Five minutes left, she dribbles around the goal keeper…. GOAL!! We jump up with excitement; parents are getting out of their chairs high fiving each other, and our coach is screaming “We got this girls! Keep it up!” This was the second game of the San Diego Surf Cup, the biggest soccer tournament in the state of California and one of the biggest tournaments in the US!


Blazing hot, temperatures reaching up to 102 degrees. Sweat is dripping down our bright red faces, our mouths totally dry. We don’t even notice this, it’s nothing new, and to us it’s practically natural. Three minutes left in the second half, tied 1-1, we did NOT want to go into overtime and we especially did not want to go into penalty kicks. “WHOOP” the ref blows his very loud and annoying whistle.

Overtime, just great. Not sure what’s going to happen we rush out to the field and get in our positions. Ref blows his whistle. Our forward passes the ball back to our sweeper who then plays along ball to the right midfielder, perfect opportunity for a shot. OH, goalie stops it! Goal kick for the opposite team, she kicks a long ball over all of our heads. It goes to their center forward, “FOUL” the ref yells. “WHAT?? SHE WENT FOR THE BALL!” my coach screams. Three minutes left, and they have a free kick right outside of the eighteen yard box, just our luck. She backs up getting ready to shoot; we are lined up on the eighteen trying to keep them offsides, just like that they score. Amazing shot, right corner over our goalie’s, she was crying thinking it was all her fault. While we were cheering her up the other team was all smiles. Our coach told us to go line up at midfield and shake their hands. “Good game, good game, good game” we said to all their players, and they said it back to us. “Girl’s come here” all of us knew our coach was disappointed that we lost. W e reached our coach, and he was smiling! “Awesome job today.” “Aren’t you mad we lost?” one of us asked. “Of course not! You guys did amazing. Did you guys leave your heart on the field?” “Yea” we reply softly.” “Well, that’s all that matters!” “Everyone thinks you guys kicked butt out there. We outplayed them the whole game, they just got lucky.” We smile. “Come on girls, cheer up. Be thankful we made it to this tournament.” “Alright get out of here, go home and get some rest, you deserve it.” All of us grab our stuff and leave. On my quiet ride back home, I realize we are lucky to have made it to this tournament and we did do amazing. Only the best teams in your state can make and we did! I just laugh.