Imagine
Imagine yourself playing in a championship game and the game is tied 1–1 and the other team fouled your player inside their box and it became a penalty and it was your turn to take the penalty shoot. What would you feel at that moment? I was in that position before. I felt like the whole world was watching at me. It was so much pressure for just one person. Ive never felt so nervous like that in my life before.
It all happened in kezar stadium and it was against Drew high school. It was getting dark and the lights were coming on. I told myself that I would give it everything I had so I could make history. I started to see more people come in to watch the championship game so I got a little nervous, but I know that wasn’t going to stop me from putting in work. The announcer started calling players names to go in the field. When they called my name, all I heard behind me was people cheering and screaming my name. I felt so much better when I heard all of my fans cheering me on.
The referee blew the whistle and the game started. My priority was just getting the ball and try to score so we have one point up, but that wasn’t going to happen. After 10 minutes of the game, they scored on us. I see my teammates faces and they look like if they given up or lost, so then I tell them that it is barely first half. That we just need to work as a team. After I got my teammates back on the grind, we started to improve in the field and even our fans started to notice as well. My teammate called K took the ball away from the opponent, and he just was unstoppable. Nobody had the speed like K. So he took the defenders and he shot it and scored. The whole team was excited that the game is 1–1. I ran to K and hugged him to congratulate him.
After K scored, the game started again and it was getting intense because both teams were trying there hardest. The first half ended and we are all tired, but we didn’t stop fighting for the title. The second half started and my teammates and I plans were to work together and to think smart. 30 minutes after the second half started, we got a corner kick. When my teammate, V, kicked the ball, it hit one of the opponents in the hand so it became a penalty kick. Thats when it all started. I didn’t think that I would of taken it so I didn’t really worry about it, until one of my teammates, J, told me to kick it. I just looked at him if he was crazy until the whole team told me to take it. That’s when I realized it’s my chance to shine. So I took the ball from the referee and I put it down and all I hear is just complete silence, it was just me and the goalie that I was paying attention to. After I heard the whistle blow from the referee, I’ve made a choice and I shot it as hard as I can to the right side of the goalie and the ball goes in the net. I hear the crowd going wild and I see my teammates running up to me to congratulate me. There was only 10 minutes left and I was in the bench because I was taking a break and it was getting really intense because the other team would get close to scoring and making it a tie game, but my defense were unstoppable together. I was sitting in the bench me and all of my teammates were waiting for the game to end and once that referee blew the whistle, I ran to the middle of the field and meet up my team because we just became champions.
What I learned from this experience is never throw away an opportunity to shine. Always prove people wrong when they tell you , you can’t. I learned that also taking challenges through how your life makes you learn to make choices. I will always remember how it felt to be in that situation.
