The comeback

Looking forward to the season ahead, I was determined to be in the best shape of my life. When the first day of practice came upon me, I was the fastest out of everyone. I was proud of what I had done over the summer and was confident of my play of soccer.
I knew I was already the starter as a right defenseman, and it was hard earned. In the first game I was officially announced as the starter, I pulled both of my Achilles tendons. I had made a long run up the field, it was cold and I wasn’t quite warmed up yet. As the coach and I consulted about it, we came to the conclusion that I would have to sit out the whole year. There would have been a chance for me to come back but by that time we would have been in the playoffs and I would have had no game time experience. Throughout the season I tried to run, it was so hard though. I could barely walk. It was so painful it almost felt as if someone had cut my legs. It was so frustrating for me and I know that I had wasted a whole summer of working out, and a whole fall too, because soccer was my life. I started to watch the team progress and it just made me angry because I knew that if I were able to play we could have won games in a better fashion, maybe making the team more complete. It was agonizing for me to sit out the whole year and have to wait for my senior year. I really wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to play again, that’s how bad my leg hurt me. It may have been the hardest thing to watch my friends play soccer, playing not to their capability and in the end losing in the first round of the playoffs.
Having the injury the previous year, it was helpful for me to have the whole year off, in a way, to prepare myself for my senior year. When I came back, I was named the starter, not for any reason other than the reason that I had earned and deserved my spot back. To hear that I was the starter again from the coach brought me much excitement. The excitement lasted until we lost our first big game. I thought we were going to be good all year, but we weren’t. We were a big disappointment, finishing last in our league. We knew we could beat anyone; it was just a matter of when out team was going to come together and work as a team. We started off the season so bad, losing 4 of our first 5 league games. After reaching the midway point in the season we began to turn our season around, winning good games against good teams and creating good team unity. When playoff seeding came around we were fourth in our league and the way our league is set up, there are only 5 teams that make the playoffs and first round fifth place plays fourth place. We happened to be fourth place and so we had to play a play-in game. We won 3-1. With the victory, it meant we would have to play the first place team. The first place team happened to be tenth in the state for one of the best teams. We took the field for our second game which was versus the Ogdensburg Blue Devils. We knew this game was going to be the longest, toughest, most physical game we had ever played, but we were ready.
We started out the game okay, play went back and forth. We started to pick up the pace, controlling the ball with great charisma. Twenty minutes into the game we had scored. We had just scored against the best team in our league. Within 16 seconds, just 16, we had scored again. Those 16 seconds were a new section X record, which happened to be our league that we were in. It was amazing! We felt on top of the world, until they came right down the field and scored a goal. The game was a standoff until two minutes before the half. Maybe we were tired or maybe there true colors were shining, but they were just putting it to us. It could have been a tied game at halftime if it hadn’t been because of a great save that I had made. It just happened to be that I was in the perfect position. It was a corner kick which had lured our goalie out of the net. As he wandered out into the traffic, I stepped back towards the net, just to be safe. Happened to be that the ball ricocheted past the goalie and was headed towards the net but only to me, where I had the opportunity to head the ball over the goal. Saving us from going into the halftime all tied up.
We had so much momentum coming out of the second half, being up 2-1 and all. That quickly changed as they came out of the half with a goal scored within the first 25 seconds of the halftime. We were in such disbelief. We regrouped and maintained to play a tied game as both sides exchanged shots and possession of the ball. It came down to endurance, which the Blue Devils had more of than we did. It seemed to turn into a game where we couldn’t do anything but defend, as if we had 11 guys playing defense and none offense. It wasn’t until there was ten minutes left when the next goal was punched though. It was the Blue Devils. They had put themselves in a good position to score, controlling the ball and us. They had done it, and two minutes later they had scored again. We were all so disappointed and could not believe we had played the best game of the year, maybe our lives only to lose.
It had been a long season and we were proud of what we had accomplished. Our coach told us to hold our heads up high with pride because at least we left everything out on the field and left ourselves without the feeling of what-if. It was hard to finish the season with a loss in the first round of the playoffs but we were in the record books. We had nothing to be ashamed about. We played our best soccer when it mattered the most. That’s all I ever wanted, to play my last game and have it be my best.