The Night We Met

Part Ten

Jacob...

Three more minutes.

I say to myself, as I clasp my hand against my shoulder. It hurts like pure hell.

I'm about to run to the other side, but I hear my coach scream to stay, so I do. I walk towards the center of the field, only to have to turn back because our team is back with the ball.

I get another passing to me, and now I forget about my hurting shoulder as I dribble the ball to mess with my defender. He's following the ball with his eyes and that's mistake number one.

I quickly swap my legs with the ball, nearly ankle breaking myself, but I manage to stay up, as the defender tangles in his own legs.

I'm running towards the goal. I'm in the perfect spot to see the whole field - I glance back and notice, that nobody's following me.

Every defender is now in the zone of our goal. They're wide apart but also close together, I won't make my way through them all.

I quickly glance at the clock. two forty five, the clock says.

Exactly the time I need to perform our last goal.

I rise my hand in the air, showing two fingers to my teammates. Bayern now screams and shouts each other that we're performing our second collaboration, except we switched second one with the third one. Bayern lines up, taking the perfect positions for us to score. Except now we have to make that goal.

Their defending positions give off that their main goal isn't to steal the ball and, perhaps, strike a goal three. They're here to save the ball, that's currently sliding from my one feet to another, from striking into the net.

Usually, we don't do collabs in the games, it's about going with the flow and understanding each others strengths and weaknesses on the field, but today is different.

I slowly make my way to the other side, switching positions with Tyler. My eyes quickly fall over Alaine, and we lock our eyes just for a second, but that second gives me the very much needed dopamine to finish with the third goal.

She looks hopeful for this game to work in out favor. And I won't disappoint her. I glance at the clock. Exactly two minutes left.

Well, let's make them count.

We need three mistakes to work this out.

I give Sam a pass, with him locking the ball with his dribble out of the defenders sight. I completely trust him with the ball, so I take my eyes off of him and let him do his part of the job. I quickly run through the defenders like a labyrinth to see if we can shorten up the collaboration, but, as expected, we can't.

I continue my way out, now switching with Nate. He runs up to collect the ball now from Sam, and he succeeds. Everything so far is good.

Time check: one forty.

Now the most problematic part: we wait for twenty seconds.

I quickly glance at the time again, to see it down at one thirty five.

My heart is pounding against so insanely fast, and my breathing is jerked, but I swallow the big lump and get ready to begin the actual performance.

I'm slowly moving backwards and I slide in the shadow of the defenders eye sight, as no one notices me. Nate's slowly moving to his right, having everyone's eyes on the ball.

Mistake number two.

I quietly laugh in myself that this part actually worked.

One thing that we've figured about Bayern is that their biggest weakness is pressure under the stress. They're panicking and with that they're set up to make some mistakes.

Now the time is below one fifteen, or as I like to call it, the show time.

Nate slightly loses the control of the ball, letting his defender steal the ball and have every single Bayern's player running towards our goal. Bayern's fans are going crazy and Dortmund's are screaming for us to save the situation.

All defenders are over the center line.

Mistake number three.

Two of my team players attack one of Bayerns, and he stumbles, and with that the ball is ours again.

Time check: thirty seconds.

My heart stops. Now or never.

I move out of my shadow, just as Bayern's coach screams at them to cover up me before it's too late.

The ball is now flying perfectly in my direction, thanks to Tyler.

It lands exactly two feet away from me, bouncing at the ground. With my left eye, I see one of Bayern's closest defender run towards me, and with my right, the goalkeeper is at the right side.

I'm standing once again in a position where I see all the field with one glance. Two Bayern's are running exactly on time, and if I pass the ball exactly the way it's supposed to be passed, then we won't be in offside. Which is the hardest part of this whole play.

Now or never. Now or ever. My heartbeat tells me.

Time check: fifteen seconds.

I kick the ball forward, just as Tyler sprints out of the swarm of players.  One defender right behind him on heels, while other one has almost reached me. Thanks to my calves and hamstrings routine I sent him two years ago, he runs like a jaguar, which works in our favor.

The ball lands exactly where it should - at Tyler's legs, giving him the perfect position to score the goal. Another Bayern player has caught up to Tyler, and I almost scream "AMAZING" as I notice that we're in completely good position to not be charged for offside.

C'mon, Ty!

I beg at myself. He kicks the ball as he lands on his knees from imbalance of the insane speed, and I watch the ball as it's flying at the goals direction. The goalkeeper jumps to his right to save the ball from going in, but...

Tyler made it.

''YES! YES!'' I scream so loud my voice gives out on me, as I run with open arms at Tyler. Only now I allow myself to unmute the audience and I hear all the cheering coming from the audience nearly makes me tear up.

I still can't believe we actually made it work.

I reach Tyler and the whole team and I pull him up and carry him with our hands just like in the movies. We cheer his name and we cheer for our win.

Just as we put Tyler back down, my eyes land on the left corner of the field. I smile even harder, my smile reaching my eyes at this point.

She's crying. She holds her phone to herself and she cries really hard. I want to walk up to her and take her into my arms and hug her so hard, so we both can cry about this final win against Bayern, but I can't do that.

She's smiling at me, and she begins walking towards. I reach my hand out to her and help her get over the side, because she's wearing a dress. A beautiful, floral black dress with yellow sunflowers on it. Almost like she matched the black and yellow theme.

''Hi! Congrats!'' She says so calmly, as a tear drops down her cheek. I want to wipe it away, but it's too much to show and reveal. I have to hold myself back a little longer.

''Thank you, Alaine.'' I smile down to her.

''Okay,'' she wipes her eyes and walks towards the team ''can I get a quick photo of the winners, please?''

The whole team lines up and we hold each other by the shoulders like a family. We all smile, and not just for the picture.

''Got it, thanks!'' She lowers the camera. ''Can you all say hi for the live? Nine point six million are currently watching y'all here.'' She continues with her job.

Alaine passes her phone around the team, giving each one an opportunity to say hello to fans. I use my chance and slip besides her, and I make a small talk.