Chapter 18: School cup
It is currently 2008 and it's February. Today is the round of 16 of the League Cup of LA.
We are one of the underdogs of this cup and have performed excellently at the moment.
Our opponent for this round is Whitney High School. They are a tough opponent.
The game time and size of the football field are now real men's size.
We are walking into the football field while hearing the audience cheer for our entry. I am getting extra motivated after seeing Haley in the audience.
After everyone wished everyone a good game and we sang the hymn.
The captain choose the position which would have the least sun the whole game and we ran onto our positions.
I quickly ran into the goal.
Shortly after the referee blew the whistle for the whistle for the start of the game.
The enemy team was in White-Green mixed jerseys, while we were in complete black.
The first shot of the enemy was in the 12th minute it was from a distance of around 25 meters. The shot flew way above the goal into the audience.
But the first dangerous shot of Whitney High School came quickly.
In the 16th minute after our CAM/10 lost the ball the enemy counterattacked with their CDM/6 passing the ball to the striker/9 who lobbed the ball over our defense. Their fast right winger was running relatively centrally and he caught up to the ball very quick. After catching the ball he needed to run quite a bit as he was currently only more than 10 meters into our half, but this distance is quickly shrinking as he runs very fast.
My brain ran quickly as I tried to figure out the best decision for a save.
I decided after thinking about the videos our coach has shown us about the players of the enemy. It seems that this player likes to lob.
I made my final position. I would be relatively far from the goal but would quickly retreat after time, as to give the opposite winger the illusion, that he needed to shoot before I aggressively come to him.
He was currently around 30m away from the goal. And I was standing at the penalty point. After he came around 24m away from me I quickly retreated with my back to the goal. Purposefully a bit to the left side of the goal. It was a risky approach, but this was the best chance I had.
After he saw my position and was in the 16-meter range he set on to shoot.
This was quite easy to recognize and I quickly ran a bit to the right side and jumped after I saw the shot come.
I was lucky and predicted it right. The ball went to the far right and I just scratched it out with my last power. The situation wasn't finished yet as the ball ran to the corner side. Luckily our right back was catching up quickly and cleared the ball.
Afterward, you could hear the amazing applause of the audience. This was a huge adrenaline boost.
After this situation, only one shot onto the goal in the 1st half was a shot from 2nd distance around 26 meters from the goal. The shot wasn't placed well and I could easily subdue it and throw the ball to start a counterattack.
The only goal from this half was produced due to this. I threw the ball to our left back he accelerated and danced out the whole enemy defense with our winger. They flanked the ball to our tall striker, who scored a beautiful header.
In the 2nd half, the enemy couldn't come near the goal except one time. At that moment our defense had a big opening due to miscommunication and the striker was alone in the penalty area. He shot, but I saved it with a split.
After that, there were only some 2nd line shots, that couldn't endanger my goal.
With that, the game ended 0-1 for our high school.
Sadly we were drawn onto the favorites from this year and lost 1-0. The goal happened from a similar situation to the big chance in the previous game, but also a lot different. Whatsoever we lost and were eliminated.
My consolation prize was making out with Haley and our team was surely the winner of the Hearts.
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