Sunday Candy

Are you serious?

It was halftime. Sweat, cheers, yells, cries engulfed the air. There was no doubt that this game was intense. But we were down 1-0. It was a tough game and every second kept us on our toes. There was no way we can lose this game, not the first Olympic game. 

Sweden's lead was quick and unexpected halfway through the first half. The locker-room was so quiet, I imagined a pin dropping would be louder. 

"Mare, I want you to play more forward. You're doing great and your balls are fantastic." Coach looks at me directly stopping from what he was saying to the circle.

"You and Tobin have been dominating the game and each of your set pieces have brilliant but I NEED you to finish. Somebody in here has to finish the ball. We have the set pieces but not one of us is executing." He adds. I nod taking another sip of gatorade.

Coach quickly finishes his talking with the rest of the group as we just got the signal to get back outside.

"Munchy says make a goal for her" Dunn runs up to me squeezing my shoulders. I laugh quietly shaking my head at her words.

"I'll do my best to do so. That little cookie deserves it." She giggles giving me a quick hug and runs over to the bench with Franch and Pinoe. The rest of us run onto the field.

Tobins POV 

As coach spoke about Mare and I setting more pieces together than usual for this game, I felt Chris shift uncomfortably. I personally didn't think our first game was the time to be experimenting with pairs and plays. Each game should be taken seriously. If anything, we should just try out this thing with Mare during practice. 

I grabbed her knee for reassurance and to calm my nerves.  We were given the signal to start making our way back to the field and each of us remained serious. There's no way we can lose our first game. 

I jogged up next to Mare seeing a stern look on her face.

"Hey, you ready for this?" She turns her head nodding.

"As ready as I can ever be"

Mare's POV

Sweden is putting up a fight, there's no doubt about it. I constantly find myself struggling to get past their defenders and into the box. Tobin continuously passes these beautiful balls into the box and up the side and for some reason I'm finding it beyond difficult to finish any of them.

It's like something is stopping me from finishing these plays. And for some reason, it seems to happening to the entire team. As much as I hate to say it, Sweden is playing tremendously. 

We were 15 minutes into the half when one Sweden gains possession of the ball again. 

No way.

They scored again.

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We lost our first game. 3-0. And to make it worse, we couldn't even tie the game nor score one goal.

Right now, Alex and I are relaxing in our rooms for the night. After the game, the team came together at the hotel to go over the statistics of the game as well as rewatching plays to see our mistakes. Each and every one of us were absolutely baffled with the result of the game.