Letters

24

Katana's POV

"Here Katana." Talia says then she hands me the line up for tonights match against Italy.

1-Katana Solo(C)
4-Alana Cook
19-Naomi Girma
12-Tierna Davidson
20-Tegan McGrady
6-Jaelin Howell
10-Ashley Sanchez
15-Catarina Macario
2-Midge Purce
11-Lynn Williams
9-Sophia Smith

"Why am I captain?" I ask.

"We haven't really voted on vice-captain's since Emma retired." Talia says. "So Cairo said it was my choice on who to give the armband too."

Talia's on the bench because she picked up a slight niggle in training yesterday so we'd rather be safe than sorry, but I'm not gonna lie she'll probably play.

"Oh." I say then I pass the line-up behind me and relax with my pups for the remainder of the ride to the stadium.

Once at Lumen Field, the bus parks then everyone gets off and heads to the locker room.

When we get to the locker room, everyone puts their stuff down in their respective lockers.

Once my stuff is in my locker, my teammates and I head outside for the pitch inspection.

After we've inspected the pitch, my teammates and I head back to the locker room.

When I get to my locker I take my AirPods out, I take out my nose ring, I take off my necklaces, earrings, bracelet and my rings, put my jewelry in it's safe then I put my jewelry safe and AirPods in my bag.

Once I'm jewelry free I take off my tracksuit and put my dark brown locs up in a ponytail then I put on my short sleeve red undershirt, my warm up top, and I put on my game shorts.

I then sit down in my locker and put on my socks, my shin pads and my red boots.

After my boots are on I tape my wrists, hands, and fingers then I put on my red keeper gloves before I head onto the field with the other keepers.

When I get on the pitch I run through my warm ups with the keepers for a while then head back to the locker room.

Once in the locker room I change out of the training top and change into my red keeper jersey while Cairo does her last minute talks.

When the last minute talks end, we are told to head to the tunnel so I grab my towel and water bottle then Appa, Socks, and I do as told.

Once in the tunnel, I line-up at the front of the line then I wait for us to be called out.

Minutes later we are told to head out onto the field for the prematch stuff so I lead out onto the field.

Once on the field the Italian anthem starts so myself, all the black ladies, and most of the white ladies on the team kneel.

When the Italian anthem ends, myself, all of the ladies in the starting XI, and most of the ladies on the bench kneel for our anthem.

When our anthem finishes, we stand up then we shake hands with the Italian players.

It's very apparent that the Italians are begrudgingly shaking our hands.

The Italian federation is still in deep shit for allowing their fans to racially abuse Emma.

Both the mens and women's national teams still have to play home matches behind closed doors and their Italian club teams have to play European matches behind close doors as well.

Theses restrictions lift on July 1, 2023.

After we shake hands, we take a starting XI picture, I do the coin toss, we do our team huddle, then I lead Appa and Socks to the bench.