The Long Journey

From Round of 16 to Semi- Finals

Reva's POV

I was a bit shocked seeing Harshil as such a responsible captain. I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't finish my talk with Harshil. Once the fight was over and everything was back to normal then Harshil turned to me and said " Sorry about that. What were you saying?"

" It can stay for later" I said.

Suddenly the speaker crackled to life and said " Captain of the Red Devils and Parle FC please come to the officials table"

" Sorry but I have to go"

" No problem. You are the captain and have some responsibilities "

Harshil's POV

Never in my wildest dreams had I thought that such fights would take place on such a big day on such a place. I was sad that Reva could not complete what she wanted to say. But I jogged towards the official's table.

On reaching the table I asked " Yes what is it?"

" Your next match starts in 15 minutes. You have to fill this form and sign it. You need to line up after 10 minutes sharp over here with your team. Your match is against Parle FC."

I walked back to the stands with the writing pad and a pen in my hand. I filled the form and made a few changes in the team keeping my promise to allow the previous matches substitutes have a chance to play. I removed Kush, Tammany, Soham, Saumya and replaced them with Shyam, Shubhum, Aman, Harsh. I finished filling the form and signed it. When I went to give the signed team list I meet the other captain who he just arrived. His name was Vignesh Rane. He was so fat that I wondered how he could play football and how he became the captain was also a wonder. Anyways we both shook hands and smiled.

And soon once again the referee blew the whistle and the second match began. They had got the start and Vignesh had surprisingly much energy and played football well. They seemed to be playing with our trick of passing the ball throughout the field. They kept the ball possession with them. They made many forays into our penalty area and just before half time they were able to score a GOAL . They did it quite easily when one of them crossed the ball one the other one headed the ball into the goal. At half time we were losing by a goal and that affected our team's morale. Just then an official came over to me and asked me to join him. He had also called Vignesh.

He then said " I have some good news for you. The team that the winner was gonna play against has backed out and so now the winning team goes directly into the semi-finals as they get a walk through in the quarter-finals round. Now you may return to your teams. All the best" and having said that he left.

I tolded the team the good news that gave a morale boost to the team. When we returned to the field we had a new spirit and enthusiasm in us. The will to win this match had been reborn in us. And with only 15 minutes in hand we had to go for a all out attack. From the very first minute we dominated with the possession and made forays in the opponents penalty area. Kapil was able to score a GOAL. when we had 5 minutes in hand. He along with Shyam and Aman played triangle game and got past the last defender with ease and score the goal quite easily. The next 5 minutes was more of a composed play in which our tired opponents barely played in part. They were very tired and made 3 substitutions to bring some energy in their game ( if there would not have been a limit of changes then slowly they would have rotated every player to give each of them some rest).

At the end of normal play time the score remained 1-1. So the referee decked to go directly to the penalties as they were going behind schedule. He told us " Both the teams have 3 kicks each. The penalties will continue till we have a winner. The goalkeeper cannot take the kick unless all the other players have taken a kick and we don't have a winner. Only the ones who are gonna take the kicks will stand at the half line and the rest need to sit near the stands out of the field of play. The keeper will be next to the corner flag. On this sheet of paper you need to write down the names of the kick takers. Number them. The first kick taker should be first , the second seconded on the list and so on."

So I went off to decide my kick takers with Shlok, while the rest of the team caught their breaths. We decided that the kick takers would be: me( Harshil ) , Yash and Shlok. I wrote down the names in the order and submitted it to the referee. All the players took their seats in the stands while I along with Shlok and Kapil went to the half way line. The opponent's kick takers included the guy that scored the goal. We won the toss and choose to shoot first.

Yash was our first kick taker and he did his job. He shot the ball in the bottom right corner , while the keeper dove in the opposite direction. The opponents also scored the same way we scored. Next Shlok took the shoot and again hit the post. The opponents didn't miss. It all came down to me, if scored then we had a chance of winning but if a missed then we had to go home. I decided to use the trick of Cristiano Ronaldo. I took a long run up but stopped just before the ball. The keeper dove in a direction. I paused a moment to see where the keeper went the passed the ball slowly into the other end. The keeper did not see such a trick coming. Now it was up to Varun to keep the penalties going. The opponent taking the shot was the one who had scored the goal earlier and he missed the goal by a mile. He was trying to dip the ball in but it was not anywhere close to the goal. Now the referee asked both the teams to select another shooter. I called Prasham from the stands to take the shot. The opponents called Vignesh to take the shoot. Prasham also tried to dip the ball in and he did it. The keeper thought it to be low shot and missed the ball badly. All Varun had to do was save a goal and we would be in the semi-finals. From the position of the shooter one could guess as to where he is going to shoot. And from Vignesh's stance I knew he was gonna shoot straight. When Varun looked at me I signalled him to stay where he was. And I was right. Vignesh took a straight shot and Varun caught the ball in his hands as if he was playing cricket! And seeing that ,y team rushed towards Varun and so did the other team but towards Vignesh ( Probably to beat him up). We broke into a small dance.