Working Towards A Goal

Senior had just started and that also meant soccer was now on the go. I had really high hopes for this season because we were going to be a very strong team this year and all the strong teams last year lost a lot of their good players. We, as a team, were so excited for our first game and worked so hard for this first game which was against Hall Dale. Last year, we ended the season with one win and that wasn’t a great feeling. We went into the game with the utmost confidence that I have seen from this team in a long time. The game started and it was a battle until the end. We ended up losing even though we outplayed them by a huge margin. We just could not get a shot to go in. After this loss I just knew we were going to bounce back. Looking back now I was completely wrong.

The next game came and it was against our rivals Monmouth. They had just lost one of the best programs in school history and with his loss we thought we could easily take them down. The only problem now was that they had just taken our best player from our team to play for them. We were all very sad about this and we just couldn’t stop thinking about how easily we could have just beat them. So now they were strong again and we still had confidence. The game started and it was a battle for 30 mins. Then we let in a goal. Then the goals kept coming. It was over, our chances of taking down our rivals were shot down. I don’t think I had ever been more mad after a loss ever before in my life. The next day, we had practice and you could just tell from the start nobody was in a good mood. We had been expected to do well this season and we have not proved it. We lost all confidence as a team and I thought about quitting at one point. I had lost all my patience because I could not get over the fact that we had just lost two games I knew we should have won. But my coach noticed that something was wrong. He could tell because of my effort in practice. I told him that we need to be pushed harder and actually do better things in practice if we are going to win. So the next practice came and the coach had us on our feet moving around the whole practice and this felt more productive than anything we had done all season. We felt as a team again and were ready for our next game.

The next game was against Mountain Valley. They weren’t a strong team this year but we still knew we had to take them seriously because we were still looking for our first win. The game started and I put a goal in right away. This was my first goal of the season and it was well needed. Then the next goal came later on in the first half. At halftime we were up and we all were so happy that we finally put the ball in the back of the net. Everything was finally going our way and we were playing some good soccer. The second half started and I got my third goal in the game which gave me the hat trick. This felt really nice because it drove us to get this win. At the end of the game, I remember the coach talking to me about how this win was earned and how much time and effort that I put into it because of how patient I was with him and the team.

Featured Image: “Soccer Ball Blue” by HolgerLi is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0.