The Wrong Net

It was fall of my freshman year and I was starting for my soccer team on defense. We had a game under the lights against a well ranked team that we had a chance to beat and earn lots of points from. I remember being nervous before every game thinking about all the pressure on me being the only freshman to start, playing such an important role back on defense. Our team wasn’t the greatest so it was safe to say the defense worked harder than it should’ve with the other team possessing the ball offensively longer. By playing what seemed to be 70 minutes of defense a game, mistakes were bound to happen, and of course mistakes were made.

It was chilly and the field had an icy coating layered over it like frosting on a cake. Being an under the lights game late into the fall many of us were wearing under shirts to stay warm. The game was at Mt. Valley High School against their team of exchange students and sharp shooters. Many of us were very serious about winning this game as it was one of our last games and would’ve been a huge upset. Plot and Ideas Inline Feedback Icon

We started off strong competing with every ball and creating connections up top. The other team seemed surprised by us as we almost took them by storm, but eventually about halfway into the first half, Mt. Valley scores and leads 1-0. We knew we had to keep our heads up and continue playing like we were. We applied pressure offensively, but never really connected on any shots. With a few minutes to go in the first half a lob over the center of the field on our side came, I knew I had to make contact with the ball to clear it or else the two people behind me would get an easy shot on net. I stand maybe 15 feet from the net and wind up to boot it, I make contact with the ball, but the curve and slipperiness of it from the wet grass and the calculated lob threw me off enough for the ball to have a terrible bounce off of my foot and into our own goal.

Screams from my goalie suddenly attacked me! “What are you doing!?, No Adam!, Why!?”. Some support from other defenders came, but I knew I messed up big time for them. We are now down 2-0 against a team that should’ve been up by a lot more if it wasn’t for our heart. We were playing an excellent game if not one of our best, but with my own goal it brought all of our spirits down. All that hard work in the first half to only hold them to one goal seemed to have not mattered anymore.

Halftime was huge for us, we needed motivation to go back out and try our hardest, I needed motivation to go out there and try my best. All eyes were on me going into the second half and all fingers were pointed at me. I had to play the best half of soccer in my life for my team. We rallied back and tied it up 2-2, with maybe ten minutes left in the game the intensity was rising. The crowd was going wild every time a shot was taken on us. The sad truth was we were losing energy and subs and let two more goals in.

I believe the final score was 4-3, Mt. Valley won, we lost. One goal difference, that one goal that was my own goal. I took blame for a lot of it and realized how important that own goal was to our teams reputation. We could’ve upset that team with a win, but instead we upset them with how close the game was. No way was anyone expecting for that game to be as close as it was. In our team’s mind we played our hearts out and would almost consider it a win only losing to them by one, but in my mind I knew mistakes were made.