Have Hope

24

Y/N POV

I figured time before the England game would pass by slower than a snail, but man I was wrong.

Before I even had the chance to blink, all of a sudden it was Tuesday, and we were waking up at the ass crack of dawn to eat breakfast then head over to the stadium.

The family drama I had been dealing with hadn't really ceased, but I forced myself to push it to the back of my mind and focus on the game. This was a huge deal, and if we won we'd be going to the finals. I was adamant that there was no way in hell I'd allow myself to slip up and jeopardize our position.

The bus ride over to the venue was a lot more fun than I had expected it to be. I sort of assumed that with the growing pressure on our shoulders, people would be dead quiet and in the zone, but I guess after knowing this team for eight months, I should have expected them to do the complete opposite.

People were loud and excited, blasting music and dancing. At one point Jill and Dawn did the wave at the front, which was passed all the way back to Alex and I.

It really helped to ease my nerves, and I could tell from the attitude of my teammates that they were all extremely confident in our ability to win.

Things did calm down a bit as we pulled into the tunnel; that's when people put their headphones in and got their game faces on. Of course, that didn't stop Alex, Allie, and I from doing our every game ritual of doing something funny as we loaded off the bus to the camera guy filming us.

We had started doing it after our game against Belgium back in April, then did it again at the game against South Africa, and continued doing it before the New Zealand, Mexico, Thailand, and Chile games. Then it became our pre game tradition.

It's hard to believe that in the span of just a few months, we've beaten eleven teams. Eight of them being shut outs.

I still think about the Thailand game, where we crushed them 13-0. That was insane. I couldn't believe how well we had performed.

Alex scored five goals that day, and I couldn't have been more proud of her.

Speaking of Alex, though, today also happens to be the forward's 26th birthday, and you know the team has a big celebration planned for her after the game tonight.

Looking at our record so far this season, it was clear our team was the favorite to win the gold, and I just hoped we could deliver.

Heading into the locker room was when things started to become more tense. The crowd was already so loud we could hear them as we changed.

The coaches and captains gave us their usual speeches before it was time for everyone to line up in the tunnel with our player escorts.

Per tradition, the opening ceremony with the national anthems and all that happened, before it was finally time for kick off.

As soon as the starting whistle was blown, the action started immediately, England having possession of the ball first.

Possession between the two teams was fairly equal for the first few minutes, but, during the 10th minute, Kelley broke free from the English defenders, running as fast as she could down the left side of the field while Christen ran up the right, going into the box.

Kelley delivered a beautiful cross, and Christen was able to head it into the goal. The ball hit the back of the net and the stadium erupted in celebration from our team and the US fans.

Not even ten minutes after that, England managed to cross the ball to their star striker, Ellen White, who fired off a shot to the upper right corner of the goal before I could dive to block it.