golden blonde¹

you're (not) on your own kid

may 01, 2023 - emirates stadium
as soon as the whistle blew for the beginning of extra time, elena knew that she would have to play the best football of her life. despite how exhausted she was, she wanted the victory for not only herself, but for her team as well.

they were on the brink of history, and elena had the opportunity to decide her own fate.

she wasn't going to let any chances slip.

for the next half hour, elena was the best player on the pitch by a far margin. she won every duel, every tackle, and she was running just as fast as the players who were subbed on recently.

even though tired legs were definitely a factor in arsenal's play during the first half of extra time, many of the girls found it in themselves to push into a higher gear. everyone continuously pushed themselves to keep up with their teammates and they had managed to string together some good attacks.

even when wolfsburg managed to push into arsenal's half, their attacks were dealt with easily by the arsenal defense.

even when things seemed dire, arsenal somehow managed to push forward. arsenal found themselves their best chance on goal so far throughout extra time when vic found frida with a cross into an almost empty box. the norwegian hit it cleanly, keeping the momentum that vic had sent the ball in with, but unfortunately it was straight at the goalkeeper.

a few minutes later, arsenal do find the back of the net, but it's called off for a foul in the box. elena heard the whistle before she saw the ball go into the back of the net. to say she was disappointed was an understatement.

wolfsburg, still with many players on the bench, had substituted their winger off, jonsdottir for jule brand.

the spaniard knew that there weren't many substitutes left for arsenal. lina could potentially come on for penalties, if it got to that situation, but she knew that jonas' options were limited. the players on the field, including herself, had to be mindful of how much energy they were expending with every sprint.

elena didn't know if it was adrenaline, or something else, but she felt like she could run a marathon still. the energy in her legs felt unimaginable. the crowd urging them on with every touch they had on the ball helped with that.

jule brand was definitely someone to keep an eye on. currently she was the fastest player on the pitch, she had fresh legs and elena knew better than to doubt the speed of a winger.

the fact that exhausted legs were coming into play, as well as fatigue, the physicality of the game became more of a factor. one of wolfsburg's attackers got a yellow card for tackling steph right at the brink of the end of the first half.

when the referee blew the whistle for the end of the half, elena jogged beside victoria back to the touchline. lia was already telling the pair on how to improve their positioning on their way over. their boots patted heavily along the grass.

the water break in general was a good one, but elena spent more time talking to her teammates about tactics than she did her own coach.

jonas said something about what they were doing so far was good, and repeated a mantra about keeping up the pressure. elena didn't know if he could tell just how exhausted everyone else seemed.

as elena took a glance over to wolfsburg's huddle, they were being given an invigorating speech by their head coach. he was yelling, and if elena could understand german, she could probably understand what he was yelling as it was decipherable over the crowd noise.

her shoulders hung in disbelief as she saw wolfsburg had another substitution. this time their number 31 for their number 2. it seemed like wolfsburg had the luxury of keeping their structure. it wasn't really clear whether or not they were pushing for a late goal, or playing for penalties.