london nights

1.4

all the girls walk back out onto the pitch and gather around in a circle. "katie's right, we aren't going to let these bad calls change the way we've been playing." kim exchanges a look with everybody in the circle. all ten girls are determined and focused to finish this game well.

city start with the ball this half, and they come out running. jonas wasn't kidding when he said caitlin had to run a lot, but she didn't expect an immediate change from city right at the get go. city change out shaw for caitlin's national teammate mary fowler. the girl has pace and she gets an early shot off which manu saves. the restart happens quickly, before caitlin knows it she's urging her feet to keep up with the ball manu punts above everybodies heads. out of the corner of her eye, she sees viv making a run in behind her. the ball lands a few paces ahead of her and her lungs push as she carries her legs as far as possible to reach the ball before the goalkeeper does. when she finally reaches it, she kicks it across to viv before barreling right above the keeper who essentially does a rugby tackle. once again she doesn't get to see the outcome of the goal as she lands butt first into grass.

viv swiftly slots it into the open net as she runs towards caitlin, pulling her up from the ground. "nice run," she says hugging her.

"you know me, had to add a tackle in there as well, can't escape the aussie genes," caitlin jokes. the team soon arrive, patting and hugging viv and caitlin each before turning to the ref who hasn't given roebuck a yellow. caitlin is dumbfounded, she got flipped over, basically did a sommersault and the ref doesn't bat an eye.

caitlin doesn't get much of the ball for the next 15 minutes, because it's all man city. she's constantly moving, whether it be jogging or full out sprinting. everytime the arsenal get ahold of the ball, they're going down to steph and caitlin because it's clear that morgan, the right back is struggling. around the 65th minute, arsenal start gaining more possession, the pace of play from man city slowed, and the midfield begin to pick apart the passes easily.

at this point, they're toying with man city. caitlin watches as frida nutmegs laura coombs and makes a run forward, dribbling at a high pace. caitlin quickly sprints ahead to catch up. a string of passes happens inside the box, city unable to clear. ever the calm one, kim regains control of the ball, instead of shooting in an attempt to bypass roebuck, she passes it back to leah who has pushed up past her centerback role. caitlin jogs backwards as she tries to stay onside. when leah sends a lofted ball in her direction, caitlin takes a heavy touch, there's no way through so she starts dribbling away from goal. peeking up, she sees that there are around 3 arsenal jersey's in the box compared to city's 5, not including the goalkeeper. it's a dumb idea, really, but caitlin opts to send a cross in anyways. it sails above everyone's head, including the keeper. city have got so many players in the box that their attempt to recover the loose ball is futile. laura runs up to send another cross in. the crowd laughs as yet another cross sails high. it ends up at caitlin's feet once again. she's contemplating on whether or not to send another cross in, or play it back to leah. she notices the number 9 running at her, full steam ahead. in the end, she doesn't send a cross in, or restart the play, she attempts to side step kelly, who makes a challenge at the ball.

she moves the ball up forward with her right foot, but before her left foot even leaves the ground, the man city winger steps on it, full weight of her body is on caitlin's foot. caitlin pulls her foot back to her body at an extreme pace as she collapses to the ground clutching where at least 60kg was put onto her foot. kelly picks up the ball as to say she got it, but it's abundantly clear that she completely missed it, the crowd boos loudly as the trainers are coming onto the pitch.

"you missed the whole rock dumbass!" katie points at kelly as jen is holding her back from getting onto the pitch. kelly looks at katie with a shocked face, and before she can come up with a clever comeback, beth is barreling in and shoving her backwards. so much for acting calm.