Football United

Football United

I run down the field tearing through the grass, “Pass! Pass!” He ignores me and continues down the field.  “Pass the ball!”  He continues to dribble.  I watch as karma catches up to him, when the opposing defender slides in and catches his knee with his cleats. His small body collapses onto the ground along with the respect I once had for his agile self.  We needed to regroup and work as a team in order to win.  We can’t afford to keep having individuals take everyone on by themselves.  I look over to Dimitris, our team captain and team clown, for a sign of hope and power.  He calls us over so we can talk.  “Everybody, huddle up, lets go!”

Finally I can speak my mind, I think, people always try to take a bad situation into their own hands, we are a team for a reason, to work together.  “We can’t keep playing like this, we came here as a team, and we leave here as a team win or lose.  We have five minutes left, and we need to use every one of them.”

“Alright boys keep that in your mind, group effort, play balls out.  No regrets.”

“Bro, there isn’t enough time; there is no way we will be able to do this.” said Kam the youngest player on the team.

“Not with that attitude!  If you don’t want to play, sit your ass on the bench.”

“No, I got this…Lets do this like men!” Kam stated now having a change of heart.

Alex impatiently fiddles with his fingers and stares off into space, defeat in his eyes.  “Hey!” Dimitris said directly to Alex, “Snap out of it, head up, the game isn’t close to over.  We still have a few more minutes; a lot can happen in just one minute.”  

The referee blows the whistle as our player gets stretchered off the field.  We run back onto the field poised to win the ball and score.  The second whistle sounds, signaling the resuming of the game.  Dimitris gets the ball, and dribbles down the field then passes it off to me.  I look down the line and hit a perfect through ball to Alex.  He passes it off to a wide open player and shouts, “Keepers out!  Shoot!”  The player sends the ball soaring through the air towards the goal, up and over the keeper’s outstretched arms as it smashes into the back of the net.

I run over to Alex and jump into his arms, the rest of the team joins.  Excitement ignites my feet like a forest fire.  We quickly end our celebration and hustle over to the goal and grab the ball attempting to save every last second.  

Dimitris speaks out again, “Alright boys we have to stay smart and stick to our goal, we have one minute left to score, keep passing and we got this.  Play with intensity.”

His powerful voice travels across the field and sparks the team.  The opposition charged forward at us with the ball only to quickly lose it as I slide in and hit the ball to Dimitris.  He takes it down the field beating two players before passing it off to the midfield.  I can feel the rhythm of our passes as we move down the field.  We cross the ball towards the goal, and the keeper comes out to get the ball and misses.  It drops at Dimitris’ feet and he guides the ball toward the net, but it rattles off the cross bar and flies out to the top of the box.  Alex is standing there as if he anticipated the balls movement and rockets the ball towards the goal.  The referee blows the three whistles ending the game.   Our faces explode with joy and we charge into the middle of the field screaming with pride as we hoist the national cup trophy above our heads.

            Tears stream from our eyes as we jump around in a tight group screaming “Ole, ole!  We are the champions!”  from the top of our lungs.

            Dimitris shouts over the commotion and cheering, “You feel this!  This is what we get for working together, just keep our composure and success will come crawling to us!  We have put in hard work to get here!  Never forget this moment my brothers!”