by Bali Rai
Ian had picked a strong team. We had Gem in goal, with a back four of Leon, Dal, Steven and Parvy. In midfield, Byron and Jason were central, with Corky on the right and Lily playing left wing. I was up front with Chris. Four-four-two. We were all really confident that we’d do well. But the last time we’d played them, Clarendon United had beaten us. And they had beaten us well. The Cup semi-final was our chance to show how much better we’d got. And to show our coach Steve how much we’d learned from his coaching. Wendy had brought Steve to the match with her. He wasn’t going to miss this match!
Wendy then gathered us in a huddle before kickoff.
‘Try and keep it tight at the back,’ she’d said. ‘Don’t take too many risks and make sure you defend as a team.’
Now, as we faced the Clarendon players, all I could think about was Steve. I still couldn’t believe that he was never going to coach us again. We’d only had one season as Rushton Reds and we’d lost one of our coaches. We’d also lost lots of players to other teams. And then there was all the teasing that we’d taken. All because we had girls in our squad. I wanted to win the Cup for all of those reasons. I wanted to show everybody that we deserved the glory. All of the Reds – the boys, the girls and the coaches too.
The referee blew his whistle and the game started. There were loads of fans for both sides cheering the players on. And Wendy’s television friends were also there with their cameras – they’d followed us through the season and they were rooting for us too now.
Clarendon got on the ball quickly and began to pass it around. For about five minutes we were chasing shadows. Then there was a break in our midfield and one of their players, a lad called Sanjay, came away with the ball.
He ran at Dal and Steven at pace. Steven stepped out to meet him, but Sanjay’s momentum was too strong and he nudged past Steven like he wasn’t there. Dal tried to get to him but Sanjay played the ball square to one of their strikers, Marcus. Marcus turned and fired a shot at our goal. But Gem saw it coming and she blocked it. The ball bounced away and into Sanjay’s path again. This time he tried to run around Gem. But she blocked him and managed to get to the ball.
She got up quickly and ran to the edge of her area. She threw the ball to Jason, who turned and passed it quickly to Lily, out on the left. Lily took two touches and then cut inside her defender, leaving him on his backside. She skipped another challenge and ran for the box.
I saw my chance. I told Chris to go for the near post, which he did. The defenders both went with him. That left me free at the back post and Lily passed me the ball. I controlled it and then lifted it over their advancing keeper.
It was 1–0!
I didn’t celebrate though. I just ran back to my position and focused, like Ian had told us to do. The rest of the Reds did the same.
The game restarted with a free kick to Clarendon. Parvy had fouled their winger and she was apologising to him. The winger told her to get lost and Byron heard. He ran over and started shouting at the lad. But then Steven grabbed him and moved him away. The ref told Byron off and then Sanjay took the free kick.
We thought he’d play it into the box because Clarendon’s strikers were taller than our defenders. But he played it short instead, to a lad called Will. Will was short with spiky black hair and he had his socks rolled down. I remembered him from the first game. He had quick feet and could dribble really fast.
I sprinted back, hoping to help my defence out. But Will was far too quick. He skipped past Parvy’s challenge and made it to the by-line. There he unleashed a wicked cross which landed right at the feet of Marcus, the striker. Marcus slammed the ball home.
It was 1–1!
The Clarendon players ran to the goalscorer and jumped on him. They were cheering and whooping like they’d already won the game. But it was only 1–1 and we had a lot more left in us.
I turned to Chris. ‘Let’s try and get at their centre backs,’ I told him.
‘Yeah,’ he agreed. ‘They’re a bit slow, so I reckon we can beat them.’
I grinned. ‘Let’s do it!’ I replied.
But for the next ten minutes we couldn’t get near the ball. Every time our defence managed to clear an attack, Clarendon started another one. I tried my hardest to get back and help out, but Ian shouted at me to hold my position.
‘Keep the shape, Abs!’ he was shouting. ‘Give them an outlet . . . !’
I could see what he meant too. If I had gone back to defend, then we’d only have Chris up front against four defenders. That would put us under even more pressure. So I stuck with my position but still got frustrated. And it only got worse because Clarendon scored again.
It started with a mistake from Lily. She lost the ball in midfield and it was seized by Sanjay. This time he attacked Leon and beat him too. As Dal put in a challenge, Sanjay fed the ball to Marcus. He swivelled and blasted the ball into the net to make it 2–1 to them!
‘NO!!!!!!!’ groaned half of the Reds.
The Clarendon players ran to their coach to celebrate.
‘WE’RE GONNA WIN THE CUP, WE’RE GONNA WIN THE CUP!!!!’ they sang.
Five minutes later and it was 3–1. This time they played a great move and beat us fair and square. We couldn’t get near to them and Will, the little one with the rolled-down socks, scored with a great shot. In the past I would have moaned about the goal and tried to blame someone. But not this time. I could see the faces of my team-mates. Everyone looked gutted. We had honestly believed that we had a great chance of winning the game. But we were getting beaten and it didn’t feel good.
We all trudged off slowly at half time. No one was excited any more, no one was chatting. I went over to the touchline and sat down. What were we going to do? Wendy passed around orange slices as Ian talked to us.
‘That was difficult,’ he told us. ‘They’re playing well. But we have to believe.’
Byron asked him what we had to do next.
Ian smiled. ‘Firstly,’ he told us, ‘we need to get some goals so we’re switching to three-five-two like we did in the last game. You midfielders must back up the defence when necessary – they’re a strong team – but should also be ready to move forward and put the pressure on. Emma is coming on for Corky and we’ll make more substitutions later. Secondly, we’re all going to believe . . .’
‘Huh?’ said a load of us together.
Ian nodded. ‘Yes,’ he told us. ‘We’re going to believe – because if you believe in yourselves, then anything is possible. Anything.’
Wendy agreed with him. ‘Who remembers Liverpool versus AC Milan in the Champions League Final a few years ago?’ she asked.
Dal, Chris and Emma all put up their hands.
‘Did they let their heads drop?’ asked Wendy.
‘NO!’ shouted Dal and Chris together.
‘Did they mope about like losers?’ she said.
‘NO!’ said three quarters of the team.
‘Did they go and do what everyone thought was impossible?’ she added.
‘YES!!!!!!’ shouted everyone.
Wendy grinned. ‘So go out there and do it, y’all!’ she ordered.
Chapter 10
FROM THE KICKOFF Clarendon didn’t know what to do. Our system had changed and we were on the attack. We were winning all the tackles and getting to all of the loose balls first. Byron and Jason worked like demons in the middle, breaking up Clarendon’s play and passing the ball well. It was great. But with ten minutes left to play we still hadn’t scored.
Then Ian did something really brave. He took off Parvy and Leon and replaced them with Ben and Penny. Two defenders off and two attackers on. Byron moved into the three-man defence and Ben joined me and Chris up front.
Ben hadn’t played much and, although he was really good in training, we hadn’t seen much of him on the pitch. All of that changed though, seconds after he came on. Jason won the ball again and looked up. I ran to his left and Chris went right. Jason gave the ball to Ben instead. Without looking up, B
en ran at the Clarendon defence. He swerved this way and that way, left and right, until he’d made all the Clarendon defenders dizzy. And then, just when any other player would have shot at goal, he passed left to Lily and gave her an easy tap-in.
3–2!
Once again we didn’t celebrate. We’d pulled one back, but we still needed at least one more. Lily grabbed the ball and ran back to the centre circle. She placed the ball for the Clarendon players and took up her position. Sanjay and Will laughed at her.
‘What’s the matter?’ Sanjay asked her. ‘Lost your lipstick?’
Lily smiled at him. ‘Make way for the ninja,’ she said.
‘Huh?’ replied Sanjay.
But Lily didn’t say another word. Instead, as soon as Will kicked off, she ran in and nicked the ball, before Sanjay could get to it. She was so quick that Sanjay didn’t even move. And when he did react, she was gone! She tore down the wing like a hare, and no one could stop her. I’d never seen her move so fast. I sprinted for the box, knowing that I’d have a good chance of scoring if she could get the ball to me. I moved into a space and tried to get her attention. Instead of passing to me, she gave it to Chris, who turned his defender inside out. He was clean through on goal.
‘SHOOT!!!!!!!’ yelled Jason from behind me.
But Chris didn’t shoot. He waited and then pretended to pass the ball to his left. Only he didn’t actually pass the ball. Instead he rolled it left, under his foot, and then sent it the other way, sliding it across to Ben on his right!
The Clarendon defence didn’t know what had hit them. They had all moved to the left and Ben calmly scored the equalizer.
3–3!
That was it. Our supporters went crazy. They were jumping up and down on the sidelines. Even Wendy joined in. And Ian just stood where he was, with his arms folded. But unlike in the past, he was actually smiling. A big, wide, mega-grin. Next to him, Steve’s grin was even bigger!
‘ONLY ONE TEAM GOING TO WIN THIS GAME!’ shouted Wendy.
And she was right. Clarendon put us under pressure from the restart but the shot from Marcus, when it came, was weak. Gem gathered it up and threw it to Penny, who ran with it. She avoided two tackles and then passed inside to Emma. Emma turned her marker and found herself in space. She could have passed it to Jason. It would have been the easiest pass to make.
But Emma had other things on her mind. She played the ball, with the outside of her left foot, to Lily who was right on the touchline. Lily gathered the pass and then teased her marker. The lad kept thinking he could win the ball but every time Lily showed it to him, she took it away just as quickly. She was making him look like a donkey! Finally, as the lad grew exasperated, she flicked the ball over his head and then ran around him. He was so gutted that he didn’t even try to stop her after that.
Like a flash she was in the box, and once again she ignored Jason and Chris and passed it across to Penny.
Penny took on her defender and squared it for Emma. Emma waited for a defender to make his move and she passed inside to Lily. Then Emma ran into the space and took the ball back.
I saw my chance. I ran for the back post. A big defender stood next to me. He was nudging me, trying to get me off-balance. But I held my ground. Emma pretended to shoot but then flicked the ball with her instep to Lily. My marker saw the move and tried in desperation to stop Lily getting a free shot on goal. But that was his mistake!
Lily flicked the ball up into the air. I could see it coming in my direction. I watched it, concentrating on it, until it was right where I wanted.
I lashed the shot home!
4–3!!!!!!
The game was surely over. We had to win now. There were, like, ten seconds left to play. I raced for my coaches with the rest of the team right behind me. When I got to Ian I jumped into him. One by one, the other Reds did the same. We were ecstatic!!!!!! And Steve was punching the air in triumph!
Seconds later the referee blew for full time. Lily and Dal grabbed me and hugged me.
‘Welcome to the Soccer Ninja Club!’ Lily said to me.
‘YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!’ I screamed.
We’d done it! The most teased team in the league. A team full of girls. A team that kept losing its players. A team that had lost its most experienced coach. And yet we were now in the Cup Final. The Rushton Reds had proved their critics wrong.
We were on our way to glory!!!!!!!
‘COME ON, YOU REDS!!!!’ we all sang. ‘COME ON, YOU REDS!!!!!!’
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bali Rai thinks he is a very lucky man. He gets to write all day if he wants to, or go into schools to speak to his readers about what they think of his books. He loves films, music, reading, seeing friends and watching his beloved Liverpool FC.
Bali played for his school team as a defender and loved it. He has been a lifelong football fan since he began watching Match of the Day at the age of four with his dad. He enjoys talking and arguing about Liverpool FC, and would like to be Rafa Benitez’s or Steven Gerrard’s personal servant, but if this does not happen he is happy to carry on writing for his thousands of fans.
Bali was very honoured that his short novel Dream On (about a young footballer) was chosen for the first Booked-Up list and was made available to every Year 7 school child.
Bali’s books are now in ten languages and he gets to travel all over the world to meet his readers. He hopes that he can encourage anyone to have a go at writing and to find a love of reading. He has won lots of book awards and really enjoys winning the ones that are voted for by the real readers – you!
Bali lives in his home city of Leicester .
He has a lovely wife and a football-crazy daughter.
Read every book in this action-packed
football series!
STARTING ELEVEN
MISSING!
STARS!
GLORY!
SOCCER SQUAD: GLORY!
AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 407 05054 6
Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,
an imprint of Random House Children’s Publishers UK
A Random House Group Company
This ebook edition published 2014
Copyright © Bali Rai, 2008
Illustrations copyright © Mike Phillips, 2008
First Published in Great Britain
Red Fox 9781862306561 2008
The right of Bali Rai to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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