"Its decided. Let's do it. We are having a street soccer match the next week on Sunday." said Ali to his street friends. There was a group of teenagers who lived in the same street ; Ali, Khizar, Nehal, Hasan and Abdullah. This group was fed up of playing soccer between them and children, so they decided to go to their next street and see if there are any other teenagers who play soccer in the evening.
As they reached the next street, they saw many children playing soccer match against some teenagers from same street. Ali took suggestions from the rest of the group and decided that we should ask the teens to play a friendly street soccer match. Ali advanced towards that teen group after their match ended. His group went to them and they greeted each other and invited them for the match. The teens from next street agreed to play.
Ali and his friends happily returned to their own street. Everyone was excited about the match.
Let's discuss position of everyone in Ali's team. First of all, Ali was the team's captain. His best friend was Khizar who played the position of defender and midfielder both. Khizar didnt looked stronger but he was strong like a superman. Sometimes while Ali was striking, whenever Khizar came in between him to tackle him, Khizar was 79% successful as Ali was always a little scared of getting injured. Ali took position of striker. Nehal was a player who could take any place in the field, everyone decided to keep him as a mid fielder. Hasan was the goal keeper and Abdullah was the guy who can be anywhere. These were positions of the whole group of friends.
The next day Ali and his friends instead of practising gathered around and discussed the tactics they were gonna use against their opponent team. Abdullah came up of a tactic which was appreciated by everyone. He advised and suggested to defend at the beginning till half time and attack after the half time. He had a concept that the opponent team players will get tired if they attack too much initially in first half. Hasan gave idea of not playing a solo game but a proper team game by passing football to other players. Nehal advised to keep the striker and the striker's end and the midfielders and defenders to the defending end because there must be someone at strike. The striker may get a chance during the opponents attack. First day went in discussion about tactics.
For the next 5 days, every morning Ali would call his whole team to the street and they all would exercise in the morning. After exercise they would walk , then convert walking into jogging and then jogging into running so that their thigh and leg muscles dont hurt in future. Further more they all would gather money to buy some healthy food for everyone like fruits and milk. At the time of prayers, everyone went to their houses and then they would pray and have lunch.
Then everyone returned in the evening, and gather at the same spot. They began practising by doing many common things such as Two out of five team members would tackle the football from the rest three members who would dribble and pass to the others. That helped in warming up the body easily. Moreover they would help Hasan in improving his reactivity time as he was the goalkeeper , one of the most important player of the match. Khizar suggested plenty shootouts to improve the reactivity time of Hasan.
The most clear thing to our team was that the opponent team had great dribblers who could easily dribble through us except the man of steel , Khizar . The strength of their shoots was also very stronger than ours because they usually used to practice at proper ground , where as from Ali's team only Khizar and Ali used to practice in Sand ground.
A day before the match Ali was informed that the total number of players should be six. Now that scared shit out of all of the team because they were the only 5 who knew football well. Luckily on the last day Khizar's cousin came to stay at his house. The name of that guy was also Hasan. He was the best player as compared to Ali's whole team. Hasan was a striker, he used to play big soccer matches. Let's call him Hass. In the evening of the previous day before match, Hass came out with KKhizar on the street. He greeted everyone and then Ali and his rest team members explained the whole situation to them. Hass agreed to play the match but there was a little problem for him. He didnt had his football joggers(toes) and he could only play with those toes or bare foot. Roads in Pakistan are sometimes covered with little dust and minute pieces of rocks, which could harm people who would play, run or walk bare footed. Hass was stubborn once he decided to play bare footed, it was the hardest thing to change his mind.
Now the day arrives and in the evening the friendly street soccer match will be played. Nehal gave the name of both teams ; their own team name was Striking Mountains and The opponent team name was Heavy Wind.
In the morning , Khizar and Hass called all the team members to gather in the street. Everyone appeared in the street except one. "Oh man , Ali is neither here not at his home. I went to his home to call him but his mother told that he is gone for his classes, he can't miss any because he is appearing as a private candidate in his examinations." said Hasan to others. Everyone got crazy and angry. None knew what to do now.
Khizar tried to contact Ali through calls and texts but no response from him. Ali sitting in his class, thinking what would others do. " I wish the teacher didn't called us for an extra class. It will take half hour for the class to end and there is one hour left for the match to begin." Ali thought that to himself. Meanwhile the rest of Ali's team was sad and hurt that Ali betrayed them and he was meant to not attend the match because Heavy Wind can defeat Striking Mountains.
Heavy Wind team members started to appear in the street. Slowly slowly all members appeared except their captain, same was the case with the Striking Mountains their captain wasnt there as well. Hass took the big step and encouraged the team members to play their best and not lose hope. He told them that sometimes people have to face these type of problems. They, as well as Heavy Wind, started to warm up for their match.
Half an hour passed , Ali was in the class listening to teacher's lecture. At the moment teacher ended the lecture Ali stood up and ran out of class , making teacher shout from behind "Ali, you gotta do the work I am giving.". Ali replied that he will submit the work on time and asked his friend to forward the homework on WhatsApp or Facebook.
Ali always used public transport to go to his institute and his home. He would mostly walk to the bus stop and wait for a bus because at the time he reached there , the first bus would have left already. But this time, Ali ran all the way to the bus stop so he couldnt miss the first bus to his home. During that time, the both teams were gossiping about when to start and how long will the match be. Heavy Wind all team members were present there and Striking Mountains was incomplete because of Ali.
Hass decided to play the match without Ali and convinced others to do the same. He encouraged them and told them that in life these problems are common and everyone have to be strong. " Even if Ali dont appears today in the match, we can still play this match and defeat them. We are a team, Ali has some problems so thats why he can't appear today " said Hass to Striking Mountains.
Both teams gathered to the centre of street, Heavy Wind chose left side of street and the Striking Mountains chose right side. Striking Mountains were given the opportunity to kickoff first. Hass and Abdullah came in the centre and were about to kickoff , suddenly they heard something "HEY ! Wait for me! Sorry guys I am late , I had to attend the class" shouted Ali to everyone present there. Finally Ali arrived, Striking Mountains got happy. Ali took place of Abdullah and Abdullah took position of a midfielder.
"Fffeeeee!!!!!" whistled the two referees together. Hass passed to Ali and game started. Ali passed back to him and ran to strike. Ali waited for Hass to pass him ball back, and instead of passing back to Ali he passed to the midfielder Nehal. The opponent team's striker advanced towards him. They were running so fast towards him that he got scared and he shooted from his position to the striker's end. Hass was near to reaching where the football would bounce but sadly the defender was standing at that spot. As soon as football bounced, the defender controlled the ball like as if he was the best football controller in the streets. He dribbled through Hass then passed to the midfielder who further dribbled Nehal and Abdullah. The midfielder passed the ball through Khizar and the striker ran from sideways and as soon as he received the ball , he took the opportunity and he kicked the ball. For Hasan everything went into slow motion his heart beat doubled, he swallowed his saliva and sweat from his forehead dropped to the ground. The ball came swinging towards the corner of the posts , Hasan slightly bent down and transfered all his energy to his legs and jumped to the right corner. His hand stretched to the corner of the post , the football touched his fingers and he tried to put force through his fingers to move the ball away. Fingers bent a little and the direction of football changed. The football hit the post and flew away. "YAASSSS ! COME ONN!!" shouted Hasan.
Both teams appreciated his save and applaused. In the street their is no concept of taking corners so Hasan had the ball. He threw ball to Nehal. This time Nehal got the spirit of Iniesta and dribbled through all strikers and mid fielders. Nehal passed to Hass and all defenders moved towards Hass. He was surrounded by nearly all players except goal keeper, he saw Ali on the safe side. He chipped up the ball and the ball went over the defender's head. The slow motion for Ali began. Everything seemed to be stopped for him and he saw the ball flying to him. He went blank and was running towards the ball. His mouth wide open and sweat running down his cheeks to his little cute beard. He came under the football and controlled it through his chest. As the ball hit his chest , it bounced up and Ali planned to shoot the ball as it comes down. This technique Is widely known so the goalkeeper was prepared for it. When Ali saw the goal keeper prepared, he didnt waited for the ball, he bent a little down and used his head to hit the ball. Header was unexpected by the goal keeper , the ball flew to the top right corner and there was a change in the speed so the ball flew into the net.
"GOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLL" shouted Striking Mountains. Every team member rushed to Ali and tapped his back. Ali felt proud and raised his hands and told them to calm down. Heavy Wind had to kick off this time. There striker passed his mid fielder and midfielder to defender then defender to goal keeper. Goal keeper shot the ball and the ball flew to the striker at their striking end. The man of steel ,Khizar, advanced to the striker and stood in his way like a wall. The striker tried to dribble him but as Khizar tackled his hands were moving without control. His left hand hit the striker's private part and he started laughing and began to shout "Stay away from this guy. He is cracking my balls".
Everyone began to laugh and the game stopped for a moment. No foul was given and the opponent team also didnt had any complain about it. Khizar had the ball this time. He loved to dribble and so he dribbled the Midfielder successfully. Unluckily the referees whistled and it was the half time. Both teams exchanged their sides and every team captain encouraged their teams to play better. Both teams shared water bottles and drank little amount of water so that their muscles dont pain.
" Fffeeeeee!!! " referees whistled again to begin the last half. The opponents kicked off, they went into defensive mode and so did Striking Mountains. The opponents began to pass so nicely and properly that it seemed nearly impossible to tackle them and get the ball. Except goalkeeper the rest of Striking Mountains, moved on together as if they were a wall. This unity of team made the Heavy Wind to move back again and pass ball to their midfielders then to defenders. In the last half, the possession of ball was 90% with Heavy wind where as 10% with Striking Mountains. Heavy Wind kept passing in between their players. Time passed slowly and gradually. 10 minutes left for the match to end. The opponent kept passing between their players. They all together signalled something through their eyes.
The striker ran with the ball towards Abdullah. Abdullah went forward to tackle him and as he was about to tackle , the striker passed the ball back to mid fielder. Striker ran through the wall of Striking Mountains and the midfielder passed the ball over their head to the Striker. He ran alone towards the goal keeper. The whole wall broke and ran to stop him. Every one was way to far from the striker. He hit the ball with his maximum speed and the ball hit Hasan's chest and was saved. The ball bounced back to him and at that time Khizar and Ali reached near the goalkeeper so they can defend.
Another slow motion mode started, Sweat dropped from every players head and rolled down to their chins. The striker was all alone , clock was ticking, Ali, Khizar and Hasan infront of him. Behind him were his team members and the rest of Striking Mountains. He faked a shoot and Ali jumped as if he hit the ball. Khizar was familiar so he didnt reacted but advanced towards the striker. Ali was in air and at that moment while khizar approaching towards the striker slowly. Striker attempted a shoot, the ball slowly flew towards the left of the post where Ali was standing, Hasan moved their and dived to the left.
The ball was still in air, Ali's back was facing the ball. Everyone's mouth wide open, and hands over their heads. The ball hit Ali's ass and bounced to the right corner and went into the net. "SHITTTT!!! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!" shouted the Striking Mountains whereas Heavy Winds shouted "GOAOOOOAAALLLLLLLL".
The referees whistled the end of the game. The Heavy Wind got insane and hugged their striker and even slapped him many times in fun instead of tapping. Striking Mountains applauded as the goal was unexpected. None blamed Ali because it wasnt his fault . The match was an amazing soccer match , everyone enjoyed it. Both teams went together to have cold drinks and some snacks. The game resulted in a draw and the day went well.
Moral: People win and lose. Its not the matter whose fault was like in this case it seemed to be Ali's fault in making the match draw. In games if blaming is common then that person who is blamed , is discouraged and get hurt. So guys if you even win or lose appreciate both teak members.