58 - Penalties
Penalties.
The result of months of training and effort would now be summed up in a sequence of kicks.
Lucas approached Nishida, who was standing next to him, trying to catch his breath.
"Straight to penalties? That wasn't in the plans." Nishida said.
Lucas forced a smile. "Nothing ever is, is it?" He snapped his fingers, as he did whenever he got nervous, and looked up at the sky. "Let's end this the right way."
Coach Yamamoto called them together for a quick meeting near the dugout.
"You know what's at stake better than anyone. You also know that you've trained for this. I'm not going to keep repeating the same old words of encouragement. It's us who will take the first penalty, and it's us who will win. Let's follow the order we discussed in the hotel this morning when we imagined this scenario."
Nishida nodded. "Yes, sir."
Nishida would go first. After him would come Kenji, Lucas, Tsukada and, finally, Hidefumi.