The Soccer Dream

The Hell Week

Today marked the first day of the week of scrimmages and skill competitions against the other teams in the tournament. Today would include a walk-through, then a scrimmage against the U10 team from the Blazing Spartans soccer club. The U10 team included a very talented girl named Paige. Paige has a good chance to move to the U12 team at her club. In the last tournament she competed in, she finished with the MVP honors with her recording 12 goals in 4 games. This would be the first meeting between the two of the best players in the country. National team scouts would be at the scrimmage to see if they could be in a national team pool when they are older.

The scrimmage started and Paige scored a few minutes into the scrimmage, so the Yellow Jackets were down 1-0. Aja rallied her team and told her team that is only one goal and they could respond. A few minutes later, Aja assisted a goal by Jessica so the scrimmage was tied at 1 at the half. In the second half, Aja added two of her own goals and Paige added a goal as well. The score was 3-2 until Aja completed her hat trick.

With 20 minutes left, Paige went up for a header and landed on her ankle wrong. She was taken out of the game and was taken away to get crutches. Aja's team ended up winning the scrimmage 5-2 with Aja having a hat trick and two amazing assists to Maggie. Paige was taken to the hospital to get x-rays.

Aja decided to go to the hospital to check how Paige was doing. Paige found out that she had sprained her ankle so she would be out of action for 4 weeks since it was just a minor sprain. She would have to use a walking boots and do rehab after her doctor decided it was healed properly. This would also mean she couldn't play in the tournament.

Aja found her room and comforted Paige. Aja told Paige "I know you wish you could play but taking a break from soccer might help with your mental game." Having a good mental game is important in soccer. When you step onto the field, you are expected to block everything off the field out and focus on the game. Paige agreed with Aja and couldn't wait to be able to play again.

Aja's coach called when she was at the hospital and was told to meet the team on field 5 for a skill competition. Aja got picked up from the hospital by an U18 player and found out the skill that would be tested was going to be juggling. The juggling competition will be a practice tournament for Aja since she had qualified for the nationals at the regional juggling championship.

Aja won the competition easily and beat some of the best jugglers in the northeast. After that competition, Aja was tired and went to her hotel room and wrote in her diary.

Dear Diary,

Today was a very tiring day but I can't wait for tomorrow. I feel bad that Paige got injured went before the tournament. After finishing the juggling competition, Megan called me into her office to let me know that she decided to add two more girls to the team. Both of the girls are goalies so Megan now has two more goalies that she could pick to start the games for us. I am nervous that they are not ready to compete but they probably are. Only time will tell.

Aja woke up early for a team building exercise and strength training session. The team would grow as a team by doing a team building exercise. After the team building exercise, Megan had her team go to the fitness center for a cardio training session.

Aja would have a regular training session then two more scrimmages. The first scrimmage would be against the Miami All-star Soccer Club. This club is the defending national club champion and would be a great test for the team. Aja knew her team would try their best and hopefully win the scrimmage. The second scrimmage would be against the Spartans of the Albany All-star club.

After the cardio and training session, it was time for the scrimmages. This would be the first test for one of the new goalies named Amanda. Amanda was a newcomer to the team and was a reserve player until she was called up. She had no starts for her club career, but was on a recreational team with the Yellow Jackets.

The scrimmage against the Miami All-Stars started and Amanda had 5 saves in the first 5 minutes of the scrimmage. Aja had a goal and her team led 1-0 at halftime. At halftime, Amanda had 12 saves. The All-Stars scored a few minutes into the second half. The game was tied and before the kickoff, after the goal, Aja told her team to remain calm and play their game. After that goal, Erin replaced Amanda in goal. Erin had 23 saves in the first scrimmage. Aja received a pass from Maggie and scored a remarkable goal from distance to put her team up by one. The All-Stars responded quickly to tie it up. The game finished as a 2-2 tie and Aja was happy with her team's effort.

The second scrimmage started a hour after the first finished. The starting goalie would be Audrey who just joined the team. Audrey proved that she could be a starting goalie in the training session before the first scrimmage. If she played well in the scrimmage, she might be the starter for the games in the tournament.

Aja registered two goals in the first 10 minutes of the scrimmage. Audrey had 10 saves at halftime and Megan was impressed by her performance. The final score of the scrimmage was 3-2 and Aja finished with two goals. Megan would make up her mind about who would start in goal after the last scrimmage the next day.