golden blonde¹

the turning point

may 01, 2023 - emirates stadium
the arsenal jogged out for the second half, a combination of both determination and excitement flowing through the eleven players.

they would be the ones kicking off this half, elena positioned herself in the back, ready to cover frida and lia as they both pushed up along with noelle on the other side.

it feels like deja vu when frida finds katie on the wing, sprinting down the field and sending in an elegant ball down to stina, who's out ran all of the defenders, sliding in the ball into the back of the net.

the crowd was in pure chaos, shocked with the quick goal right out of the break, but elena doesn't bother with that emotion.

she's in complete joy and elation as she's the first to sprint over to stina with the craziest look on her face.

"YESSSS!"

"oi! we've gotta keep going with this energy, keep scoring, keep pressing, keep the energy up!" katie told her teammates.

as they settle back into their own half, the var check concludes that the goal was offside.

elena grits her teeth as wolfsburg restart play. this wasn't going to stop them, it wasn't going to discourage them, no way.

katie gets fouled five minutes later on the touch line, elena sees it clear as day and is immediately turning over to the referee.

"hey! that's a yellow!" she exclaims as the referee blows her whistle. initially, she doesn't look like she's going to card huth, with the german protesting vehemently that it wasn't deserving of so.

however, katie's curled up on the ground and elena helps her get up, while simultaneously giving a nasty look to the player in green.

"no way! mccabe is faking, look, she got up fine." the german points at the referee speaking in slow, yet angry english. the referee still gives the player a yellow card, cautioning her to be careful.

katie is walking behind her, a look of disgust etched across her face, "you were late, and it's a card."

the german scoffs in disbelief, "out of all players, mccabe is telling me what deserves a card."

elena walks past her, "grow up, you were already carded. get out of my way." she retrieves the ball that one of the ball girls has, then tosses it on the ground with flair. she motions for the german to scoot back and out of the way.

svenja huth only shakes her head in disbelief as she backs ten feet away.

unfortunately stina fouls oberdorf directly after elena kicks the ball in their direction, gifting the ball to the she-wolves.

the game progressively gets more scrappy from that first encounter, lia gets the ball straight in her face, then jen is forced to make a tactical foul on wolfsburg's striker.

it gets her carded, and a dangerous free kick that arsenal would have to defend.

their striker was going to beat the scot anyways, but elena rarely found herself in positions to make tactical fouls.

instead of staying trapped in what she would have done in the situation, she's already talking to vic and frida on how they were going to defend the set piece.

at first, it seems like the ball is harmless. elena's watching from the penalty spot as manu comes out to grab the ball, bouncing from a header from one of her teammates.

instead, the ball bounces right over the austrian's head and for a corner, dangerously near the far post in elena's opinion.

elena and noelle simultaneously throw their hands out, unable to believe what they just watched.