Letters

26

Katana's POV

"Here Katana." Talia says then she slides tonight's line-up to me so I look at it.

1-Katana Solo
2-Ashley Lawerence
3-Lotte Wubben-Moy
12-Tierna Davidson
15-Katie McCabe
17-Jessie Fleming
8-Jordan Nobbs(C)
7-Jackie Groenen
14-Talia Martin
9-Marie-Antoinette Katoto
11-Lieke Martens

"Geez." I say as we pull up to Man City's stadium. "What a dump."

Once at the Academy Stadium, 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 baby blue 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 baby blue keeper jersey while Amaka 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 right behind Jordan 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 follow Jordan out onto the field.

Once on the field we stand in line for a few seconds then we shake hands with the Man City players.

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

"Stay here pups." I say

Appa and Socks yip and smile at me so I scratch their heads then I jog to my position on the field.

Once I'm at my goal, I hang my towel up on the net, put my water in the net then Lotte and Tierna come over and fist bump me before they head to their spots.

"I got this." I mumble as I look into the stands to where my girlfriend, sisters, and Skye are sitting. "I fucking got this."

- - - - -

"YEAH KATANA." I hear Skye yell from the stands.

"Geez she's loud." Tierna says then she hugs me. "Nice assist."

"Thanks." I say then I look up at the scoreboard.

We're beating Man City 3-0 thanks to goals from Lieke, Katoto, and Talia

There's less than a minute left in the match and we just scored again.

We just scored because Man City had a corner and it went straight to me then I kicked the ball up field to Talia and let her do what she does best.

Talia beat a few defenders then she buried the ball in the back of the net.

After Tierna and I hug she heads back up field then Man City restart the game.

A couple minutes later Man City get a breakaway through Bunny Shaw so I wait for her to either make a mistake or take a shot.

Luckily Shaw makes a mistake and takes too big of a touch causing the ball to spring away from her and right towards me.

"KEEPERS." I shout as I run towards the top of the box.

As the ball gets into the box I dive for it then bring it into my body and hold it.

A few seconds later, someone trips over me then I hear a whistle blow.

I know I didn't touch the ball outside the box so it better be a foul on someone else.

"You're good." Katie says then I stand up.

"Who was the foul on?" I ask.

"The Jamaican lady." Katie says.

I nod then I boot the ball upfield.

After the ball leaves my foot, the ref blows her whistle for full time.

"Whew." I say. "Clean sheet."

The defenders chuckle then they high five me.

After I high five the defenders, I take off my gloves, put them in my waist band, then I grab my water bottle and towel from the goal before I head up field to shake hands with the Man City ladies and high five and or hug my teammates.

While I'm shaking hands with the Man City ladies, I swap jerseys with Deyna Castellanos, who signed with Man City this summer after rejecting a contract from Atlético Madrid.

After I swap jerseys, Talia and I walk off together to relax like we have done after every game with the national team.

"I will give the NWSL one thing." I say as I look around the stadium we're in. "Most of the teams play in great stadiums."

Most of the stadiums that the WSL teams play in are dumps.

The only teams with good stadiums are Leicester City, Man United, Reading, and Birmingham City since they all play in their mens team stadium.

I don't know why Arsenal makes us play in some shit 4 thousand seat stadium when they have a massive stadium we could play in which would earn them more money.

Then again Arsenal is run by Stan Kroenke so I'm not surprised he treats the women's side of his club like shit.

"Well there's rumors that Arsenal's being sold to the Spotify Co-Founder."

"Maybe he'll actually treat us with respect." I say.

"We can only hope Katana." Talia says. "We can only hope."