It was a cold morning, the day of my first soccer game during Covid. We had so much to do, shop for the right soccer shoes, and practice before the game. If I was going to be honest, I was nervous. I hadn’t played soccer in so long, would I be able to play just as good as used to?

First things first, shoe shopping at the sporting goods store. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. They didn’t have any turf shoes for girls, or boys for that matter. So we decided to look for sneakers, because they were allowed. It took forever, but we finally did find some, and they looked amazing!

The Game

It turns out, we didn’t have enough time to practice before the game. But luckily, the coaches helped us to warm up first with some sprints and dribbling. I was already out of breath by the time we finished.

That’s when the referee blew his whistle and everyone went to their position on the field. I was mid-field, because I liked being both offense and defense. The game started with a kick-off from my team.

“Push up everyone! Push up!” Are coach yelled at us from the sidelines.

The ball came to me many times, but I made the mistake of passing it to my teammates instead of dribbling it. You could definitely say I was a little rusty. The girl from the other team suddenly rushed past me with the ball, and I bolted after her, trying to steal the ball away. But she was too quick, and our defense was no match for her. We all watched as she kicked the ball, and it flew past our goalie, straight into the net.

Cheers erupted from the other side of the field, and I shook my head in denial. ‘How could I have let that happen?’ I tried to concentrate on the game and put all those thoughts in the back of my head. But my heart wasn’t in it, and the other team scored a few other goals. It went on like this until the referee blew the whistle three times, indicating the game was over.

I knew I hadn’t given my best, and that was something I wanted to work on in the future, as well as not giving up. Now I was determined to do better the next game. Would I be able to? . . .