The Unmatched Tournament

It’s just my first year playing soccer with my friends. Will our friendship carry us to victory, or will we be defeated and go home?

In elementary school, my friends and I would always play football during recess but it was for fun and mostly pride and bragging rights. But I never knew that one day we wouldn’t just play as friends, but as official teammates. And we wouldn’t just joke around and make up our own rules, but lock in and come out on top. 

I open the car door getting ready to play an early morning game. The final destination was 40 minutes away so I turned on some music. My friends started to play soccer when they would be able to start. About 6 or 7 years old. I started only when I was 9 years old. Because I was new to the game, I did not know many skills. Still, my other sports helped me with athleticism. Unlike my friends, I developed on the defense side. My speed helps me cover my opponent and my quick feet help my stab at the ball. Not only that, passing was also naturally easy. As I looked outside I saw my friends warming up. I hurry out the door and followed the path leading to our field. 

During warm ups before the game, my teammate yells, “We have to not get cocky and not goof around. Better passes!” My friends look at each other laughing. We all know what we’re thinking about. The game is starting so we do our cheer. 

I lead off chanting our city name, “Belmont on me, Belmont on three. One, two, three…” They finish screaming, “Belmont!”. I stare out to see my friends. Owen, is a defender who plays right next to me. I always laugh with him when the game is on. Kai and Ethan, are midfielders, players in the middle doing both offense and defense. 

I tell my defenders, “No fouls and play to the whistle. Play fair and play hard!” As the other team kicks the ball, I don’t expect the opponent to be this good.

I’m standing next to my friends talking about Chris, the guy who yells a lot on our team. The score is tied at 2 goals with 3 people on my team having yellow cards. One more and they can’t play anymore. As the ref blows two short whistles, it is halftime. Our coach is telling us we are doing good, but we need to step it up. He adds, “No more rough fouls. I know this ref is hard on us, but we need to step it up and lock in!” The final whistle blows telling us to get on the field for the second half. All my friends are on the bench making me want to show them my skills. We start off with the ball, and in a blink of an eye, we score. That makes the bench go crazy screaming their butts off. The opponent is rattled and scared and as soon as we score a goal, we score another goal and another. We are unstoppable. Kai goes on to try and score one and does. A magnificent goal! Suddenly, we're up by 6 goals and forget that we still have another game. As Owen comes onto the field I expect him on the right side to be defender, but he goes straight to striker, the offense position. He laughs as he hustles into the action.

The final whistle blows, giving me a relief from all the stress of the game. I am annoyed about the ref being so bad and making weird calls. I say it was a good game to my opponents, enjoying this win. Even though this was only the first game in the tournament, it felt as if we won the championship. My friends started to put water in their mouths getting ready for their celebration. They did a weird cartwheel and then spit the water out. I could not join them after the exhaustion from the game. At least now I get to eat.

As I walk towards our next game, I see Ethan running towards me. He jokingly says, “If I hadn’t moved to Belmont, I would be on this team from Fremont. I heard they weren't that good and they barely scored.” That makes me feel better not only defensively but tournament wise. Ethan and I walk together towards our field when Kai and Owen suddenly jump from behind and scare us. We say, “What’s up,” and Ethan tells them what he had told me. As they look more relieved we enter warm-ups fearing the mighty Chris’s yell. But when we get there to warm-up, Chris is goofing around not really being serious. My friends and I look at each other confused. Still, we have to win this game, so we have to play well. Even though they are bad. Then, our coach arrives just in time for the game. I sprint onto the fields thinking. “Can we really play seriously and beat this team,” as I pat my teammates back.

I notice my teammate calling my name to come off. I was not even close to sweating and wasn’t even tired. This team was unexpectedly worse than the last team. We are winning 6 to 0 when the opponent starts their kick-off. Ethan comes off the same time I do and starts laughing. He is taunting the other team the whole game yelling, “Come on Neel, you got this. Score it! Score it!” Neel was one of the names of the opponent’s players. Ethan has been joking around the whole game which makes me wonder if he is going to try to score a goal. Just after that, Owen steals the ball and passes it onto Kai. Kai dribbles it past every defender but just two. He’s in a bad angle too, so he passes it onto a wide-open Chris who finishes it and makes the score 7-0. Chris was celebrating so much I thought he was a different person. The final whistle blows and I dap up Chris, saying, “That goal was crazy.” He answers back with another winning celebration routine. He is so hyped-up. So are my friends who are joining Chris.

I open the car door wanting to go home on an early morning game and a late afternoon game. I flop down into my car and look at the Tesla screen showing 4 o’clock. Even though I love playing defense, I still want to score some goals and play offense. My dad wants me to do that too but says I have to pay attention to my friends in order to know what to do. My dad was the one that first made me start soccer. I played in a smaller league first then the club where I met my friends. Still, I didn’t know I would someday catch up to my friends and play with them. Thinking of that made me want to show them I could play any position. But the first step was to go on offense and prove that I can compete.

The gray tiled pathway leads me to the field for a non-stressful morning game. When I woke up, my dad told me that this first game doesn’t matter because we will be in the finals no matter what. When warm-ups begin, no one says to be serious, no one yells, no one tries their best. Everyone is laughing and enjoying this Fremont air goofing around and talking with their friends. That is when I see the other team, locked in focusing on the drill and yelling at each other. That is when I think, “Were they actually going to try?” It looks like they don’t want to lose. It looks like it was the finals.  When the coach arrives, he tells us that we can choose where we could play. That makes me so happy. Is this really the time for me to play offense? I look at my friends. I think I should do it. So I claim the midfielder spot, replacing Ethan, and Kai switches with Owen. As we start with the ball, I find my winger, the player who stands on the sides of the field. He dribbles up the field and easily gets a corner kick. He raises his hand and drives the black and white ball, making the hit almost like a shot. But somehow, the defender gets his foot on it, making the ball bounce back to me. As I touch the ball I have no hesitation to kick it. I drive the ball as hard as I can thinking about the last time I scored. I close my eyes hoping the ball hits the back of the net. Then I hear the crowd, cheering like we are in a professional match. My teammates swarm me giving me high-fives. I can’t believe my first shot this season was my first goal this season. Before I know it, the ball touches my foot again.

The match is kept close with the opponent in the lead 3 to 1. My goal makes me do a little too much offense. The next time I get the ball is when Tony, our winger, does an amazing pass with his heel to me. I have a really bad angle making me have to curve it. This time, I don’t go for strength, but for accuracy. My right foot makes a loop making the ball curve left, I have done it again. This game is full of joy. My teammates and my coach were impressed and couldn’t believe it. Even though we were losing, the hype was out of the charts. The final whistle didn’t make us sad that we lost. I had scored two goals and could not believe it. I was the G.O.A.T.

We have one hour before the final game. We will play the team from the semifinals again. I get back onto the field when I noticed the final game behind me was going to a penalty shoot out. They are shooting penalty kicks because they ended on a tie. As I walk and warm my legs up for our finals game, I see the opponent getting cocky.I know they are because they are goofing around or taking us seriously. They think we actually tried the last game so this game will be a piece of cake. I frown at them and get this sense that we have to prove that Chris was right. Don’t get cocky. As the whistle blows for the start of the game we suddenly are already about to take a shot. Their defense is not acting right. We score a somewhat easy goal. I already know that Ethan is going to score a goal in this game. With the right find and right pass, Ethan finds an easy lane and takes it. He does an amazing move to get past his defender. He shoots the black and white ball. Bang! The goalkeeper had no chance of stopping this truck. The crowd goes crazy and I smile. An evil smile. I know that I have to play good defense, but our offense is too good for them. 

Our coach yells, “No more risks! 5 minutes left. We’re up by 4.” 4-0 was the score and they had a cornerkick. The first one for their team in fact. In a tight bundle of people, I see an open man. He receives the ball and, “Bang!” I close my eyes hoping it is not a goal. I feel a short pain go through my whole body. I blocked the shot. The crowd goes crazy. In fact, I blocked a goal. I hear a whistle. Teammates start running onto the field, chanting, “We won!” The game is over and I feel so relieved. No goals in the finals. Can’t believe it. I come up to my friends and hug them all. I came up to Owen though really excited. I say to him, “Nice recovery and defense. You're really helpful.” He smiles and tells me, “Good game.” I look at him back like a “you too” look. We sprint to get our bags and to the ceremony. Apple cider waits for us as we do our trophy celebration. Then, we open bottles of apple cider, shake it, and release it, letting it fly everywhere. I am so happy. As I drink the apple cider, I think to myself, I guess friendship really did help us. The closer you stick together, the more victorious you will be.