A Day on the Football Field 

Before the covid lockdown struck us, I participated in a friendly school interhouse match in 2019. My house had qualified for the finals and we were just one match from victory. Our main rivals, who were representatives of another house, had a strong attacking base but our team had a good defending strategy along with the right players. One of my friends and I were playing forward when suddenly he got hurt and was immediately substituted. I was suddenly alone and tasked with shooting goals. The opposite team already had a strong start of 2-0.  

By that time, I had realised that the game had gone out of hand and to get it back, we needed a new strategy. So, we decided to use the Spanish Tiki-Taka method to dodge players off the ball and sure enough the first goal was easy to score. The Tiki-Taka is a strategy where quick passes are made between players to dodge off the player of the opponent team. But it was a one-time opportunity and we still needed more goals to win the match. The match was important to us as it was the final one. Thus, from then on, we used all our skills to dodge off the players and to take the ball to the other side. Soon enough, the referee whistled for half time.  

We had to then swap the goals and some players were substituted. We came back on the field and started playing again. Our team was rejuvenated and we were exhibiting good form. We hit a goal but as it didn’t meet the offside rule, it was not accounted for. But that didn’t deter us and within the next 10 minutes we scored another goal. Now, it was a tie. The team that would score the goal in the next 10 minutes was to win. Suddenly another one of our players was hurt but it was in the opponent team’s D and sure enough we got the penalty.  

There is a rule that if a person is fouled in the opponent's D region and gets hurt then the opponent has to send that player away and our team gets a penalty shootout where we have to kick ball into goal from close range and only the goalkeeper can save it. I took the shoot and tried the double curve. The double curve is a significant move in football where you shoot from the knuckles and the ball changes its direction in the air itself. The ball took the curve as planned but the goalkeeper managed to save it. Then it was a free-for-all game again but one of my players managed to kick and surely it was a goal. Now, we just had to save our goal and do the best defend we could do. After 90 minutes, the referee blew the whistle and the match was over with a victory for us. This match was one of the most memorable ones I played thanks to its many exciting twists and turns. 

Ashirwad is student, A.S.N. Senior Secondary School.