Quote:
On one Friday in March 2011, five years after Endoh moved to the academy in Fukushima, the midfielder remembers training with his teammates as his thoughts drifted toward the following week, when he and the rest of the squad would have to go through an exhausting fitness exam – the hardest part of their week.
Then, a little before 3 p.m., the ground started to move.
Endoh and his teammates raced toward the center circle, where they huddled together. Earthquakes are relatively common in Japan, and all the kids at the JFA Academy knew what to do when one hit. They got to the middle of the field and sat down, as far away from the huge light stanchions as possible.
The lights fell. Walls crumbled. After a few minutes, the earth finally stopped shaking.