It was a humid spring day and my team, and I were getting ready for this soccer championship we’ve been working hard for. The ref checked us in and all I could feel were butterflies in my stomach. We all knew who we were about to go against because we saw their record, they have won every single game this season. Not only were we all nervous, we were all scared because we didn’t want all the hard work to go to waste. The game was about to start, and everything was super loud, you could hear the crowd, the whistle, the stomping when everyone would run, and the ball hitting the shoe. Then the whistle blew, and the game started.

The Opponents we were going against started with the ball and they would not let go, it was pass after pass after pass. It was so tiering then boom they scored. We felt like this was it, they have momentum now and some of my teammates started putting their heads down and giving up. At this age group which at the time was U15 we played only forty minutes instead of forty-five a half. By the thirtieth minute it was already three to zero. We were all just trying to hold off until half time, if they were to score another one it would have been game over for us. All our hard work for this season, making it to this spot for nothing.

Half time was called and we all came in for a ten-minute refresh. It felt like I drank a whole gallon of water it was so hot, and we were all working hard out there. Our coach started talking to us on what we must do to beat this team and what we must work on. It was an eye opener for all of us because we didn’t realize we were making these types of mistakes. Now that we knew what we had to do we were ready and we were ready for the comeback.

The whistle blew, and we kicked off this time within the first ten minutes I assisted my friend and we scored. We found out their weakness and we were going to abuse it to our full ability. We had twenty minutes left and we needed three more goals to win the game. Suddenly, I was on a one on one with the keeper and I scored. This gave us the momentum because now we are so close we can’t lose it now. We had five minutes left and one of our midfielders was fouled right outside the box. I lined up for the freekick and went for the shot. I scored my second goal and it was now three-three. If we kept the score we would go into overtime and have a chance of winning the game there if we had to. There was about one-minute left and I was fouled in the box. The ref called it and it was now a penalty. I was one on one with the keeper it felt like I was in a new world. Everything was quiet it was just me and the keeper all I had to do was score and we won. The ref blew the whistle and I ran up to shoot. It sounded like a train honking the horn when I looked, and the ball was in the net. We did it we won the game. We did what many people thought we couldn’t, we beat the number one team in the bracket and won the tournament. This experience taught me to never give up. When things get hard keep pushing and its always easier to do this if you have a team to back you up.