Dominance At Its Best

Author's Note: I wrote this because I really have no other pieces about soccer on my blog and soccer is a big part of my life. And we won a championship, so I decided that there would be no better way to show how good our team is and how much we've improved.

"Over our heads!" Coach spat the words like they were poison. What he said was true though, in more ways than one. The opposing team's goalie had just punted the ball deep, well behind any of our players. The soccer ball literally flew over our heads. Metaphorically speaking, we were also in over our heads.

The Spring Shoot-Out Tournament couldn't have been planned on a better weekend. The sun was out, there was a cool breeze, and our team was playing well. We had won our first game, tied our second and won our third, putting us into the semi-final. There, we performed great, winning by a large margin to send us to the Championship. Only then had our superb weekend turned bad.

The team we had to duke it out with for first place was about as skilled and athletic as we were, which spelled trouble for us because we rely on those two factors to win games. Throughout the entire first half, our players were beaten by the opposition in both hustle and ability. After playing so excellently, we had come into this game expecting to dominate. Instead, we were barely keeping our heads above water.

At half time, Coach was exasperated. He pointed out the numerous things that we did wrong in the first half and expected us to fix them. For some reason, we couldn't. Our play continued to be terrible into the second half. It was a miracle we were able to keep it tied and force it to over-time. Falling into our habits of the entire game, we were unable to score in the ten minutes allotted for extra time. That meant that the game was going to end how I had feared it would. The ultimate test on a goalie, a ball flying through the air from close range that you must block. A shootout.

I hadn't gotten a lot of action at goalie today, which has become typical as our team has gotten better. That means that I wasn't "warmed up", which means I hadn't had a soccer ball kicked multiple times at my head during the game like I prefer. My instincts are always ready, but being in the background the entire game had kind of gotten me used to standing there and not moving. Now though, I was about to thrust into the center of the action, with the fate of the game literally in my hands.

Given little time to prepare, I headed down to the goal to await my turn. Our team kicked first, and the ball soared past the goalie into the goal. Taking a deep breath, I stepped onto the line, as it was now my turn. The player from the other team looked overly confident, which was the opposite of me. Still with a cocky grin on his face, he kicked the ball . . . six feet over the goal. I didn't even flinch. Our team was up 1-0 with four kids still to kick.

Our next kicker drove the ball into the same spot as the first, past the goalie again. As before, I stepped into the goal, awaiting the kick. This time, the kid from the other team didn't look very confident. He kicked the ball right at my face, which I easily deflected. 2-0. Finally, our third player shot the ball, which again went past the goalie. If I could block this kick, the game would end because it would be impossible for the other team to score more goals than us. No pressure or anything.

I slowly walked to the line for what I hoped would be the last time. This opposing player didn't look anything. His face was blank, emotionless, calm. Mine, well, not so much. He took his steps back, ran towards the ball and kicked it . . . six feet over the goal! We had won! I looked over at where the rest of my team was sitting and saw them charging at me. It was the best feeling in the world knowing that I hadn't let my teammates down (Note: I also enjoy playing goalie because it gets my adrenaline pumping).

I write this because it shows how good our team has become. A year ago, we only dreamed of winning a tournament. Now we've won two, and with first place in our league one game away, we've really improved. The "A" league is really just around the bend for us, and there our skills will really develop because we'll have an actual challenge.