by Bali Rai
‘Good!’ he replied. ‘Nice to see that you’re so keen.’
I left the adults talking and walked across to the nearest goal. Wendy and Ian had fixed the nets already and I placed the ball I had with me about twenty yards from the goal. I wanted to practise curling the ball. I wasn’t very good at it – and ever since I’d seen Lily do it, I had been desperate to match her.
I took four steps backwards and then ran to kick the ball. I connected with it well enough, but it didn’t go anywhere near the goal. It went closer to the corner flag! Rubbish. I went and got the ball and ran back to my spot. I put the ball down again and this time I took five or six steps back-wards. I started my run-up again, hoping to put the ball in the top left-hand corner of the goal. This time the ball was on target but it didn’t go where I wanted it to.
I retrieved the ball and tried again. The third time I hit it, it flew! It swerved in mid-air and curled into the top corner. YES! I ran and got the ball, sprinted back to my position and did it again. The result was the same.
After five more goes, I stopped and began to start warming up for the game. Lily and Parvy joined me two minutes later and we did little short sprints together. As we ran, Lily asked me who we had in the next round of the Cup.
‘I don’t know,’ I told her. ‘Ian wouldn’t tell me.’
‘I bet we get someone really good,’ she said.
‘I don’t care who we get,’ Parvy told us. ‘We’ll beat them all.’
As we started on some more sprints, the rest of the team began to join us too. After we’d done a few turns, Wendy got us stretching our legs. Finally she asked us to gather together, just as the Rockwell Rangers team came out onto the pitch and began their warm-up.
‘OK, Reds . . .’ Wendy said, ‘let’s talk tactics.’
‘But who’ve we got in the Cup?’ asked Dal and Byron together.
Wendy shook her head. ‘Never mind about that,’ she told us. ‘We need to concentrate on this game first. Now Ian and I have had a chat and we’ve decided to try something a little different today . . .’
I looked at Chris and Jason who were standing with me. What was Wendy talking about?
‘At the last training session we tried playing with only three defenders,’ she said. ‘Three-five-two instead of four-four-two. What did you think of it?’
Nobody said anything for a moment and then Dal spoke up.
‘It was OK,’ he replied.
‘Good,’ said Wendy. ‘Now we think that you should do really well today. Rangers aren’t playing too well and we want you to really attack them.’
‘YES!’ shouted Lily.
‘So we’re going to play three at the back like at the training session. Steven, Dal and Parvy.’
There was a bit of murmuring but Wendy quietened us down.
‘Leon will play out at right midfield with Corky on the left,’ she said, looking at them both. ‘Your job, lads, is to defend when required but to attack too. I want to see you getting in their faces. Pin them back and stop them from going forward. OK?’
Leon and Corky didn’t seem sure, but both of them nodded.
‘Right,’ said Wendy. ‘That leaves Jason and Byron in the centre midfield as usual. And up front we’ll start with Abs and Chris, with Lily playing just behind them as an extra central midfielder . . .’
‘But Lily plays out on the wing,’ said Emma.
‘’S OK,’ Lily told her. ‘I’ll play wherever Wendy wants me to.’
Ian walked over and joined us. He’d been talking to the Rockwell Rangers coach and a few of the parents too.
‘This is a very attacking game plan,’ Wendy told us.
‘Yes,’ added Ian. ‘And that means that we must concentrate. I want to see the ball on the ground – passing and movement. And when we lose the ball, I want to see everyone trying to get it back, OK?’
The entire squad nodded.
‘And if you’re a sub, keep yourself warm. Three of you will be getting a chance later on. Now get out there and show this lot what it means to be a Red!’
‘COME ON, REDS!’ shouted Byron. ‘Let’s get ’em!’
Chapter 7
I RAN ONTO the pitch alongside Lily and Chris. Lily turned to me and grinned.
‘Hey, Abs, first one to three goals!’ she said. It was a challenge.
‘Only if you let me take the first free kick, if we get one,’ I replied.
‘Done!’ she told me, sticking out her hand for me to shake. I shook it.
The referee waited for everyone to get settled and then he blew his whistle to start the game. Rangers kicked off and tried to go on the attack, but Jason stopped their captain, Michael, with a brilliant tackle and gave the ball to Byron. He passed it to his right where Leon was waiting.
Leon is really quick and he sprang down the line like a cheetah! The Rangers players couldn’t get near him. He ran right to the touchline and then turned to cross the ball. I thought he might put it in the air but he didn’t. Instead he saw Lily and passed to her along the ground.
Lily had her back to her defender. She waited and waited, teasing him by moving the ball left and right. The second that the defender went in for the tackle, she flicked the ball between her legs, spun round and left him for dead. A second defender – a huge lad called Martin with really goofy teeth – ran at her. This time she didn’t wait. As he approached her she looked up and saw that I was free in the box, with my back to goal.
‘ONE-TWO!’ she shouted.
She flicked the ball to me. I watched her step around Martin and run into the space. I didn’t try to control the ball. Instead, as another defender tried to tackle me, I passed the ball back to Lily. She was clean through on goal and she made no mistake. As the Rangers keeper advanced, she calmly passed the ball through his legs and into the goal.
1–0!
YESSSSS!!!!!!’ came a shout from our parents on the side of the pitch.
Lily went on a little run, holding her arms out like aeroplane wings. When I caught up with her she grinned and thanked me for the pass.
‘No problem,’ I told her.
‘Next time I’ll set one up for you,’ she replied with a wink.
Lily wasn’t joking either. Two minutes later we were on the attack again. This time it was Corky who beat his defender, out on the left. He pushed the ball inside for Byron to run onto. Byron controlled it and ran at the goal. As Martin tried to get to him, he squared the ball to Lily and once again she was clean through.
I sprinted to get into the space between her and Chris. She realized I was there and placed the ball right in my path. It was a brilliant ball and all I had to do was take on the goalie and blast it into the net . . .
Wham!
Once again, my legs were scythed out from beneath me. A big defender backed away, his hands up as he tried to look innocent but the ref was having none of it. A direct free kick, right on the edge of the box.
This was mine! As the defenders shuffled into place to form their wall, I placed the ball and took a few steps back, then I slammed it home, curling it right up into the top corner just like I’d practised. I whirled round to celebrate.
It was 2–0!
Five minutes later and we were 3–0 up! This time it was from a cross by Leon. Byron had been fouled out on the right. Leon sent the free kick sailing over into the Rangers penalty area. And there at the back post was Steven, who headed the ball home. We were absolutely stuffing Rangers and it was all because of our new system. It felt like we had double the number of players that they had. Every time I looked around there was one of my team-mates in space. It was great!
Half time came quickly and we didn’t have much of a team talk at all. Ian just told us to keep playing and passing.
‘Keep moving too,’ added Wendy. ‘Rangers can’t cope with it.’
We started the second half with Emma coming on for Corky, Pete for Chris, and Penny replacing Byron, who had twisted his ankle. There were no goals for the first fifteen minutes, but then Penny se
t up Lily for her second and it was 4–0!
Five minutes after that, Pete took on four players and set up Lily for a hat trick. The game ended 5–0 and we had been awesome!
‘Told you I’d get three,’ Lily said to me as we left the pitch. ‘That’s soccer ninja magic, that is!’
I grinned at her. I hadn’t really liked Lily when she first joined our team. I’d thought that girls were rubbish at football. But they were all great – and Lily was better than most of the boys that I knew. I had a feeling that we were heading for glory and Lily and the rest of the Barbies were going to help us get there.
‘Great game!’ said Wendy as we huddled after the match.
‘Yeah,’ said Ian. ‘But keep focused because next week we’ve got our toughest game yet. We’ve drawn . . . Clarendon United in the Cup!’
No one said a word. Clarendon were a great team. And they’d already beaten us at the beginning of the season.
‘That’s going to be a really tough match,’ Dal said to me.
I nodded. Dal was right. If the Rushton Reds were going to get to the Cup final, we were going to have to do it the hard way!
Chapter 8
Tuesday
‘I DON’T BELIEVE you!’ Parvy said to me at training.
‘It’s true,’ I insisted.
I’d been telling her about Steve and how he had once been a real professional footballer.
‘But he would be famous,’ she replied.
I shook my head. ‘He got a really bad injury and he had to stop playing,’ I said.
‘Wow!’ added Penny, who was standing with us.
The weather had turned cold and horrible. It was raining and we were getting soaked. Wendy and Ian had us split into small groups. We were practising passing the ball to each other. They had us jogging up and down the pitch, at angles to each other, passing the ball. Each one of us had a number and we had to call out the number of the person we were about to pass to. It was hard work.
‘You never stop thinking,’ Ian told us. ‘During a game you have to keep focused.’
I looked over at Chris and Dal and smirked. ‘Ian?’ I asked.
‘Yes, Abs?’
I pointed at Dal and Chris. ‘It’s a bit hard to stay focused when I have to look at their ugly faces!’ I joked.
The rest of the squad started laughing – except for Dal, Chris and Lily.
‘Don’t you dare call my husband ugly!’ replied Lily. ‘He’s not ugly – he’s handsome and lovely . . .’
For a moment I thought that Lily was really upset but then she grinned and I realized that she was trying to wind me up. Dal went red. As usual. He told Lily not to call him her husband.
‘Oh, don’t be silly,’ she told him. ‘You know you love me!’ She turned and pranced over to Jason. ‘Or I might have to have another husband . . .’ she teased. Now it was Jason’s turn to go bright red. He really did fancy Lily!
Ian and Wendy grinned before Ian told us to be quiet and listen.
‘The game against Clarendon will be tough,’ he said. ‘They are playing really well. But so are we. We know we can score goals and we know we can defend. We’re going to have to do both in order to beat them.’
Wendy nodded. ‘But we don’t want to overdo the training. Soccer is also about having fun. So this week we won’t be training on Thursday . . .’ she told us.
Half the team groaned and the other half cheered. I was one of the moaners. I loved training and I loved being with my team-mates. Training on Thursdays made Saturdays come more quickly too. And Saturdays were my favourite day of the week.
‘OK, Reds,’ said Ian. ‘Let’s get out of the rain and talk tactics inside.’
We all went off to get changed. Once we were done, we gathered together in the community centre, which sat behind our home pitch. No one knew what was going to happen as we had never had a team meeting to talk tactics before. We’d spoken about them but never seen Ian draw out things on a whiteboard. It looked really weird, with blue arrows for attackers and midfield and red arrows to show defenders. Ian told us to talk amongst ourselves as he and Wendy went to get something from Ian’s car.
‘I don’t understand that diagram,’ said Parvy in a whisper.
‘Nor do I,’ admitted Penny.
I shrugged. It was time to wind the Barbies up with a joke!
‘So much for ninja skills,’ I said. ‘It’s really easy to see what Ian’s doing.’
‘If you’re sooo clever, Abs,’ replied Parvy, ‘why don’t you tell us what it means?’
‘The red arrows are . . . erm . . . they’re the girls and the blue ones are the boys!’ I said, teasing them.
Parvy looked suspicious but Penny fell for it.
‘Oh, really?’ she said.
‘Yeah,’ I told her. ‘It just means that the boys are better at attacking than the girls . . .’ I added.
‘Oh,’ said Penny.
‘Don’t listen to him!’ Parvy told her. ‘Abs is just teasing you.’
Penny asked me if I was joking and I said no. But I couldn’t stop grinning.
‘You horrible, smelly, nasty, horrible . . . boy!’ she complained.
‘I was only joking,’ I told her.
‘Joking?’ asked Parvy. ‘Like when you run?’
I frowned. ‘What’s wrong with the way I run?’ I asked.
Parvy shrugged. ‘It’s not me,’ she said, seriously. ‘Ian said it.’
Now I was starting to get worried. ‘What did Ian say?’ I asked.
‘I’m not sure that I should tell you,’ replied Parvy. ‘It’s quite serious and I think you should ask him . . .’
‘But . . .’ I began.
‘He said that you need to get something to help you run better,’ she added.
‘What do I need to get?’ I asked, getting really, really worried.
Parvy shrugged again. ‘Nobody knows,’ she said. ‘It’s a medical mystery.’
Now I was getting frustrated. ‘What is?’ I snapped. ‘What’s a mystery?’
Parvy and Penny began to grin.
‘Why you run like a chicken!’ Parvy yelled.
It took a few seconds but then I realized. I’d been trying to wind the Barbies up and they’d actually done it to me. I had really thought that there was something wrong with my running.
‘Gotcha!’ said Penny.
‘Cabbages!’ I replied. ‘Smelly, mouldy, rat-bitten cabbages!’
Parvy and Penny gave me a funny look.
‘Abs?’ asked Parvy.
‘Yes?’
‘Why is it that every time you call people names, you use vegetables?’
I shrugged. ‘Have you ever seen a cool vegetable?’ I asked. ‘They’re all lumpy and smelly and they don’t taste nice.’
Penny nodded. ‘That’s a good point,’ she admitted. ‘I don’t like vegetables.’
Parvy shook her head. ‘Yeah, but what about peas? Peas are cool!’ she said.
‘Peas?’ I asked. ‘Yuck! Peas are nasty . . .’
Parvy smiled. ‘And carrots,’ she added.
‘Carrots are great. They look like little orange people with mad green hair . . .’
I looked at Penny.
‘No, they don’t look like people!’ said Penny.
‘They do if you draw faces on them with a felt tip,’ replied Parvy.
‘Hey?’ I asked. ‘When did you do that?’
Parvy shrugged. ‘Last Christmas. I was bored and there were loads of carrots from my mum’s allotment in the garage. I took one and drew a face on it. It was my friend – I called it George . . .’
This time Penny looked at me. Her face said that Parvy was mental!
‘George?’ I asked. ‘You called a carrot George?’
Parvy nodded, so I asked her why.
‘Because I don’t like Bob as a name,’ she said, the weirdo.
Before things could get any stranger, Ian and Wendy returned. And behind them was Steve!
‘Hello, Reds!’ he sai
d as everyone realized who it was.
‘It’s Steve!’ I said excitedly.
Parvy shook her head. ‘No – I called it George,’ she said, still talking about the carrot.
But I just ignored her. I was more interested in finding out what Steve was doing at training. Was he back for good?
‘OK, Reds . . . Steve has come in to see you, so gather round,’ said Ian.
We did as he asked and I found myself standing with Dal and Jason.
‘I wonder what he’s going to tell us?’ asked Jason.
‘I bet he’s coming back!’ I said.
‘Hope so,’ added Dal.
But when Steve started speaking we learned that he wasn’t coming back to coach us. Not ever.
‘I’m afraid that I just need the rest,’ he told us. ‘But that doesn’t mean I won’t be coming to watch you play . . .’
As he spoke his voice sort of changed and he coughed a lot. I felt really sad that he couldn’t coach us any more. I wanted to do something to help him, but there was nothing that I could do.
‘But can’t you just do a little bit of training?’ asked Jason.
Steve shook his head. ‘I’m afraid not, son,’ he replied. ‘I’m not allowed to.’
‘But, Steve—!’ began Dal.
‘It’s OK,’ Steve told us. ‘Just go out there and win the Cup for me. That’ll make me happy . . .’
Me and my best friends all looked at each other. Lily and her friends looked around too. Every single Red in the room wore a serious face. A determined face. I put up my hand to speak.
‘Yes, Abs?’ asked Steve
‘We are going to win the Cup,’ I told him.
‘Do you mean you’re going to try your best?’ he replied.
‘No,’ said Parvy from behind me. ‘I think what Abs means is that we are going to win.’
Steve kind of gulped and looked at Ian and Wendy.
‘Tell the television people to bring lots of film,’ added Byron. ‘There are going to be loads of goals!’
Chapter 9
Saturday
SATURDAY CAME AROUND so quickly. One minute I was on my way home after Tuesday’s training, the next I was standing in the wind and the rain, waiting for the semi-final to start.