Letters

55

Katana's POV

"This is gonna be weird." I say as we pull up to Juventus Stadium for our Champions League Round of 16 first leg match against Juventus. "I mean they deserve it, but it's weird."

The women's Juventus team has to play their home UWCL games this season behind closed doors because one of their players made multiple racist comments about black players including Emma and Talia so UEFA is punishing them by forcing them to play their games behind closed doors.

"Yeah." Talia says then she hands me our line-up for tonight so I look at it as we pull up to the stadium.

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

Once at Juventus 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, watch, 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 long 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 Leah 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 Talia's wife out onto the field.

Once on the field we stand in line for a few seconds then we take a starting XI picture, Leah does the coin toss, we do our team huddle, then I lead Appa and Socks to the bench.

The racist lady said some racist shit about Talia so we're not shaking hands with them

"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 Leah and Tierna come over and fist bump me before they head to their spots.

"This is weird." I mumble as I look around the empty stadium as the game begins. "So fucking weird."

In the 20th minute Tierna passes the ball back to me as Juventus pressure us.

I calmly pass the ball to Ashley who is then immediately railroaded by the racist Juve player which earns us a free kick.

Cecilia Salvai, the racist, then stands over the Canadian and yanks her onto her feet which causes Ashley to get right up in the racists face.

A bunch of Juve players surround Ashley so I sprint over to the group and shove some of them away.

One of the young Juve players sprints towards me and I can see her trying to shove me so I shove her first.

The little Juve girl theatrically falls to the ground and by the look on the refs face she could tell it was a fake.

As some of my teammates arrive to calm the situation I wrap an arm around Ashley and lead her away from the fracas.

"I think we can let Jessie handle that." I say then Ashley and I watch our favorite Canadian midfielder rip the Juve players a new one.

"Feisty Jeffery." Ashley says making me chuckle.

"You know I'm surprised some of them haven't called us the N-Word." I say as I offer my water to Ashely.

"I heard that they had a meeting with UEFA and told not to say that word or they'd be banned from European competitions for 2 years." Ashley says then she squirts water into her mouth.

"Oh." I say then I hear a whistle blow causing me to look towards the whistle

The ref shows me a yellow card then she shows her yellow card to the racist Juve player and the Juve chick I pushed.

The ref then awards us our free kick, which I completely forgot about, so I take it and launches it up field.

Talia gets on the end of my kick, does what she does, and buries the ball past the Juve keeper making the score 1-0.

"Yeah." Ashley says. "Talia's the GOAT."

"Mhmm." I say.

The next 20ish minutes are surprisingly not chippy which is good and they're also quite boring for me since all I have to do is make 4 comfortable saves.

In the 44th minute Julia Grosso receives a pass from Sara Gama around 40 yards from my goal.

Julia turns and sprints directly at me as Jordan runs with her.

Jordan tries to dispossess Grosso, but the Canadian megs the English midfielder then she breezes past her.

Julia then sprints towards the box and shoots towards my left so I set my feet and get ready to stop the ball, but Tierna comes out of nowhere and at the last second gets a touch on the ball.

The ball ricochet's off of Tierna's foot and hits the post.

The ball then bounces back towards Julia, but it's closer to me so I run out and smother the ball right before Julia can get anything on the ball.

When I get off the ground I quickly send the ball up field.

Once again the ball lands at Talia's feet, but she sees Marie-Antoinette running free so she back heels the ball to the French woman.

The ball rolls straight into Marie-Antoinette's path then the Frenchwoman chips the ball up and over the Juve keeper and into the net making the score 2-0.

"Our teams so good." I mumble. "So fucking good."