightning quick attack down the wing. You try stopping the winger, closing down on her fast, but she makes a fast move to the side, faking you out, and crosses the ball right into the box. A striker sticks his foot out and it’s enough to get the ball into the goal.

“Fuck,” you mutter under your breath, pissed at your poor performance.

“Chin up,” Charlie says, giving you a fist-bump. “We’ll get ‘em on the next one.”

The next ten minutes pass by without a goal. Both teams are hungry for more goals, but the game ends up looking like the keepers and defenders lobbing long balls into the other half, trying to find a striker for a quick goal. Unsurprisingly, neither team is able to quite make it work. It’s hard to have such precision at range, and with enough defenders at the back against a lone striker, the odds of a goal materializing was always going to be long.

The Franklin team seems to realise this, and they begin to press up again, coming up in numbers. You have a strategy to deal with this set of tactics, but it was bound to work eventually. Not five minutes later, and a thunderous shot from one of their midfielders is barely stopped by Keegan. The ball goes out for a corner. They play it short, transitioning into the kind of gameplay that they’ve been practicing all game long. None of you were expecting it, though, and the moment’s confusion is enough to get the ball to one of their strikers unmarked. Keegan makes a dive for the ball, but there’s only so much that he can do. It slips past his fingertips and ends up in the back of the net.

Time is slipping away, and with two goals apiece, you feel a growing sense of frustration. You were up by two at half-time. How did it come to this? But as the minutes close down, you eventually realise that winning the game is no longer realistic. You’ve been run down ragged by all the action of the game, and there’s no way that you can chase down the balls that you’d need to make a big play. It’s all you can do to hold on.

By the time the final whistle is blown, it’s almost a relief. 2-2, a disappointing tie for all the preparation you put in.

Maybe I should work out more, you find yourself thinking.

Daphne +3
Katie +3
Khloe +3
Jack +3
Keegan +3
Charlie +3
Jason +3
Javier +3
Mars +3
Valentine +3