The Rising Star - Alexia Putellas

Part 54

Five games in, seven goals scored, eight assists given but still it wasn't enough. You would think it would be enough but it wasn't.

People were still doubting me. In the beginning they were doubting my skill and now it was my mental state that was the talk of the town. Would I be strong enough to handle the pressure of the next game and potentially the final. People didn't seem to think so.

Besides the outside world putting more stress on me there still was the fact that I did have to play some of my best friends and I wasn't looking forward to that at all.

Leah had called me a day before the game. She knew I would feel bad about the whole situation. She reassured me that everything was going to be fine. We both promised each other that at the end of the game there were no hard feelings shared.

To make matters worse Pinoe picked up a minor injury during training so Christen had to fill in for her. Though I had all the confidence in the world that she would do great, it's never fun to see another teammate go down with an injury.

It was a little before the game and I went to the tunnel to start. Some of the England players were already there waiting to get in line to walk out. To kill some time I greeted them and wished them luck.

Before I knew it, everyone was getting in line to walk out when I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Good luck." Leah gave my shoulder a light squeeze.

I looked at the English girl and smiled back at her. "Thanks, you too."

"Don't get in your head too much. May the best girl win." She smirked.

"May the best girl win." We did our little handshake and she resumed her way to the bench.

In the tenth minute I made a run to the right side of the field, receiving the ball from Kelley. With one touch, I instantly turned around and sprinted with the ball down the field outrunning Kiera. Upon reaching the backline there was only one more defender in front of me.

In the corner of my eye I saw Christen making her run into the box. With a swift motion I danced around my defender and crossed the ball directly towards Christen in the hopes she could put her head against it.

I fell to my knees. Seeing her score, throwing her hands up and looking at the sky. I knew what the goal meant to her. It was hard controlling my tears. Kelley fell down on my back, throwing her arms around me. She too knew Stacy well and she too knew what it meant to Chris.

After most teammates had congratulated Chris, she ran to me, pulling me into a tight hug.

"She's so proud of you and so am I." I mumbled into her shoulder.

"That means the world to me." She tightened her grip just a bit more.

I pulled away from the hug to get back to my position. "Come on, let's finish this."

She grabbed my wrist and kissed the tattoo on it. After that we walked back to our positions.

Our high of the goal didn't last long though. Nine minutes or so later Ellen White scored the equalizer and just like in the game against Spain we had to get ourselves back together and fast.

Luckily in the thirtieth minute I was able to assist Alex in scoring a goal. She ran straight to me and just like we had discussed, we both did the 'sipping tea' gesture referring to all the hate we had gotten during the tournament and us proving to the haters that the hate wasn't necessary 'and that's the tea.'

The second half was a whirlwind of emotions. Ellen White managed to score again only this time luckily she was offside.

Then England got awarded a penalty. According to the England players and the VAR Becky wrongly took down Ellen in the box. I disagreed with the decision but nevertheless the penalty was given. While some of my teammates were complaining to the ref I went to Alyssa.