Pursued By the Past

While playing softball in PE class, Nozomi gets angry at Aya and kicks one of her pitches past her head, injuring her own foot. During the Warabis third group match against Kotesashi Seirin, Nozomi tries to hide her injury from the coach, but Goro notices her downgraded play and gives her one more chance before subbing her out. Nozomi responds by sending a through ball to Aya for the winning goal. Later, as the girls head to practice, they tie up a suspected stalker who turns out to be Kazuo Takahagi, a former pro soccer player. Kazuo tells the girls that Goro was considered the "Japanese Xavi" when he met him at a U-18 camp, but a few years later, Goro badly injured his right leg and never regained his form, so he decided to become a coach instead. However, his first coaching gig on a pro Japanese team fell apart when his radical changes upset the rest of the team and he was soon forced to resign. Later, the girls from Urawa Hosei notice that they will play Warabi Seinan in the first round of the national tournament.