T.J. and the Penalty

by Theo Walcott

  ‘I don’t . . . I mean, this doesn’t mean I have to be a goalie for ever and ever, does it?’ Jamie asked.

  Mr Wood shook his head. ‘Just do your best,’ he said.

  Jamie grinned. ‘OK, then,’ he said. ‘I’ll have a go.’

  ‘Right,’ said Mr Wood, as the Wasps captain struggled to his feet out on the pitch. ‘You realize I’m going to have to take one of you off?’

  None of them had thought of that. Jamie could only come on as a substitute. ‘I think it’ll have to be you, Rodrigo,’ Mr Wood said. ‘We can’t take a defender off, and if we’re going to get back in the game we’re going to need our strikers. Rafi, you’ll be in midfield on your own, but Tulsi and TJ will come back and help you. You’re all going to have a lot of running to do.’

  ‘Good luck, Jamie,’ Rodrigo said, as he walked over to the touchline and Cameron ran up with the goalie’s top. Jamie pulled the top over his head.

  ‘Look at that,’ said TJ. ‘It fits! You must have got thinner, Jamie.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Rodrigo,’ Jamie said. ‘I didn’t know he’d take you off.’

  ‘OK, everyone,’ Mr Wood said. ‘This is going to be very hard work, but I don’t want you to just defend. If you do that, they’ll keep on scoring goals. You have to attack them. Take them by surprise. But first you’ve got a free kick to defend.’

  They made their way back onto the pitch.

  ‘OK, Leroy?’ the Wasps coach said to his captain.

  Leroy walked a few steps and then nodded. ‘I’ll be fine,’ he said. TJ could see the angry red marks on his thigh where Danny’s boots had scraped.

  Jamie stood between the goalposts and clapped his hands. ‘Come on, Parkview,’ he yelled. ‘We can beat this lot.’

  TJ saw the Wasps players around him laughing, but just looking at Jamie standing there in goal made him feel better. Rafi, Tommy and Leila made a wall on the edge of the penalty area. The ref blew his whistle and Leroy took the free kick. It bent around the wall and into the top corner of the net.

  Even Jamie couldn’t do anything except watch it. It was a perfect free kick.

  ‘Don’t worry, Parkview,’ Jamie yelled, as he threw the ball back to the centre circle. ‘We beat Hillside, didn’t we? We were three nil down then, and we won it.’

  There was a ripple of applause from the small group of Parkview supporters on the touchline. ‘Come on, Parkview,’ Mr Burrows yelled. ‘You can do it!’

  ‘We have to move more,’ TJ said to Tulsi. ‘We have to confuse them a bit. We can swap places sometimes, and we have to help Rafi make tackles.’

  Tulsi nodded her agreement.

  They kicked off. Rafi raced into space and received a pass. He took the lightest of touches and then laid the ball off to TJ. TJ didn’t even need to take a touch. He saw Tommy moving forward and tapped the ball to him. Tommy moved it on smoothly to Tulsi, who was close to the Wasps penalty area with her back to the goal. She controlled the ball and shielded it from the defender behind her, as Rafi and TJ ran towards the penalty area, then she played a pass into TJ’s path. TJ flicked the ball past the defender, catching him by surprise, and sprinted for the goal line. He heard his brother, Joey, yell, ‘Go on, TJ!’ and he knew the Wasps defender would never catch him.

  He hit his cross hard across the penalty area – but there was no one there.

  The ball flashed harmlessly between the Wasps defenders and their goalie and went out for a throw-in on the other side of the pitch.

  ‘Where were you?’ he said to Tulsi.

  ‘You didn’t look, did you?’ she said.

  ‘No, but it was a perfect cross. You should have known what I’d do.’

  ‘Oh, what, I’m supposed to be a mind-reader now, am I?’

  ‘Stop it, you two,’ yelled Rafi. ‘Get back!’

  Wasps had taken the throw-in quickly and the black-haired defender was running forward with the ball at his feet. TJ sprinted after him, breathing hard. Rafi didn’t know whether to mark Leroy, or go and challenge the running defender. There seemed to be Wasps players everywhere. Just as TJ caught up with the defender he struck his shot, and TJ saw the ball rocketing towards the top left-hand corner. It was a certain goal.

  But then Jamie took off. No one else in the team could have reached the ball, but Jamie stretched out his fingertips and pushed it over the bar. Everyone on the pitch stared, as Jamie rolled on the ground and then stood up with a streak of mud on his face.

  ‘Brilliant save, lad,’ said the ref, as he pointed to the corner flag.

  ‘JAMIE, JAMIE!’ chanted the Parkview fans.

  ‘Don’t just stand there,’ Jamie yelled. ‘Defend!’

  They all ran back into the penalty area, as Leroy took the corner, but Jamie didn’t need them. ‘Keeper’s!’ he yelled, and he jumped through the swarm of Wasps players to pull the ball out of the air, as the ref blew the whistle for half time.

  CHAPTER 13

  ‘I’M AMAZED,’ SAID Mr Wood to Jamie, as he handed out slices of orange. ‘That’s one of the best saves I’ve ever seen.’ TJ was almost sure that Jamie blushed.

  ‘We’re still losing three nil though,’ Rafi pointed out.

  ‘Yes, but you are starting to play some good football,’ Mr Wood replied. ‘And I’ve got a feeling that your fitness training might be paying off. You were making them work quite hard and one or two of them were starting to puff a little.’

  ‘They think they’ve already won,’ Rob said, as he handed out the water bottles. ‘Look at them.’

  The Wasps players were standing around laughing with their mums and dads. Some of them were drinking Coke and TJ saw one of them with an ice cream. Then the Wasps coach, Brian, came out of the dressing room with Leroy, who now had a big white bandage around his thigh. When Brian saw what was happening, his face darkened and they heard him shouting at the players, waving their mums and dads away.

  ‘You’re right, Rob,’ Mr Wood said with a grin. ‘A lot of teams get over-confident when they’re three nil up, and it looks like they’re as human as anyone else.’

  ‘They’ve still got an extra player,’ TJ pointed out.

  ‘I think the Coke and ice cream should just about cancel that out,’ Mr Wood told them. ‘Let’s really give them something to think about.’

  Wasps kicked off, and straight away they were on the attack, zipping the ball from player to player before the Parkview players could get near it. They passed it out to the right wing, where a skinny black boy dribbled forward to take on Tommy. ‘Pass it, Martin,’ yelled the Wasps coach, but Martin paid no attention. In the first half he had never once tried to beat Tommy with the ball, but now he was over-confident and he started to show off. He stepped over it once, then twice, then dragged it back with the sole of his foot and flicked it with the outside of his right boot.

  Tommy didn’t watch Martin’s fancy foot-work. He just watched the ball, and when Martin tried to go past him he simply reached out a foot and took the ball away from him. There were groans from the Wasps supporters, as Tommy clipped the ball to Rafi, who had been darting backwards and forwards trying to lose his marker and had managed to find a few metres of space. Rafi dragged the ball backwards away from the Wasps player who was trying to tackle him.

  Tulsi was running diagonally away from him with her marker trailing behind her.

  Rafi had to judge the pass carefully. If he hit it too hard it would run out of play before Tulsi could catch it, and if it wasn’t hard enough then the defender would get it. He struck the ball just the way Mr Wood had shown him in training, chipping it so that it would be spinning backwards as it hit the ground, and would slow up just a little.

  Tulsi saw the ball dropping over her head and she sprinted after it. ‘Our throw!’ yelled the Wasps fans, as she controlled the ball right on the line and moved off down the wing, but the linesman’s flag stayed down.

  Tulsi had kept the ball in play, and now she looked up and saw TJ running towards the penalty area. She curve
d her pass into his path so that he didn’t have to pause in his run, but there was still the tall, black-haired defender in his way.

  TJ took one touch, and he saw the hesitation in the defender’s eyes. Then the defender burped, very loudly, and in a split second TJ had skipped past him and buried the ball in the net, low to the goalkeeper’s left.

  The Parkview fans screamed and shouted as if they had won the match. ‘Concentrate, Parkview,’ yelled Mr Wood, as TJ grabbed the ball from the net and ran back to place it on the centre spot. ‘That was good work. Don’t waste it!’

  TJ looked over as Mr Wood spoke and saw a stocky man in a grey puffa jacket and a red woolly hat standing beside him, saying something. Mr Wood nodded in agreement. TJ knew that he’d seen the man somewhere very recently, but he couldn’t remember where. ‘Who’s that?’ he asked Tulsi, as they waited for Wasps to restart the game.

  Tulsi shrugged. ‘Some friend of Mr Wood’s, I expect. Come on, let’s get another one.’

  ‘Keep going, Wasps,’ called one of their supporters. ‘Show ’em how you can sting!’

  Leroy didn’t need any encouragement. TJ could see that he was angry they’d conceded a goal. Straight from the kick-off, he took the ball and headed down the middle of the pitch towards Jamie’s goal. He took Rafi completely by surprise, and brushed off his weak tackle as if he hadn’t even noticed him. He was clean through on goal.

  But Jamie was there. He had seen what was happening and moved quickly off his line. Now, as Leroy pulled back his foot to shoot, Jamie threw himself, full-length, on the ground at Leroy’s feet. The shot cannoned into his stomach at point-blank range, but Jamie jumped quickly to his feet and rolled the ball to Tommy.

  Tommy saw his chance and raced past two stunned Wasps players before they had time to move. Then, as they ran towards him, he played the ball across the width of the pitch to Leila, who hit a first-time pass to TJ. TJ could see the fear in the eyes of the black-haired defender. Another defender was coming to help him, but that left Tulsi completely unmarked. TJ simply passed the ball between the two defenders, and Tulsi lashed her shot past the goalkeeper.

  TJ ran all the way back to Jamie and whacked him on the back. ‘Brilliant, Jamie,’ he said. ‘We’d probably be losing five nil if it wasn’t for you. And that was a great pass, Leila.’

  Leila went bright red. Jamie’s brothers were jumping around on the touchline, chanting his name. As TJ ran past them, he saw a Wasps supporter pointing at the other side of the pitch, where Mr Wood was standing with the man in the red hat.

  ‘He’s a scout from Wanderers,’ the man said. ‘I’ve seen him down here before.’

  TJ felt his heart pounding. He saw the buzz spreading along the touchline, as the spectators realized there was a scout watching. If Parkview kept playing well then any of them might have a chance to get into the Wanderers Academy. TJ hardly dared to think it, but it might even be him.

  CHAPTER 14

  IT WAS 3–2 to Wasps, as they kicked off again, and the noise of the crowd was loud in TJ’s ears. The game must be nearly over, but he hadn’t seen the referee look at his watch yet. And he suddenly felt nervous. What if he played badly? What if he made a mistake?

  ‘TJ,’ yelled Rafi. ‘Wake up!’

  TJ realized he’d let Rafi’s pass slide past him into touch. He shook himself and held up a hand to say sorry. He raced after the Wasps player who had the ball and tackled him, winning it back. As he moved away, he could hear that the player he’d tackled was breathing hard. He played it back to Rafi, who passed it on to Tommy. TJ could see that all the Wasps players were struggling. Maybe it was the food and drink they’d had at half time, or maybe Mr Wood’s fitness training was paying off. We’re going to get a draw, he thought – and then he saw the ref look at his watch.

  Suddenly he knew that he could beat the flagging Wasps defenders. He ran into the centre circle, calling for the ball, and Tommy passed it. A defender had followed him, but TJ touched the ball into space with the outside of his boot and left the defender stranded as he tore after it. He felt exhilarated, as if he could run all day. He saw another defender approaching, swayed one way, and moved the opposite way, all at top speed.

  And now he could see the goal, and the keeper coming out towards him. He picked his spot, right inside the far post. His world seemed to focus down to that tiny point where he wanted the ball to go, and he struck it as hard as he knew how.

  He knew it was right from the moment it left his boot. There was nothing the goalkeeper could do to stop it – and it was the last kick of the match. They had drawn with Wasps!

  It was only when the celebrations had died down that TJ remembered the scout. He looked around for him, but he’d gone. TJ shrugged to himself. He’d been stupid, anyway, to get worked up about that. It had been a great game, and it looked as if they had found a brilliant goalkeeper. Although Jamie didn’t seem so sure.

  ‘I like tackling people,’ he said, when the tenth person had told him what a terrific keeper he was. ‘I like shooting.’

  ‘Yeah, but you’re better at being a goalie,’ said Rob. ‘You’re a good tackler, but you’re an excellent keeper.’

  ‘Maybe,’ said Jamie. ‘But it would have been better if Danny hadn’t lost his temper. I’d rather be a defender.’

  ‘Where is Danny anyway?’ asked TJ. He felt guilty about his back pass. That was what had started the trouble after all. ‘I’ll be back,’ he said, and he ran over to the dressing room.

  Danny was changed and sitting in the corner with his eyes closed. He didn’t look angry any more, just a bit sad. ‘Hey, Danny,’ TJ said. ‘I’m sorry about the back pass. It was tough luck getting sent off like that.’

  Danny looked up. ‘I suppose you’re all pleased now,’ he said. ‘None of you wanted me in the team in the first place.’

  ‘That’s not true . . .’

  ‘Of course it is. You’re new, so you don’t know anything. Why don’t you go away and leave me alone.’

  TJ turned to go out of the door. He paused. ‘We drew,’ he said. ‘Three all.’

  But Danny didn’t reply.

  Out on the field an excited knot of players and parents were walking towards the dressing rooms. Mr Burrows’ face was flushed. ‘A magnificent fight back,’ he was saying. ‘It really gives me hope. If you can take on the mighty Meadow Green Wasps, then I really think there’s no reason we can’t see off those terrible inspectors.’

  Mr Burrows’ excitement was infectious, but TJ still didn’t feel right. While they were changing he couldn’t help noticing Danny sitting alone in the corner. No one said a word to him. And TJ realized that Jamie didn’t look too happy either.

  ‘What’s up?’ asked his dad when TJ came out of the dressing room and walked over to his family. ‘You should be over the moon. You just scored two brilliant goals.’

  ‘I know,’ said TJ. ‘But not everyone’s happy. Look at Jamie. Look at Danny.’

  ‘Well,’ said TJ’s dad, ‘Jamie looks like a natural-born keeper to me, so I guess he’ll just have to get used to it. And as for Danny, it was a nasty challenge. The ref didn’t have any choice, you know.’

  ‘It’s not that,’ TJ replied. ‘It’s just, I know Danny can be a bit of a bully, but no one seems to like him, and I feel sorry for him.’

  Mr Wilson looked at TJ, then he ruffled his hair in a way that made TJ feel embarrassed and pleased at the same time. ‘If you feel like that, son, then I think you’ll find a way to work things out,’ his dad said. ‘We can talk about it later if you like. But right now I reckon we should celebrate. You were out for the count and you came back against the mighty Wasps. It was fantastic!’

  CHAPTER 15

  ON MONDAY MORNING when they filed into assembly, TJ saw that Mrs Hubbard, the school cook, was sitting on a chair beside Mr Burrows.

  ‘From today,’ Mr Burrows announced, ‘we are going to have new, healthy school meals. Mrs Hubbard is going to tell you all about it.’

  Mr
s Hubbard stood up. Everyone clapped and cheered and her face went very red. ‘It’s all because of that World Food Day,’ she said, once Mr Burrows had made them all be quiet. ‘I collected lots of recipes, and me and my ladies in the kitchen have been trying them out. So today all of you can try them out too.’

  There was loud clapping and quite a lot of yelling from the little ones. When they filed out of the hall TJ could already smell the lunch being cooked. Jamie groaned. ‘How will I keep fit if we have even more delicious lunches?’ he said.

  ‘They’re going to be healthy,’ Tulsi told him. ‘Weren’t you listening?’

  And when they went into the dining hall at lunch time, there were lots of salads and delicious-looking vegetables and curry, and no chips or burgers at all.

  ‘Brilliant, Mrs Hubbard,’ Rafi said. ‘Can I have that tropical fruit for afters, please?’

  ‘Of course,’ Mrs Hubbard said proudly. ‘And where’s my friend, Jamie? Oh, there you are, love. Look what I’ve got for you.’

  She reached under the shiny metal counter and pulled out a steaming pot of shepherd’s pie. ‘Just a little something extra,’ she said. ‘You look like you need building up so I reckon you need a bit more than these others.’

  ‘Mrs Hubbard, you can’t!’ exclaimed Tulsi. ‘You’ll spoil everything!’

  Mrs Hubbard’s face fell. ‘It’s all very well, all this healthy food,’ she said. ‘I do like it, but people like me and my husband, and young Jamie, we need a little more. We’re big-boned, you see.’

  ‘Thanks, Mrs Hubbard,’ said Jamie, and for an awful moment TJ thought he was going to take the pie. ‘But I really want to be in the team. I have to eat the right food. Can I just have the spicy chicken and rice, please? And some of that salad.’

  ‘Hey, well done, Jamie,’ Tulsi said, high-fiving him.

  ‘I want to get my old place back,’ Jamie replied, as they made their way to a table. ‘I’m going to be so fit that Mr Wood will have to make me a defender again.’