Goalkeeper in Charge (8 page)

For the first ten minutes, nobody could score, as both Tina and Andrea stopped several shots. Cindy, whose mother did not
show up, threatened to get to a loose ball directly in front of Tina’s goal, but Tina sprinted out and scooped up the ball
before Cindy could reach it. Tina rolled it to Meg, who dribbled it away from the cage, out of danger.

A few minutes later, Zoe, from midfield, dribbled through two defenders and passed to Cindy on the wing. Cindy made a clever
side-step move to get past one defender, then passed to a teammate. She then
moved within five yards of the goal and waited for a return pass. Trying to mark Cindy, Meg stepped directly in front of Tina,
so that Tina lost sight of the ball.

“Meg, out of the box!” Tina called.

Meg was startled, but stepped away just in time for Tina to see the ball headed straight for where Cindy could head it. Tina
rushed out to the edge of the penalty box and snatched the ball out of the air. If she’d left the box, she would have been
penalized for using her hands; a keeper can only touch the ball with his or her hands while in the penalty box. This time,
Tina kicked the ball long and hard, and one of her teammates managed to control it and send it toward the other goal.

“Sorry,” Meg called to Tina as she ran after the action. Tina wondered if she’d be able to yell at someone who wasn’t her
best friend. She hoped so. A little later, when Cindy led another rush on the goal, Tina called out to another defensive player,
signaling her to mark one of the forwards. The girl nodded and did what Tina wanted. But Cindy made a beautiful move to get
past her defender and put a shot through the goal, just under the crossbar where
it met the left upright. There was no way for Tina to stop it; the shot was perfectly placed.

Cindy’s squadmates came up to exchange high-and low-fives. “Nice shot,” Tina called out.

Cindy swung around and stared at Tina in surprise. “Excuse me?”

“I said, nice shot,” Tina repeated. “It was perfect, no way I could get to it.”

Cindy’s mouth dropped open. She looked so astonished that Tina almost laughed. Finally, Cindy closed her mouth, nodded, mumbled
something that might have been “Thanks,” and walked away.

After a half hour of scrimmaging, both squads had allowed one goal. Tina thought she’d done a pretty good job and was happy
that she seemed able to get players to move when she needed them to. Danielle ended play with a whistle. The players trotted
toward her, and most of them sat down for a breather. They’d been playing hard and needed a break.

“Great hustle today!” Danielle said, clapping her hands and looking as pleased as she sounded. “We’ll take a ten-minute rest
and shuffle the squads around for a second session. Here are the new lineups.”

For the second scrimmage, Tina would be on the same squad with Cindy and Meg, while Zoe was an opponent. After naming the
squads, Danielle said, “When we begin, I’d like Tina and Andrea to be midfielders, for a while anyway. “She named two other
girls who would start as goalkeepers.

Once her breathing was normal, Meg turned to Tina and rolled her eyes. “Wow! I never ran so long in my whole life!”

Tina grinned. “It was rough, huh?”

Zoe, who had heard Meg’s comment, said, “Sure it’s rough, especially when you’re not used to playing that long at a stretch.”

“Right!” Meg agreed. “You keepers have it easy, standing there with your hands in your pockets most of the time.”

“Want to switch?” Tina offered.

“No thanks,” said Meg. “No way. But it’s still rough, running around like that.”

“First of all,” Tina replied, “you won’t be playing that long without breaks in real games. Second, you’ll get used to it.”

Meg shook her head. “Maybe, but it won’t happen today.”

When play started again, Tina was playing midfield. She quickly understood what Meg had been talking about. She hadn’t been
doing as much running as most of the team had, and she soon found herself breathing hard and sweating. For the first time,
she realized that being a goalkeeper had its good points. She was an okay midfielder, Tina thought, but she might turn out
to be a better-than-okay keeper.

A ball came her way from a squadmate. Tina dribbled and passed to Cindy, who pivoted to her right, screening the ball from
the player marking her. Then she did something so fast that Tina wasn’t sure what happened, except that Cindy had passed the
defender behind and was racing toward the goal with another forward. I could practice forever and never move the ball as well
as Cindy, Tina thought.

A few minutes later, Danielle called a time-out and moved Tina and Andrea back to their usual positions as keepers. Tina was
relieved.

Shortly afterward, Cindy raced to try to get to a ball that had rolled into the penalty box near Tina. Tina, who was closing
in on it herself, called out, “Mine!” almost before she was aware of it. Cindy slowed down to let Tina have the ball. As Tina
looked
over the field to see where she should release the ball, Cindy said, “Sorry.”

Tina nodded, too busy to say anything, but she rolled the ball to Cindy so Cindy could move it out of danger.

A few minutes later, Meg made a bad pass that the other squad intercepted. Zoe passed the ball down-field to a wing, who avoided
a defender and dribbled to within fifteen feet of the goal. She faked a shot with her left foot and drew Tina to her own right,
and then let fly with a hard shot toward the other side of the cage.

Tina recognized the fake and shifted her weight back to her own left side. As the opposing forward fired the shot, Tina took
two long steps to the left and flung herself toward the ball, stretching herself out in the air a foot off the ground. If
the shooter had aimed for the corner of the cage, she would have scored a goal. But it wasn’t far enough into the corner,
allowing Tina to get a hand on the ball and deflect it to the right. The ball hit the upright, bounced away, and rolled out-of-bounds.

As Tina got up, she heard someone say, “Good save.”

She looked behind her and saw that it was Cindy. “Thanks,” she said, smiling. Cindy hesitated and then smiled back.

Hearing clapping from the sidelines, Tina saw Dave standing there. He waved and gave a thumbs-up sign. Tina also saw Cindy’s
mother, standing not far from Dave. She stared straight ahead, unsmiling.

When Cindy caught sight of her mom, her smile vanished. Tina, whose father had always been encouraging, felt sorry for Cindy,
whose mom seemed anything but.

At the end of the second scrimmage, Pepper spoke briefly to Tina. “Very good. And I see you can be the general when you have
to be.”

Danielle then gave everyone her thoughts. “I know you all must be pretty wiped out today, but you need the work to be ready
for the games. Remember, when you’re on offense and you’re off the ball—when you’re not the one who has the ball—be careful
not to let yourselves bunch too close together. It makes the defending team’s job harder when you’re spread out. And don’t
get in the keeper’s way in the penalty area, it’s the keeper’s job to deal
with it. Okay, everyone, good work, and we’ll do it again tomorrow!”

Dave came out to talk to Tina, who was standing with Meg. “You made a couple of great saves! You two want to go to the mall?”

“I can’t,” Meg said. “I promised my mom I’d help her with some stuff at home.”

“I’d like to go,” Tina said.

“Great!” Dave answered. “Let’s—”

“Tina? Can I talk to you?” It was Cindy, who looked unsure of how Tina would treat her.

But Tina was happy to be friendly if Cindy was. “Sure! Oh, this is my friend Dave.”

Cindy smiled at Dave. “Hi. Um, I just wanted to say that … I’m glad we’re on the same team. I think you’re a great keeper
and I … I’m sorry if I was mean before.”

“That’s okay,” Tina said. “Hey, we’re going to the mall, want to come?”

“I’d better ask my mom,” Cindy said, and ran over to Mrs. Vane.

Dave asked, “Is that the one who gave you trouble?”

Tina nodded. “That’s her. She seems different now.”

Dave grinned. “You stood up to her, huh?”

“Well, no,” Tina admitted. “But she stopped anyway.”

After a short talk with her mother, Cindy walked over with a disappointed expression. “I can’t go, too much homework.”

“Maybe some other time,” Tina said.

Cindy smiled. “Maybe. See you.”

As they biked to the mall, Dave said, “Cindy kept looking at her mom during the scrimmage. What’s the deal?”

Tina sighed. “Mrs. Vane wants Cindy to be a star, but I think Cindy just wants to be part of the team. I hope they work it
out. Cindy’s a good athlete, and I don’t think she’s happy.”

At the mall, they headed for the Food Court. Tina, who really wanted a cold drink, saw a big group of kids sitting at some
tables and suddenly felt panicked. She thought of turning away, but somebody called her name. With a sinking heart, Tina recognized
Zoe.

“Hey, Tina, over here!”

Dave said, “Come on!”

Tina said, “Okay,” but she knew it would end up just like it always did: with her stuck for things to say, looking dumb.

Here we go again, she thought.

I
t started the way it usually did, with Tina sitting like a statue and saying nothing. But Zoe leaned over and poked her arm.
“Great save you made! That was an awesome move.”

“What happened?” a girl asked, one whom Tina didn’t know.

“Teen made this totally amazing dive,” Zoe explained. “It looked for sure like the ball was going in, but suddenly she’s,
like, hanging in the air, and the ball is headed out-of-bounds.”

The other girl looked at Tina with interest. “Yeah? How’d you do that?”

Tina shrugged. “I don’t know, exactly.”

“You don’t know?” The girl gave Tina a look that said, You must be weird.

“It sounds funny,” Tina said, “but when something
happens really fast in a sport, you don’t think, you just do it. If you stop to think—it’s too late. It’s like your brain
lets your body take over.”

A boy who had overheard nodded. “I can see that. It’s the same in baseball when you swing at a pitch.”

The girl thought for a moment. “Sure, like when I dance, I don’t think about how to move, it just happens.”

Tina nodded. “Right. My brain shuts off sometimes in soccer.” She grinned. “Too bad it also happens when I take science tests.”

The kids who were listening laughed. Tina could hardly believe it. She’d made a joke, and it had gotten a laugh.

She had no idea how much time had passed when Dave said, “I have to go, it’s getting late.”

Tina was sorry to leave, but she stood up and said, “Well, see you” to the group, who waved and said their own good-byes.

“Hey, Teen,” said Zoe. “You want to meet for lunch tomorrow? We go to the deli near school. Bring Meg with you!”

“Sounds great,” Tina said. And it
did
sound great.

Riding home, Tina suddenly laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Dave asked.

Tina shook her head. “Oh, nothing, really. It’s just … I feel good, that’s all.”

“Me too,” Dave replied. “That was fun. Hey, let’s go again soon, okay?”

“Okay!” Tina agreed happily.

The two parted at their driveways. When Tina entered her kitchen, delicious food smells hit her nostrils. She suddenly realized
that although she’d been in the Food Court at the mall, she hadn’t eaten a thing. Now she was starving!

At dinner, Mrs. Esparza asked, “How long until your first game? It must be soon.”

Tina said, “Two days. You’ll all be there, right?”

“Right!” Mr. Esparza said. “Have you thought about what color you’ll wear? It’s your choice, isn’t it? Since you’re a goalkeeper.”

“I was thinking red,” Tina said, reaching for another biscuit. “Red is cool.”

Sammy said, “Why do goaltenders—”

“
Goalkeepers
,” corrected his father.

“How come
goalkeepers
wear different uniforms from everyone else?”

“So everyone can tell us apart from other players,”
Tina explained. “’Keepers always wear different colors.”

Mr. Esparza gave his daughter a warm smile. “We’ll get you a red outfit tomorrow. I feel good that you’re a keeper. I’d like
to have been a keeper myself.”

“Daddy!” Tina exclaimed. “You always say you wish you’d been a center.”

Her father shrugged. “I’d like to have been a great scorer
and
a star keeper.”

Mrs. Esparza said, “Your father doesn’t always make sense when he talks about
futbol
. We’ll all be there for your game. Just don’t expect me to understand what’s going on.”

“
I’ll
be there, even though soccer is lame compared to baseball,” said Sammy.

“How can my son say that?” asked Mr. Esparza, giving Sammy a mock scowl. “Maybe when you get older you’ll be more sensible.”

Mrs. Esparza laughed. “It didn’t happen with you, dear.”

At practice the next day—the day before the first game—Tina saw Meg, Zoe, and other girls with Cindy, who was demonstrating
a new move.

“Start with the ball on your right foot,” Cindy said as Zoe tried it. “Then step over the ball with that foot … that’s it!
Now shift your weight so the ball’s under your left foot …
good
! Then use the outside of your left foot to dribble … you got it!”

Tina nudged Meg. “What’s happening?”

Meg turned. “Oh, hi. Cindy’s showing people a ‘scissor move.’ She says it’s a great way to fake out a defender.”

“Does it work?” Tina asked.

Meg looked exasperated. “Not for
me
. Zoe can do it, but when I tried, I tripped. Maybe if I try it in a game, the defender will laugh so hard that I’ll get by
her, and it’ll work that way.”

Tina giggled. “But it’s good that Cindy’s trying to help. She’s turning over a new leaf.”

“Maybe,” Meg said. “Want to ask her? Here she comes.”

Cindy was approaching, but before they could talk, Danielle called the team together.

“Okay, there’s a lot to do today. Let’s do some drills. Pepper will work with Tina and Andrea, and I’ll work with the rest
of you.”