“Soccer Game”

A micro memoir by Anonymous (9).

I struggled to get up as I was called to take the shot “I’ll kill you if you miss this pen dude!” said my teammate as the strain on my back beckoned me to fall and succumb to my pain, despite that, I stood tall and readied myself to take the shot with what felt like the world on my shoulders, with every one of my teammates counting on me. Then I mustered up all my strength, ran up, and took the shot.

It was January 21st on a Friday afternoon and we would have to play San Mateo High School right after school. Once I had finished my Spanish class, I made my way down to the field to warm up and get changed, and as we warmed up, you could feel the tension between every single one of us. We wanted to win. Before the game began, our coach gave us the starting lineup, and my teammates were as fired up as ever except for me feeling nervous as hell, but I hid it because people were expecting my best today and I didn’t want to let them down.

After that, our captain calls the team together and we chant “DONS ON ME DONS ON THREE 1, 2, 3, DONS!” and we run out onto the field as the game kicks off. San Mateo starts strong as the game begins, getting a few shots off on goal, but our defenders and keeper can ward off the attack, and we can counter, but nothing comes from it.

Finally, when the game kicked up, I tried to contest the monster of a center back who was standing at a height of six foot four, and out of nowhere as I won the ball I felt a sharp pain in my back but I carried on and continued to play through the pain. Later in the game, my teammate runs down the wing and crosses the ball in for a one-time finish, but I get pushed from behind as I reach my leg out, worsening my current condition. But I still get up to take the penalty kick and as I run up and shoot, the keeper guesses correctly and saves my penalty, and the game ends with a one-nil loss.

Then after the game, I was hit with a vast block of despair, the feeling that missing that penalty left me depressed for 3 days and it hurt because all I wanted to do was make everyone proud of me but I ended up letting everyone down. However, now looking back at that day even though it was only a few weeks ago I realized it was not the end of the world and I needed to move on and just practice to get better and to not push myself too hard and that I have friends who will support me through my struggles if something like that happens again.