World Cup Romance

The Decisive Game

"Brazil is going to be so tough to beat!" I jumped around waiting for the starting whistle to blow. Marco was chewing on his nails, a clear indicator to me that he was nervous. Many of the German fans around us were timid as well. Slight laughter and stiff bodies were scattered around our section.

For the first three minutes, Brazil had us. The crowd was behind their every move, and behind every kick awarded to them. But once Germany started pressuring forward, Brazil realized this was no easy game without their captain and master defender, Thiago Silva.

Eleven minutes into the tense game, Toni Kroos kicked a perfect corner right to Tomas Müller, who volleyed it into the net.

"Did that just happen?" Marco highfived my hands and smiled proudly. You could feel the weight lift off the shoulders of the German fans that surrounded us. But worse was to follow.

One goal after another, the Germans kept scoring. By halftime, it was a score of five to nothing with goals from Miroslav Klose, two from Toni Kroos, and Sami Khedira finished the half off.

"Oh my god," I shook Marco's arm rather harshly. "All the Brazilian fans are leaving!"

I saw a large amount of Brazilian supporters exist their seats. It was a horrible half for Brazil, and I could see why many of them were leaving.

"I'm shocked myself," Marco sat down and rubbed his eyes.

"This is incredible," I shook my head. All around, I saw tears from the Brazilians. It must feel horrible having the host country lose like this, especially in a knockout game. Germany went through this in 2006, though.

The half started back up. In the 69th minute, Andre Schürrle got another goal. This happened again in the 79th minute by Schürrle again.

"Mario must not be coming out today," Marco told me.

"Yeah, that's okay," I replied.

To finish a dreadful evening, Oscar scored in the 90th minute for Brazil, ending the game 7-1.

"We're moving on!" I hugged my brother and we started to get out of our seats and head outside.

"I'm proud of this team," he weakly smiled.

It kept hitting me hard that Marco wasn't back to full health. When our family found out he was going to be on the squad for this World Cup, everyone was ecstatic. Marco couldn't believe it, and he was ready.

After his injury he seemed so out of everything. I wanted so many times to take him to the rest of Germany's warm up matches but he refused.

Now, it seemed worse. He wasn't waving at the crowd like his teammates Bastian Sweinsteiger and Manuel Neuer were. He was sitting in the seats watching them experience the joy.

"Are you okay?" I asked him.

"Not really," he replied.

All I wanted was for Marco to expeirence this with his team. Nothing else.

Marco's POV **

The following day, Mario and I met up at a sports bar and discussed plans for the final.

"So, how are you planning to do it if you lose?" I asked him.

"Well, I wanted to take her out, like we talked about," he tapped his fingers against his drink.

"You should take her back to the ice rink, where you left her," I pointed out.

"Not a bad idea!" he smiled. "That's honestly a good plan."

"And what about a win?"

"Oh, she's have to come to the field. Then I'd ask her to be my girlfriend," he was looking behind me and probably daydreaming.

"Cool. I'm trying to get lower seats but we'll see," I rubbed my hands together and got up. "Thanks for meeting me out here man."

"Pleasure. See you at the game," he waved and winked as I headed out the door.

"Let's do this," I laughed.