Dismissed- Stronger Together

-6-

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"A very good evening from Dinamo Sports Park, where the women's national teams of Romania and Germany meet this evening. It has been over ten years since the two teams met, ending in a win for the Germans who seem to be vexed by performance issues having suffered two group phase defeats over the last two tournaments. Let's take a look at the formations while the teams pump themselves up in their circles. The German coach Sandra Hoffmann kept last game's offensive formation exactly the same, a 4-2-3-1, keeping everyone right where they were. Romania fulfilling the expectations of a defensive 5-4-1."

I watched Emma toss her water bottle to the side of her goal, some of our players jumping around to keep warm as they waited impatiently for the referee to start the game. The whistle echoed through the stadium as the gum between my molars softened.

"And with the blow of the whistle, this World Cup qualification game begins. Unexpected freezing temperatures cause the players to resort to long sleeves and gloves, as only a few hundred visitors fill the ranks on this cold winter day. Women's football still hasn't found much popularity in the Capital of Romania, contrary to their visitors' who have become more and more familiar with visitation numbers around ten thousand a game."

Though the first touch belonged to the Romanians, it didn't take long for us to steal it off their feet, interrupting their first, lax try to close in on our goal. The ball wandered from one of us to the next, but it still seemed like we weren't moving, like we were frozen in place unable to break through the opponent's defense.

"A pass to the back line from Schmidt to Peters, who holds on to the ball, no pressure on her, searching for a hole in Romania's defense. Several of her colleagues signing they're free for a pass, yet she decides to pass back further to the central defender, who starts their attack with a beautiful, planted pass through the lines to the number ten. With her back to the defender, she looks to kick a long pass to Schmidt."

I saw it fairly well. The elegance that Schmidt emanated and the beauty of the technique she used to dribble past the defender, cutting past her toward the center of the field.

"Oh, what a shot! But it's not cleared yet! The ball bounces around the box, oh, what chaos. And out it goes for the first corner of today."

All of us had held our hands high, pressing them against our heads as the ball hit the goal post and the Romanian defender had managed to kick the ball out of play when it was rolling around the penalty area uncontrolled. The ball flew in quickly from the corner but missed every foot and head, that came running for it. The goalie took all the time she wanted to get the ball back and hit it far into the field, yet it ended up back at our feet, where it was sent from one player to another, without any danger building up from our play. Not until the first decided to keep the ball and make a run for it. A run that ended quickly.

"She made that interception look too easy! Stopping that attack from the woman she usually plays in a club with. A big advantage for the Romanian players who for the most part share clubs with the German players, catching on to any tricks by their day-to-day teammates."

We won the ball back quickly and the same procedure began. Many passes, a dribble, and then the ball was lost again. This pattern repeated itself for several minutes, the ball being cleared out by our opponents to the sidelines for throw-ins or past the goal line giving us the chance of corners that opposite to our former glory couldn't use to our advantage once. Getting nervous, I began to jog around the field watching everything closely, yet keeping my mouth shut. Opposite to our coach, who didn't hold herself back from shouting criticism and corrections at the players, clearly making them more nervous and stealing bits of their focus, resulting in poor passes and other slip-ups.