Goalkeeper in Charge (6 page)

As the scrimmage came to an end, Pepper beckoned to Cindy and talked to her quietly. Zoe and Tina watched. It was clear that
Cindy didn’t like what the coach was saying.

“What’s with her?” Zoe asked.

Tina shrugged. She didn’t have a clue.

While Danielle took the rest of the team to work on corner kicks, Pepper went off with Tina and Andrea for some goalkeeping
drills.

To start, they did the drill in which they lay on their backs, threw balls in the air, and jumped up to try to catch them
before they hit the ground. Tina had worked on this at home and was able to get to her feet more quickly. Andrea was still
having trouble.

After watching the other girl for a moment, Tina said, “Try rolling to the side and pushing yourself up with a hand.”

Andrea did what Tina suggested and found that she could scramble up more quickly. She grinned at Tina. “Hey, thanks.”

The two keepers then spent time throwing or rolling “shots” for the other one to catch or block. When Tina dived to her right
to trap a ball, she found that her leg was still a little sore. But she played on, realizing that the problem wasn’t serious.

For the last part of the practice, the team split into squads of nine for a full-field scrimmage. Tina and Andrea were the
keepers, as they would be in regular
games. Cindy and Meg were on Tina’s squad, and Cindy was a midfielder.

A minute into the scrimmage, Tina was faced with a scoring threat as Zoe, Lynn, and another girl moved into position for a
shot. Tina started out of the goal to try to cut down their shooting angle, but as she did, Cindy darted in front of her,
blocking her view of Lynn and the ball. Tina suddenly saw the ball, headed for the left corner of the goalmouth. She made
a desperate lunge to the left and managed to punch the ball away. But Zoe controlled it and got off a second shot. This one
was high, and Tina had to leap for it. She caught the ball overhead, brought it down, and rolled it out to Meg, who was unguarded
in the backfield.

“
Hey
!” Cindy yelled. “I was right in front of you! That should have gone to me!”

Tina fought back the urge to yell, Well, you shouldn’t have
been
in front of me! She knew that Danielle had to have seen what Cindy did, but Danielle didn’t say a word.

As play went on, it appeared to Tina that Cindy had decided that Danielle approved of her behavior, because she kept on getting
in Tina’s way in front of
the goal and yelling at Tina (and at other teammates as well) when they didn’t pass the ball to her.

During a brief break in the action, Meg whispered to Tina, “That Cindy is such a creep! Why don’t you talk to the coach about
her?”

Tina was watching as Cindy talked to two other players. As she watched them, they all looked her way. Tina felt some of her
old self-consciousness come back. Then she felt angry.

But she told Meg, “No, I don’t think I should complain to Danielle. It’d look bad.”

“If you want, I’ll talk to her,” Meg offered. “She shouldn’t get away with that.”

But Tina shook her head. “Danielle saw everything. If she doesn’t want to say something to Cindy, there must be a reason.”

“I think you should do something,” Meg insisted. “She has to cut that stuff out!”

Tina said, “I’m not going to complain to Danielle, and I’m not going to do what Cindy’s doing and make more problems for the
team. And I don’t want you to do it for me. Okay?”

Meg wasn’t happy, but she agreed.

After the scrimmage, Danielle called the Wildcats together. “That was very good, for our first full scrimmage. We don’t have
a lot of time before the real games begin, but we’re making progress. Everybody, work on your skills at home whenever you
can: dribbling, passing, shooting. See you tomorrow!”

As the players broke up, Danielle signaled to Tina and Andrea to come over. “Pepper says you’re both doing well as goalkeepers.
I just wanted to mention that you can pick out the uniforms you’ll wear in games. You can make them anything but sky blue
and gold; that’s what the rest of the team will wear.

“Andrea, do you have anything to say, any questions?”

Andrea smiled. “No, everything’s fine.”

Danielle looked at Tina. “How about you? Anything to say?”

Tina sensed that this was her chance to say something about Cindy. She thought about it for a moment and finally shook her
head.

“All right, then,” Danielle said. “Work on those drills! Bye!”

As she changed into her regular shoes, Tina
decided that she was right not to complain. Somehow, sometime, she’d have to figure out a way of dealing with Cindy if Cindy
continued to act up.

But taking it to the coach — that was definitely not the way to go about it.

A
fter school the next day, Tina was in her room and heard the thump of a soccer ball being kicked. She looked out the window
and saw Dave kicking a ball against his garage wall. She opened her window and stuck her head out.

“Hi!” she called. “What’s up?”

Dave smiled up at her. “I’m going to play with a team! Practice starts in a couple of days, and I need some work.”

“Want company?” Tina offered.

“Great!” Dave said. “Come on!”

Tina ran outside. For a while they passed the ball back and forth. They took turns making high throws so that the other one
could head it back. Dave was better at it than Tina was.

“Keep your neck and upper body rigid when you
head the ball,” Dave said. “When you move, bend from the waist. Throw it to me head-high.” Dave showed Tina what he meant.
Then he tossed it back for Tina to try.

“That’s better,” he said, after she did it. “Try to hit the ball with the middle of your forehead, not the top. And keep your
eyes open.”

As they practiced, Meg showed up.

“Hi, guys,” she said. “Can I play too?”

Tina said, “Let’s go to the park. Maybe you two can help me with my goalkeeping.”

At the park, they used their jackets to mark off a goal. Dave and Meg kicked shots, which Tina tried to block, and usually
did.

After she sprang to one side and scooped up a hard shot, Dave said, “Hey, you’re good!”

Tina smiled. “Thanks. Throw me more shots I have to jump for.”

They lobbed balls that Tina had to leap to catch or to punch over where the crossbar of the goal would be. They tried to put
shots into the corners of the goal, so she had to dive to both sides. After ten minutes, Tina was panting but happy. She was
getting a good workout.

The three passed and dribbled for a while, then sat down for a rest.

“Guess who I saw today,” Meg said. “Cindy and her friends, talking. They saw me and shut up, like someone flipped a switch.”

Tina frowned. “Why, do you think?”

“Because I’m your friend,” said Meg. “They were probably talking about you.”

“Who’s Cindy?” Dave asked. “It doesn’t sound like she’s a buddy of yours.”

Meg laughed. “Hardly. She wants to be the superstar of our team, and she hates it that someone else, like Tina, might be as
valuable to the Wildcats as she thinks she is.”

Dave frowned. “Is she making trouble?”

Tina described what Cindy had done.

“What did your coach do?” Dave asked.

Tina said, “Nothing, but she must have had a reason. She’s a great coach, and I can’t believe she didn’t notice what was going
on, or that she didn’t care.”

Dave leaned forward and looked hard at Tina. “If the coach doesn’t do something, you have to. If you let her get away with
that stuff, she’ll keep pushing
you until you push back. You have to show you won’t take it.”

“I won’t fight!” Tina didn’t like Dave’s suggestion. “I hope she’ll lighten up, but I’m not going to make things worse than
they are!”

“I’m not talking about fighting. The thing is,” Dave said, “sometimes you just tell someone to back off. A guy at my old school
gave me problems like yours. He came on like he was the Big Boss. One day he got in my face with a lot of loud talk, and I
came right back at him. Well, he backed down and left me alone.”

Tina said, “What if he hadn’t? I’ll do something, if Cindy keeps it up.”

“What’ll you do?” asked Meg.

Tina shook her head. “I don’t know. But I will. When the right time comes.”

“Well, I’ll be there to help,” Meg said. “And if you want me to talk to Cindy —”

Tina shook her head. “No. I have to do it, whatever it is. I don’t want to start some kind of war on the team where everyone
takes sides. I’d better go home and get ready for dinner.”

They walked back to Tina’s, where Dave waved and ran up the steps and in his front door. As Meg unlocked her bike, she said,
“So you like Dave after all, huh?”

“Sure,” said Tina. “He’s a nice guy. Plus, he gave me some soccer tips.”

Meg nodded. “Yes, but I mean, you
like
him.
You
know what I mean.”

Tina said, “I think he’s a friend, like you, except he’s a boy. Okay?”

Meg gave up and left. Tina, who knew what Meg meant, was happy to drop the subject.

As Mr. Esparza served Tina some grilled beef— he was a good cook and often made the family dinner— he asked, “So what’s happening
with your team? Are you still a goalkeeper?”

Tina took her plate. “Thanks, Daddy, it looks delicious! So far, that’s still the plan. I’m doing keeper drills with another
girl and the assistant coach, and it’s going all right.”

A thought struck her. “Dad, you were playing soccer when you were my age, right?”

“Sure!” said her father as he served Sammy. “We played everywhere — in the park, in empty lots, in the street.”

“Did you ever have a problem with a pushy kid who thought he was a star, hogged the ball, and gave you trouble all the time?”

Mr. Esparza gave his daughter a long look. “Yeah, we had a few like that. There are always a few like that.”

Tina asked, “How did you handle it?”

“It depended. There was this boy who thought he was better than the rest of us and said so. The thing is, he
was
better, and we knew it, so we left him alone. He wasn’t around long. Soon he went to a junior pro team, and in a few years,
he was a real star.

“But most of these types aren’t as good as they think they are. We didn’t do much about them, either. It soon became clear
that they weren’t so good. They’d see it themselves and quiet down. Or they’d see they weren’t making friends with all their
talk, and they’d stop or go away and find other people to bother.”

Tina wasn’t sure this helped her or not. Cindy
was
pretty good. “So, you wouldn’t stand up to the person and tell him to, like, cut it out?”

“That’s what
I’d
do,” said Sammy.

But Mr. Esparza shook his head. “Maybe in a street game, where we chose sides, there might be arguing or even a fight. But
on a real team like yours? No. A coach can take a loudmouth aside and tell him to stop, to be a team player. But one teammate
doesn’t fight another one. It makes for bad feelings, and if it happens, both players are to blame.”

Mr. Esparza looked at Tina for a moment. “If I knew someone who had that kind of trouble, I’d tell him — or her — relax, don’t
get excited. Things have a way of working out.”

“Thanks, Daddy.” Tina felt better. She decided that by doing nothing, she’d been doing the right thing.

O
ver the next few practices, things stayed about the same with Cindy. She didn’t talk to Tina except to yell at her now and
then for not getting her the ball or for something else Cindy didn’t like. Tina kept quiet, and as far as she knew, Danielle
said nothing to Cindy.

Pepper continued to work with Tina and Andrea. In addition to drilling the girls on catching, blocking, and other skills,
Pepper spent time talking about goalkeeping strategy.

She’d say, “When an opponent wants to shoot, make her shot harder by coming out of the goal and giving her a smaller target.
If you’re right in the goalmouth, the shooter has almost the whole eight-yard cage to shoot at. But if you move in, she has
to shoot around you.
But
don’t get caught out of the
goal, in case a ball gets loose. You’ll give up an easy shot.”

Andrea sighed. “It’s complicated.”

Pepper grinned. “You bet. But that’s what makes it a challenge. Here’s something else to think about. Let’s say you stop a
shot and have the ball in your hands. What do you do with it? There are different ways to distribute the ball.

“If you’re a strong, accurate kicker who can kick to midfield, and if you have a forward who can head the ball and control
it, a long lack is a great way to start an offensive drive, if you can kick it to where you want it to go.

“You can throw to a defender or midfielder — if you can throw long overhand and control the ball, that is. Always throw to
the side, not in front of the goal.

“The surest way to go is to roll the ball to a teammate, especially a good dribbler. But be sure she’s looking and sees the
ball coming.

“Or you can dribble the ball yourself and move it up before getting it to a teammate. But that’s dangerous. If an opponent
takes it away, the goal is unguarded.

“Spend time on your kicks and throws. See what you’re good at and where you need work. If you’re not sure where the ball will
go if you kick it, don’t kick. Any questions?”

Tina asked, “Does the keeper always decide what to do and who to get the ball to?”

“Definitely,” Pepper said. “On defense, the keeper is like the team general.
You
decide, and don’t let anyone else tell you what to do. That’s important. When the other team has the ball, the goalkeeper
is in charge. You direct traffic. If you want a player out of your way, let her know. And she has to do what you tell her.”

Tina nodded. Ordering people around wasn’t something that felt natural to her. Could she do it? It seemed that she would have
to.

At the next practice, Danielle reminded the team that they had only three more sessions before their first game of the year.