VIRAGO

mettle

mettle (n.) - the determination and ability to deal with problems and difficult situations; the courage to carry on in the face of adversity

The US Women's National Team were able to accomplish their first goal of topping the group with a win against all three teams in their group. Next on the docket was the quarterfinal game against a strong Australian team. It was hard being away from her family and close friends so soon after Nash's death, but she was coping, and her teammates were there with her every step of the way.

"How's Paris!" Dana greeted excitedly over FaceTime while they were on the bus heading towards their fourth game of the tournament.

"Good, it's been really fun, playing soccer all the time." She answered with a tired smile. She was not going to lie, she was exhausted, but she knew that she could sleep after they won the whole thing.

"How are you holding up?" She asked.

"I'm alright, slowly getting better." She responded with a small smile. "So, Rick finally popped the question? Lemme see the ring." She said, quickly changing the subject, and she saw Dana light up.

"Here it is! It's way shinier in person." She squealed, holding her left hand up to the camera.

"It's beautiful Dana. He did a nice job." Samantha smiled, the bus coming to a stop at the stadium. "Well listen, I've gotta go, we just got to the stadium."

"Don't let me keep you sweetheart, go save the goals! I'll talk to you later. Love ya, good luck!" She answered with a big grin.

"Love you too, talk to ya later." She echoed, hanging up and getting off the bus with the rest of the team. She followed everyone into the locker room, her music blaring in her Airpods as they walked down the tunnel to go get in their warm up uniforms. This game was the biggest game thus far, for it was win or go home now.

After forty-five minutes of warm ups, and another fifteen minutes of introductions and national anthems, the starting eleven were out on the field waiting for the half to start. The whistle blew and they were off, both sides in for a grueling ninety minutes. Reed was not prepared for just a high press to come from Kerr and Raso so quickly and faced an early shot on goal, but it was a simple save in the end. She took her time getting the ball back into play, hoping her team would take it as a sign to settle down and get their heads in the game. She passed the ball out to O'Hara, and they continued from there, getting a groove going and maintaining possession for most of the first half, Reed predicting their percentage being around seventy to eighty percent. Although they could not get a lot of attempts against Williams, they still controlled the game.

Halftime came and they were deadlocked at nil-nil, and they needed a new game plan. Vlatko talked with them about the half, trying to figure out what was going on on the field with the missed opportunities on net and not getting the ball up the field more. They talked about what they could do, and decided to slip back into a four-four-two instead of four-three-three, hoping to open up their frontline and use the outsides more, but without wearing out their outside backs. They went back out on the field with a new sense of confidence with their new game plan, and they went to work.

Reed watched as the rest of her team went to work, moving the ball smoothly off the kickoff whistle and throughout the half. She did not face as many shots this time around, but she aided in a few build ups to get more shots on net, which finally resulted in two goals against the good Australian side. Being up two goals going into the eightieth minute was a comforting feeling, because there was no way Reed or the rest of her defense were going to let two goals in in ten minutes. They did just that, keeping their line pushed up to keep Australia at bay in their defensive half, and the whistle blew to signify the end of the game, and the USA women lived on a few more days in the tournament. They would be staying after they were done getting changed in the locker room for the second quarterfinal match to see who they would be versing for their semifinal match in three days.