T-those eyes!!!
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Last Week on Cross Manage: Misora shows up and is on the field with her team down 5-1. She manages to get the ball and right in front of her is Namine. Instead of doing the sensible thing and backing down with her injured knee, she goes and fakes her out!
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Summary of Chapter 41: But after the fake out, Namine, who recalls the words Sakurai and Misora said to her about not losing, recovers and catches up to Misora in time to prevent her from scoring. With their last chance at a goal thwarted, Fujioka loses to Choran, 6-1, thus ending their tournament run.
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Impressions: Well, I said last week it would have been predictable if Misora found a way to not score by herself — but credit to her for managing to prove me wrong on that one, which makes me think she’s probably changed. Well, maybe not that much, but to have changed Namine — ok we all saw it coming but still — is something I can say was a good development. What helped was that this moment seemed to awaken Namine to the realization that yes, you can have fun while playing lacrosse. More power to you if you have the talent to play lacrosse and still have fun, which I guess is why she scored another goal right after that (but come on that’s surely rubbing it in right???).
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But as I said, there were two goals coming into the match against Choran that I wanted to know, since I knew there could be no possible way Fujioka was gonna win: one, that they manage to deal with losing to Choran without losing the spirit to keep playing lacrosse, unlike Matsumachi who collapsed on that front. Two: to change Namine’s view of playing lacrosse. To be honest it’s not proven about the first one yet, but it does look like thanks to the events of the matches, Namine’s view on the sport has changed. I still question whether or not Misora needed to get injured and then come back and play had to happen for Namine to change, but that just might be fine for some.
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Some people always say they don’t take it personally when they lose. But that’s just a certain amount of people. Even when they say they’re fine and happy with the results, somewhere in the back of their minds they wish they didn’t lose. It sometimes depends on what it is, but it happens, especially depending on the results. But in sports, the losses always seem to lead to athletes on the field crying and sniveling and not able to talk to people. Why? There will be winners and losers in everything, so what makes sports so special? Well, it all depends on the person, the context, and the situation. You’ve probably heard somewhere along the way of two-a-days, college kids going to practice at 6:30 (or even earlier) in the morning for practice, and athletes undergoing a regimen so strict that a normal person would either shudder at or remark in awe. To go through all of that, with your teammates, and to then lose, it comes back to “What was all that hard work for? I could have done something else with my time.” But that’s the thing: they do it because they love playing their sport, and enjoy everything about it. And sometimes, you can’t hold back that emotion on the field when you know you’ve lost and your season is over.
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But for Fujioka, it’s different. Remember, these ladies were the Bad News Bears before Sakurai came in. They had no idea how to properly play lacrosse, had a horrible locker room, and had no field to actually practice in. They didn’t even realize they were short of members until Sakurai pointed this out to Misora, who somehow was able to schedule a practice game. In other words, they sucked. But thanks to a guy who was deeply passionate about his sport (soccer) and his work ethic, he managed to transform this lackluster team into a team that was actually just mediocre. Yeah, I’m being harsh, but they did play in Group F and then faced Matsumachi. I’m not exactly sure if they’re good, but whatever the case, they did make it this far with a lot of punishing practices and sacrifice. So this time, when I see them cry after losing to Choran for a second time, it’s different than the practice match they had with them. Back then they didn’t have a clue and started to ponder losing as opposed to before. This time, they’ve gone through training, won matches, and not only did they lose, but they ended up losing Misora for a spell before she came back. This is one loss that should resonate with them more, since it’s at the moment where they can choose where to go from here.
- But right now, it looks like we’ll have a romantic situation come about? I kind of forgot about this angle since we’ve been in lacrosse hell I mean match for months. But I doubt we’ll have Misora and Sakurai get together…
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