Lone Star | Teen Ink

Lone Star

January 18, 2016
By Anonymous

115:32. This is the time displayed by the stadium monitor in Johannesburg, South Africa, as Spain’s Jesus Navas races up the sideline with the ball at his feet. Seven seconds later, the Dutch defenses are backing up, and Navas is stripped of possession, only for the ball to roll straight to his teammate, Andres Iniesta. Iniesta doesn’t know it yet, but the short pass he is now making to Cesc Fabregas will spark a goal that the whole world will remember. At 115:43, Fabregas turns and touches the ball on towards Fernando Torres, whose heart pounds to the beat of the chanting crowd of nearly 85,000. After six seconds, Torres chips the ball forwards to the sprinting Iniesta, only to be blocked away by a Dutch defenseman. In that instant, Fabregas pounces on the loose ball, slingshotting it ahead of Iniesta, who runs to catch up with it. Just as the monitor shows the number 115:55, Andres Iniesta drills the ball under the Dutch keeper and into the back of the net. Iniesta runs to the corner flag and rips off his shirt. In exactly six minutes and twenty-six seconds, the World Cup will be over. The Spaniards will have earned the ultimate prize in football, the lone silvery star embroidered on their jerseys above their crest, the World Cup’s lone star.



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