The final matchup begins in District Nine, at the District nine tournament; my teammates and I are on the school’s soccer team bus, which is specially for the soccer team, and is running to the tournament. This final tournament is crucial because it has this nice cup, deserved by the teams that have the most dominant and best teams. However, getting the cup is a difficult journey, because many schools have their star players, various and excellent in terms of skills, I’ve witnessed a lot to bring up that statement, with my third-year elders. This year is the final year for my third-year elders, too, why? Because it is their last year as high schoolers, they’ve put much effort and love into soccer, it is proven through how eager and excited they are after school time, also, it is the reason why my school started investing more in soccer, and began to open more opportunities with different tournaments. As many matches went on, my elders were the ones who made the school famous until this day started to show their appearance in front of the audience, their talents have bloomed to the point that they are very eye-catching. However, we faced-to-face with this unknown team in an unknown school last year, it was a bitter and harsh game since my elders had a lot of chances to score, but somehow the shots were always off, also, one person was injured, he plays striker, the most important role in a football match; I joined the team as a sophomore, everything from the start seems nice and peace, as time goes on, I felt unusual feelings when it comes to encountering my elders or to play a football match, something within telling me to burst out everything, I remembered correctly, it said: “give your everything, don’t waste your time !”
“But give what ?”
I don’t know where the voice came from. I ensured it was in my head, but my mindset doesn’t think like that. In a simpler term, it must be something like a synchronization voice or sympathy from someone transferring to me.
I heard it for the first time in my sophomore year. Then, I don’t claim the voice later on, it has been a year, leaving me a question mark, I am the type of person who watches anime, especially fantasy, and fiction. It was granted to me since I am curious, and that is why I am bothered when the truths aren’t revealed. But this thing is more interesting, days passed, and I strangely have witnessed this alone, my elders have been getting weaker and weaker, not like being absorbed, but like they are not as good as before I joined. It made me ask myself about my existence, “Is it my visible form that makes people…No it can’t be, it is too dreamy.” I grimaced after the impossible and unacceptable thought. Still, my elders had been getting straight bad days for a year…Just then a solution popped up in my head, it might not be the best solution but I thought it was just an alternative solution to the best solution because I didn’t want to think further then got myself caught up in a miserable cycle of thinking. The solution is “If I don’t go to practice for two or three days, what will happen ?” Of course, I will practice at home by myself at the local park with kids in my area, they are small but have great potential. Anyway, the solution was very simple, I don’t think it will work, however, my parents don’t care about what I do that much since I’m already in high school. I knew that my parents wanted me to be more independent, they wouldn't get around me too much except when everything was going too far. In my opinion, it is a good way to discipline their child, thus then the child, in this situation like me, can get away with being scolded. I've taken responsibility for everything since then like numbers, relationships, and food, those are things I have to tend to. Using this as an advantage, I easily make excuses for three or four days free. I talked to my coach “Coach, can I get three or four days free ?”
“Sure, but let me know why. Also, is this your first time asking for free days? hah! A good way to ask for breaks…”
“I am going for a trip, it took only four days.”
“Yeah, sure!”
My coach was kinda easy-going, I don’t think it would work because the coach would find something to cut me off by forcing me not to do it, but this time is different, it seems the coach had a plan on that already. Probably, I was just overthinking, everything was still normal from how it looked.
The honk whistled, the first string, the strongest lineup in my school had the players going out on the main field. First, both sides have to stand on the horizontal line, where the position of the ball is in the middle of the line. Then, the referee started lecturing rules to us, which we already knew. After explanations, the kickoff started, and the first side to claim the ball was my team. Nice play from my team, the passes were given without getting tackled, I sat on the bench observing the play gives me feelings of satisfaction, So nostalgic, it always has been like this, matches from my elders are always eye-catching to watch, they play aggressive and smart, adding up to that is their talents such as power, speed, and others.
Thus, I didn’t have a chance to get in, I stood on the field several times but those were not satisfactory matches because those times when I got the ball, I messed up, I dribbled and got stolen, shots got blocked, the negative thoughts started blending in, messing up my mind. My mindset is so bad, that I always think of how people would react with their behaviors and facial expressions. Also, I would think of bad results which ultimately crush my best. Therefore, I thought a lot but didn’t take action, which is why my muscle memory is not well trained to have me in a good state. My mind has much to say, it is dispersed, not in a straight order, and I don’t have anyone to share my true beliefs and thoughts with. Wait, I am still thinking like this, to please people and understand others, that’s the only thing that I thought I cooked but maybe not because I don’t believe that my answers are corrected; mistakes and accuracy are very thin.
In my entire life, I got used to keeping my thoughts in my head because I hate the feeling of being corrected because they don’t give me good advice with sweetness, instead, a full message of mocking. I don’t understand why these people are like that, maybe they inherited it from their parents or maybe they hate my face, it goes either way, I don’t know.
The opponent’s team is full of star players, very famous, still, they don’t have the chance to bear anything to my team, we are on another level, that’s why my school is called the best for reasons. The match was not completely on one side, the other’s team had speed, physical, and shot power. It is something you see every day in nationals, the players appeared strong in a variety of aspects, and a genius would be called a monster. Unfortunately, my team has genius players, they are exceptionally outstanding.
I looked at the bench beside me, the substitute players were sitting just like me, hoping for a chance to get in the match. We are on the second string of the team, lower than the first string about skills, not intelligence probably. I trained hard but the result is a hard worker cannot beat a genius, therefore I am staying in the second strand. Not stopping there, I continued training, hilariously, I felt the “monsters” wouldn’t just keep evolving, so I stepped out and thought, “I should train on positioning and scoring, most importantly, dribbling”, to get a pass, I must find a good position. However, I may not have a chance to play on the field.
Thus, I take out my phone, and click on the game that I always enjoy…
Suddenly, a player got fouled so hard, the guy was in a good position to score but the opponent who fouled…Well, I think he just wanted to win regardless.
One of the guys in my team stepped up to bash the fouler, he said.
“What is the problem with you?”
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“I want to win.”
“You want to win? Then play more nicely.”
I didn’t hear exactly what they said, but I compensated for the slackness by putting in polite words. After that an actual fight began, and the stadium was full of people started to yell, supporting the fight between them.
The coaches must have to interrupt to stop the fight, both sides apologized to each other and swore to not play like that again. Meanwhile, an ambulance came, the injured person was put on a soft black leather sheet, and people gently brought him to the ambulance. I was staring and feeling sorry for him since it was his last match, I did not want to take this as an advantage. The coach will decide which player is going to play. Then, it is time to pick a player for substitution. The coach said the name out loud, and I couldn’t believe it.
“Hey, Kinter, you are going to play this role for him”
“Yes, coach” is all I responded to a fortune that was given to me.
I will play a midfielder, an important role in a team. The midfielder has the role of giving passes and dribbling to the opponent’s side. I admired the coach since he knew what I was good at, and I admired him even more for that.
“Kinter, come play! You took so much time, man”
Oh yeah, I have to go out on the field and start playing…I went out and randomly looked back at the coach. “!?”An unusual trail of light was flowing through the coach’s eyes. “What is that ?” I thought, left me with an unfathomable feeling on the field. I tried to forget what I saw and marked it as an imaginable thing from my mind, it was just that my mind is not very clear today. I thought too much today, just a regular activity, I would think more than that every day, and won’t get affected. Why today? Is it my body getting weak today or something?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
The ball was thrown to me by my teammate on the line. As a midfielder, I started to look around for an opportunity, looking for a pass or I would dribble and wait for my teammates to get in a good position…
“Give your everything, you fucking low self-esteem!”
A voice from nowhere sounded so clear and big, but no one said that.
“Huh!?”
The voice was right. I do not want to underestimate myself anymore. Instead of thinking and dreaming, the big chance was given to me right here, the chance to stand on the field with geniuses. I must take it and fulfill it to its finest.
So alternatively…
“Kinter, you are holding the ball too long” A teammate said that.
“Go for it Kinter, I would love to see you do something.” Another teammate added.
“ISO, are you…going to defeat all of them alone?!”
That is right. I will take this path alone to the opponent’s net, I alone will shine in this rally. Multi-choices burst out of my brain, giving me a lot of ways to defeat any defenders on this field. Oh, a guy came up to me right away, just as I expected. It was just a common behavior for which the attacker was attacking.
“First time you play right or vice versa ?”
“Yes, elder, and you are going to be the first one that I will be going to defeat in the next move.”
Pulling a crossing right toward my defender to go right, as regarded it was left for my defender. I was about to surpass him, he tucked his leg out to tackle the ball.
“!?”
All defenders will do this if they are moderate defenders, but they are geniuses so I just know what they are going to do. Not trying to say that I am smart, It was just my experience kicking in. Immediately, I pulled a La Croqueta, passing my defender. I thought I went by him but then he reached himself enough to nearly catch the ball.
However, it was all in expectation. I nutmegged him and went through him this time. It is not that simple since all of the guys here are geniuses. I used my head because it is the most useful thing in a battle with geniuses. Unspokenly, I always use my head in a normal state. The next obstacles came up…
Two guys were running toward me, yup, it will be often that one guy or two guys going straight up to cover the other person after making a mistake or getting went by. I nodded my head, surely this is a common challenge for strikers, then I must take this as a side quest to upgrade my fame. First, I noticed that the situation was not separate from a person on a person, it was two guys on a person, which meant I had to straight up going for a fight with two guys, going in for the steal.
I knew what to do. I started to run back from my defender, I saw him getting confused and asked.
“Don’t say that you are scared man, I know you are more than that.”
“Of course not, I am examining you.”
“...”
Because I was far enough to let the other person think I would not go up. This is what I was planning and hoping for. If two guys ran up, I would have used my pace instead. Experience is such a wonderful thing that I appreciate I have, Thank you for being there so I can bring up the solutions from my full-of-ideas head.
Fastening, I did a Sombrero Flick. The ball was rolling over the opponent’s head, leaving him in perplexity. I breathed and went for the next guy. This time I did not think this would come up or have a visual solution. At this rate, it depended on my reaction ability. Sure, the reaction is my strongest ability, however, the guy’s reaction was as good as mine…
Not letting the defender have time to react, I juggled the ball up over the guy’s top. I went by him, “Why is he so good ?!” he whispered and I guessed he would try to catch up to me again…I was getting used to this similar situation over and over. I pulled a stop and go then left him in bewilderment due to being unable to stop me.
After I got through them, I could hear everyone cheering for me.
“Nice, you are the shiniest player now”
“Go!”
I have to continue, I cannot stop the feeling which is excitedly pouring into my body. In front of me, there are three cornerbacks left.
“You cannot surpass us, we are the final walls.”
“Who said I am going to surpass you ?”
“Huh!?”
Fooling him, I posed a shooting posture. Thinking I was going for a shot, he ran all his might to make the last action, stopping the ball. I faked my shot, he was sliding as I went for the right.
“No, it can’t be!”
“Stop right there!”
I stepped into the forbidden zone, this is where I would have a guarantee of ninety percent of scoring a goal. They were going for me, of course, or it would be an easy goal. Unfortunately, I shot the ball the moment I surpassed the cornerback I faced, making them look at the ball with an expression of despair.
The ball was out of reach, the other two cornerbacks could not block the shot. I shoot the ball, going straight to the top left corner. Scoring an unbelievable goal, determined the final score that is five to four. My teammates and the audience yelled in harmony, so loud that I could not even bear the sound, it almost broke the barrier of my ears. After getting patted by my teammates, I and my team started to clap hands with the other team, saying something nice to the other team such as you can get it next year, you can get it next time. I was the one told to lift the cup, no hesitation, I accepted and lifted the cup as high as I could. This was my first time lifting the cup, I knew others in my team had it all since the left striker in my team scored three goals. The tactic, my coach gave, was about two strikers on the top board, the left guy was more honored. Just kidding, they are both great but every match is not the same. He offered to lift it so I happily accepted it, thank you very much.
“Great job, my vessel.”
“Huh!?”
The voice appeared and said something seemingly nonsense to me, vessel? It sounded like something lurking on your body and it chose you to be its master or a puppet, waiting for the day to destroy and take your body or wanting to cooperate. I do not know, I read many mangas, and some manga have the details that seem relevant. Anyway, the voice did not say anything from that day after a week when I came back to school.