Goalkeeper in Charge (7 page)

“From now on, we’ll drill and scrimmage as a team. After the drills today, we’ll play nine-on-nine. I’ll be watching, and
Pepper will be referee. Ms. Allen, Zoe’s mother, will be the second official. She’s
played the game and knows the rules. But first, let’s do our drills. Andrea, Tina, you’ll work with Pepper.”

Pepper took Andrea and Tina aside. “Let’s see how your kicking and throwing are.”

Tina’s first kick was straight, but short. She sighed and waited for Peppers reaction.

“Pretty good, for starters. Hold the ball longer instead of tossing it up before you kick,” said Pepper. “And step into the
lack more, so you bring your kicking leg back farther. You also want more follow-through after the kick.”

Tina’s later kicks were much better. She’d have no trouble kicking to midfield.

Andrea, however, kept kicking the ball off the side of her foot and out-of-bounds.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get better,” Pepper told her. “But for now, I’d probably avoid kicking the ball in a game.”

Throwing the ball was a different matter. Andrea’s long fingers helped her control the ball, and her long arm gave her throws
good distance. Tina’s overhand throws went all over the place; twice the ball dropped down from her hand. Her throws were
short, and her aim wasn’t good.

“Well, we learned some things,” Pepper said when they finished. “We know that Tina can use her kicking to move the ball in
the right direction but that throwing is a gamble, for now. Andrea, you throw well, but you need work on kicking. That’s helpful!”

“Put us together and we’d make the perfect keeper!” Tina said. Both Andrea and Pepper laughed. Tina realized, to her surprise,
that she’d made a joke without worrying if others would think it was funny. She grinned.

The two girls did other drills while the rest of them worked with Danielle. Then Danielle called the team together again.

“We’ll take a break and then begin our scrimmage. Everyone, take five minutes.”

“You know what amazes me?” Meg said to Tina and Zoe as they sat in the grass. “I don’t think we’ve ever repeated a passing
drill or a dribbling drill since we first started practicing.”

“You’re right,” said Zoe. “It’s like they have this endless list of exercises.”

“It never gets dull, for sure,” Meg agreed. “Hey, is that Cindy’s mom with her?”

Tina saw a tall woman in an expensive-looking
warm-up suit talking to Cindy. The woman was pointing and gesturing, and Cindy kept nodding. She didn’t look happy.

“Yeah,” Zoe said. “That’s her. She’s the one who wanted Cindy to go to soccer camp. Looks like she’s giving Cindy instructions.”

Meg nodded. “Cindy doesn’t like it.”

Tina watched mother and daughter and said, “I bet if Danielle sees, she won’t like it either.”

“You’re right,” said Zoe. “Coaches don’t like parents to coach their own kids — or anybody else’s kids.”

“I don’t blame Cindy for not liking it,” said Meg. “I’d hate for my mom to do that.”

Danielle divided the team into squads. Tina and Andrea were the goalkeepers. Tina’s squad included Cindy and Zoe, and Meg
was on the other side. From her position in front of the goal, Tina had a good view of the action.

Cindy was definitely fast, and her quick feet helped her steal the ball from opponents — as Tina already knew. But Cindy did
too much on her own. She’d try to dribble through a whole team and shoot. The first time she did that, Zoe was open, in perfect
position for a shot from the left wing. Cindy ignored her and took a long shot herself that Andrea had plenty of time to grab.

From the sidelines, Mrs. Vane yelled, “Cindy! Get closer!”

Andrea threw to Meg on her left, who passed off to a midfield teammate. Cindy darted over to try for a steal, but the girl
screened her off and passed to a wing. The wing and another forward moved in on Tina, who braced for a shot. The forward on
Tina’s right passed across the goalmouth, and Tina advanced toward the other girl, who wanted to shoot. The girl tried to
chip the ball over Tina’s head, but Tina backed up and stretched, arms high. She punched the ball over the crossbar and out-of-bounds,
setting up a corner kick for the other team.

Cindy trotted by the penalty box and muttered, “You should have caught the ball,” so that only Tina and a few others could
hear. Tina turned red, but didn’t say a word.

The corner kick came across the penalty box. The center forward headed the ball to the left wing, who dribbled closer to Tina.
As Tina was trying to see where a shot might come from, Cindy raced in front
of her, blocking Tina’s view. As Cindy slid to the grass in an attempt to tackle the wing and steal the ball, the wing passed
back to the center forward, who got off a lightning-fast shot. Tina lost sight of the ball for only a few seconds, but that
was enough. She saw the shot coming too late and tried to get to it, but it was by her for a goal.

Tina’s impulse was to scream at Cindy, but she didn’t. Partly it was because she hated to make a fuss. Also, after seeing
Cindy’s mom in action, Tina thought she understood what made Cindy do the stuff she did.

As Pepper took the ball to resume play, Tina noticed Danielle walk over to Mrs. Vane and speak to her. She couldn’t hear what
was said, but it was clear that Mrs. Vane didn’t like it. After a short discussion, Mrs. Vane walked away, looking angry.

When play started again, Cindy made a nice goal, heading the ball in on a pass from Zoe. Cindy glanced over at her mother,
who nodded but didn’t smile. Each team had scored a goal. A minute later, Meg made a quick move to intercept a pass. Cindy,
who had been looking for another shot, was out of position to defend, so Meg had a long, open pass to a
teammate at midfield. Suddenly, Tina was facing another scoring threat.

A couple of Tina’s squadmates tried to get back to help, but one of the opposing forwards made a nice crossing pass to her
teammate, who faked a shot to the left side, pulling Tina in that direction. She then slammed the ball past Tina into the
right side of the cage for a goal.

“Really nice job!” yelled Cindy, pulling up short in front of Tina. “Why were you out of position?”

“Why was
I
out of position?” Tina yelled. “
If you’d
been in position instead of all over the field, they would have never gotten a shot at all!”

Immediately, Tina felt awful. The words had popped out of her mouth before she knew it. Cindy turned on her heel and stormed
to her starting position. Zoe trotted over, seeing how upset Tina was.

“It’s okay,” she said. “You’re totally right; she’s trying to be a one-woman team.”

“I shouldn’t have yelled,” Tina muttered, staring at the ground.

Zoe patted Tina’s shoulder. ’“Well… no, but Cindy shouldn’t have, either. It’s cool. Really.”

Play resumed, and a minute later, Tina made a
nice save, stretching herself full length in the air to get a hand on the ball and send it out-of-bounds. Meg made the corner
kick, which came rocketing toward the goal. Tina got a hand on it and drew the ball into her belly, cradling it with both
arms. Seeing Cindy sprinting toward midfield, Tina kicked it in her direction. Cindy headed the ball and dropped it at her
feet. For once, she passed off— to Zoe, who dribbled toward the opposing goal and then passed back to Cindy. Cindy tried to
kick a goal from forty feet away — too far again, giving Andrea time to catch the ball. When Danielle ended the scrimmage
with her whistle, Meg’s team still led, two goals to one.

As the Wildcats grouped around the coaches, Meg whispered to Tina, “You looked good.”

Tina shook her head. “I wasn’t that good. You guys beat us.”

“You stopped more shots than. Andrea,” Meg replied. “And we wouldn’t have scored the first goal if Cindy hadn’t been in your
way.”

Before Tina could say anything more, Danielle called out. “Listen up, everyone. It went pretty well. I saw a lot of good play
and hustle today. There are a few things we need to watch out for, though.”

Danielle mentioned problems she had noticed: players being out of position, not passing to open teammates, and so on. She
didn’t mention names, but twice, Meg glanced at Tina and silently mouthed, “Cindy”

“Finally,” Danielle said, “we have to remember that we’re a team. That means there’s never any place for anger or yelling.
Teammates support each other. Arguing hurts the team. I hope I won’t have to bring this up again.”

Tina knew that this was aimed at her, at least partly. As she unlaced her soccer shoes, Meg nudged her and pointed. Tina saw
Danielle talking to Cindy, who was red-faced.

“I knew the coach wouldn’t let Cindy get away with that stuff,” Meg said.

As Cindy walked away from the coach, Danielle beckoned to Tina.

“Now it’s my turn,” sighed Tina.

Before Danielle spoke, Tina said, “I’m sorry I yelled. I won’t do it again.”

“That’s all right,” said the coach. “I’m sure you won’t lose your temper. But there are times when it’s not only okay for
you to raise your voice to teammates
— it’s necessary. You need to start doing that when it’s called for.”

Tina was startled.

“Pepper talked to you and Andrea about goalkeepers being field generals,” Danielle went on. “That means, when a player is
blocking your view in the penalty area, or when you want a player to move so you can pass her the ball or for any other reason,
you have to tell her. You have to tell her loud enough to be heard. That isn’t yelling because you’re angry, that’s part of
a keeper’s game. Don’t be afraid to do your job, okay?”

“Okay,” Tina said. She knew it was something she would have to work on.

Later on, Tina and Meg sat on Meg’s front porch. “It was good to see Danielle talk to Cindy,” Meg said. “She deserved it.”

Tina curled her legs under her on the porch chair. “I never though I’d say this, but I feel bad for Cindy, now.”

Meg stared at her friend, then laughed. “You’re amazing! After what happened today?”

“Yeah, but Cindy’s mom must give her a lot of grief,” Tina replied. “Cindy must feel that if she isn’t
a star, her mom will be all over her. With most of us, if we do well, fine, and if we don’t do well, it’s too bad but it’s
no big deal. If Cindy doesn’t do well, it
is
a big deal. I think she’s afraid not to be a star.”

Meg was quiet for a minute. “I guess,” she finally said. “What did Danielle tell you?”

Tina smiled. “She says I
have
to yell more — it’s part of what goalkeepers do. They have to let players know they’re out of position, move them around.
So, yelling can be a bad thing, or it can be a good thing, and I have to figure out which is which. Soccer is complicated
sometimes.”

Meg smiled. “
Life
is complicated sometimes.”

“That’s the truth,” said Tina.

T
ina was doing some stretches while waiting for practice to begin the next day, when she heard someone say, “I’m sorry I yelled
at you yesterday.”

Startled, Tina looked up to find Cindy standing in front of her, looking grim, as if she were doing something she really disliked.

For a moment, Tina was stuck for a reply. Cindy waited a moment, then turned and began to walk away.

“Wait!” Tina called, and ran after her. She got in front of Cindy, who stopped and looked at her, unsmiling.

“I’m sorry I didn’t say anything just now, it’s just that I… anyway, I’m sorry too. For yelling. I mean. It won’t happen again.”

“Okay,” Cindy said, without a smile. Tina was sure that Cindy hadn’t apologized because she felt she’d been wrong, but because
she’d been told to.

“You know,” Tina said, “I —” She stopped just before blurting something out about how rough it must be for Cindy to deal with
her mother’s demands. She suddenly realized that this would be a bad idea. Once again, she stood there without knowing what
to say next.

Finally, Cindy shook her head and left.

“What did
she
want?” asked Meg, who had arrived just in time to see Cindy and Tina together.

“She apologized for yelling,” Tina explained.

“Huh,” Meg said. “She didn’t look really sorry, did she?”

The girls heard the sound of a whistle. “Gather round, everyone!” called Danielle.

Once the team was together, the coach said, “Our first game, against the Rockets, is in two days, so let’s make good use of
our time. We’ll start with drills. Tina, Andrea, work with Pepper. Everyone else, stay here with me.”

While most of the team practiced passes, shooting,
free kicks, corner kicks, and other skills, Tina and Andrea worked on goalkeeping. During the workout, Tina saw that her throwing
hadn’t improved, but at least it wasn’t any worse. Her hands, she thought, were too small to control the ball, but she could
kick it a long way. Andrea’s kicking was still not great, but her throwing was excellent. The girls spent time throwing and
kicking shots for the other to block or catch.

“I wish I could kick like you do,” Andrea said at one point. “That makes a big difference. “I’m not coordinated enough.”

Tina smiled. “I wish I could throw like
you
do. Sounds like we’re even.”

After drills, before the team split up for a scrimmage, Danielle said, “Here is the starting lineup against the Rockets. Now,
remember: Everyone will play. And I don’t mean just for a minute or two. Everyone will get a
lot
of playing time. That’s because you’ll all need rest and also because everyone is working hard and deserves to play. Any
questions?”

There were no questions, and the coach named the starters. Tina would be the keeper, Cindy was
left wing, and Zoe was midfielder. Meg would come in off the bench. This was no surprise; Meg had expected it and wasn’t unhappy.
She knew she wasn’t a top player, and the coach had said everyone would play.

Once again, the team was divided into two squads of nine, with Pepper and Zoe’s mom as referees. This time, Meg was Tina’s
teammate, while Cindy and Zoe were on the other side. Danielle told Tina and Andrea that they’d get to play a position other
than keeper, for part of the time anyway, so that they’d stay in practice for other positions—just in case.