My Man of the Match

The Match of Their Lives

"Minter's having a nice little run down the pitch, getting past the opposition's defence! The star striker of England has a shot- oh! But it is saved by Lloris, unlucky..." The booming voice that belonged to the commentator, Josh Bradely, rang through the speakers as Simon Minter, England's newest striker shook his head in disappointment and jogged towards the centre of the pitch.

Then, the half-time whistle blew and all the players made their way to the locker rooms for a short break.

"The game is nil-nil so far in the finals of the Euros 2016. Both teams have been doing very well so far and seem to be on-par with one another, which is certainly not good news for either team. While England has just been on a serious attacking grind, France's defence has been very solid, refusing to let any goals in. Hopefully after the teams have had a brief rest, we'll see some miracles happening in the second half of the game!" Vikram Barn, Josh's co-commentator announced to mark the end of the first half.

A slightly chubby male with thin lips that pursed together to form a slim and unusually solemn pair of lips and round light grey eyes that filled with complex thoughts. His name was Ethan Payne. He played the centre-back position for the England team and was one of the youngest players. Being the young ambitious lad he was, he was contemplating on how to improve his performance drastically whilst waiting for his best friend, Simon. Once he saw the tall and lanky male drag his body down the stairs tiredly, Ethan could see the high levels of stress from Simon's creases on his forehead. It was, after all, their biggest and most important game yet.

Ethan patted Simon on the shoulder and said, "You look like you've aged a hundred years in under 45 minutes, Si. I think you need the merry talkie."

The 'merry talkie' was a phrase coined by the two when they first met. They were both 5 years old at the time and Ethan had noticed a little boy sitting alone, sulking. He decided to walk over to the boy and wanted to comfort him, but his vocabulary 16 years ago was not exactly broad, so he didn't know how to express himself properly and ended up saying, "Hi, I'm Ethan! Do you wanna have a merry talkie?" This startled the little boy and turned his head up, looking at him with his puffy, watery blue eyes. He replied, "I-I'm Simon... What's a merry talkie? Sounds fun." Ethan hummed for a while as he thought of how to respond and then answered with a broad grin on his face, "Well you're about to find out, Simon!" This made Simon chuckle, revealing his cute dimpled smile and his missing front tooth.

Ever since then, the two would meet at the nearby park every evening to hang out and 16 years later, they were best friends, living their dream together as they played for their nation's team.

"Mhm... We haven't scored yet and I don't feel safe at all. We could easily concede a goal and bam, that would be the end for all of us and it would be because of me! Because I didn't score, because I didn't try hard enough, because I'm absolute shit-

"Simon Minter! You are not allowed to call yourself absolute shit! You have been trying your best, Si. And that's all anybody could ever ask for. So what if you haven't scored yet? Has Griezmann scored yet? Has Giroud scored yet? Has anybody else scored yet? No. Therefore you shouldn't feel bad about it. Don't blame yourself so much, Simon, please. You're the best striker I know!"

Simon muttered, "Ethan, I'm the only striker you know..." A small smile creeped up on Simon's face as Ethan's face reddened and said, "Excuse me? I-I'm friends with a bunch of other strikers too, I-I don't know what you're talkin', man." There was a silence for a while as the two exchanged looks and Simon raised his eyebrow quizzically at Ethan, causing him to burst out into laughter.

Ethan's contagious laughter infects Simon and he begins laughing as well. He replied, "Yeah right, Eth!" Simon then changed the topic, "Anyways, how's it like to be playing against your precious Payet?" Simon stretched a cheeky smile on his face as Ethan chuckled and replied, "Playing with the person you idolise is very distracting, honestly. Playing against him, however, is a lot of pressure as well as distracting. I swear to God, I will crumble in admiration if he storms up to me with the ball."