Alessia Russo x Ella Toone - The Winner Takes It All, The Loser Has to Fall.

The Game Is On Again

20th August, 2023.

Stadium Australia.

Two teams. Only one winner.

A day that would go down in history.

1-1 match. Five minutes of six minutes extra time played. Daly had been fouled, right in Spain's box by Battle, of all people. They would not get another chance. Spain were good, very good, but so were they. Hermoso had scored the first goal, Kelly the next. Mary had been a powerhouse, saving shot after shot, but Alessia knew she'd be kicking herself over the one they'd conceded.
It did not matter.

This was it. It was all down to her.
Alessia breathes in, closes her eyes, and breathes out. The silence around her is deafening, you could hear a pin drop in the sold-out stadium, all waiting to see her kick, either praying for her downfall or praying for her win. She takes a few steps back, and spots Ella there, jaw clenched and eyes wide. Tooney's disallowed, offside goal had gone in by a mere few millimetres. What if hers didn't go in at all?

Lucy stand back. She looks sick with anticipation, tears glimmering in her eyes, shoulder to shoulder with Kiera. Mary walks over and hands Alessia the ball. They do not speak. Alessia narrows her eyes. Her heart thunders in her chest. She sets the ball down and stretches out her legs. She blots out the noise around her, takes a few more steps back. The whistle screeches through the now near-silent stadium. This was it. Her reckoning. if she missed, if she failed- She cuts her thought off. She would not, could not miss. Clearing her brain, she focuses only on the goal in front of her. She takes a step back, then another. She runs.
She shoots.

She scores!

The ball thunders over the goal line, missing the goalie's outstretched hand by a country mile. It slams into the top left-hand corner. The goalie had dived the wrong way. Alessia doesn't even stay to watch her opponent goalkeeper sink to the floor in defeat. She takes off, running to meet the team, her girls who have sprinted forward to meet her. Still, the stadium is quiet. The ref's whistle had not sounded. God, could her goal get disallowed? Had the goalie come off her line? Please, just blow the whistle, she begs internally. She fixes her eyes on the ref, praying it wouldn't get disallowed, praying she'd done enough. A beat.

The ref nods.

She blows the whistle for full time.

The stadium explodes.

The Spanish players collapse to the ground, groans and sobs of despair mixing with the cheering from the mainly English crowd. Alessia screams, a roaring, half-laugh, half-yell erupting from her from her chest.
She'd done it, she'd fucking done it! They'd won, and she'd been the one to score the winning penalty. She had been dreaming of this moment since she was tiny, just a kid playing with the boys cause there were no girl's teams in her neighbourhood. She'd always loved the beautiful game, and, finally, fucking finally, they'd done it! Sarina had coached their team to victory, and she'd scored the winning pen. The team comes running over, dog-piling her and screeching at the top of their lungs. They embrace her in hugs and congratulations and almost blow out her eardrums with their clamour. Tears are streaming down Lucy's sunburnt cheeks, and yet she's smiling like a maniac. She lifts Kiera high into the air and they scream at the tops of their lungs. Kiera presses a hasty, half-disguised kiss onto the top of Lucy's head. They ignore the camera swarming around them.

Alessia feels her own eyes begin to prick, and she lets them flow. Tears of triumph - God knows it'd been a tough match, against a strong opponent. Stanway had gone off halfway through with an injury, L.J subbed off not soon after, after a vicious kick to the head and leg respectively. But they'd fought so hard, and they'd tried so much. And they'd won. And then Ella's there - red-faced and sweaty. Alessia opens her arms and Ella leaps on top of her, wrapping her in a hug. They scream and jump like the children cheering in the stands, wrapped up in each other arms. Ella's squeezing her so hard she feels like her spine's being crushed, and she doesn't even mind. She wraps her arms around Ella, and the shorter girl's head rests on her shoulder. She smiles down at her, knowing her fond face is going to be plastered all over Tiktok the next day, but she can't bring herself to care.