Mal Pugh

Part 16

It was now a month later. The US would be in their final game today against Australia. If they won this game, they would be World Cup champions, for the 3rd time in a row.
Mallory has significantly improved. She now slept in a bed by herself and Christen and Tobin shared the bed next to her. Only every once in a while would she have a bad night where they would join her in bed. She also had a few bad days here and there but she was significantly better. Jill had made sure that Mallory was not to speak to the media alone, but only with the team. Jill's biggest fear was someone asking about Dansby or her parents. The team also made sure to keep her in the middle while walking threw crowds to protect her from nosey fans and reporters.
Today was the day, and Mallory actually felt good today. She had gained back 7 of the lbs she had left and was back to her old self, physically. However, now it seemed like she played harder than she ever had before. She had Dansby driving her to be great. So far, the US had been undefeated and they had outscored opponents 18-2. Malory has scored 5 of those goals and had 4 assists. She was currently first in line for the golden boot. She had started 4 of the 6 games and would be starting in todays final as the left forward.
As the game progressed, Australia was playing a lot better than expected. At half time they were behind 2-0. This was the worst half the team had played all year. After an angry speech  from Jill, telling them to get their heads out of their ass, they went out and played as hard as they could. The first goal came from Tobin Heath in the 58th minute. Julie ertz passed it up the wing to Mallory and Mallory had a through ball across the field to Tobin. Tobin blasted the ball in and it went directly into the top left corner. Tobin ran directly to Mallory and Mal jumped up into her arms with the biggest smile. The crowd and their teammates on the bench went wild. In the 78th minute Christen had subbed in and Tobin went out. Christen had the ball and she passed the ball through to Mallory at around half field. Mallory received the ball and began running as fast as she could with the ball. She was powering past her defender and was about to shoot when out of nowhere, another defender came from the right and plowed into Mallory with her spikes up. Mallory went flying in the air and took a very hard tumble to the ground. She hit the ground and almost started crying. She had a massive cut from the cleat hitting her thigh and it was bleeding a good amount. She laid on the ground almost motionless. All of a sudden she felt Christen's hands on her and she sat up. Christen pulled her up off the ground and gave her a pat on the back. Mallory was ok but she was going to be extremely sore tomorrow. As this was happening, Mal could see Carli and Alex yelling at the Australian player who fouled Mal. The ref took out a yellow card and gave it to the Australian player.  Because the foul was in the box, a penalty kick would be given. The crowd went wild. Because Mallory's leg was bleeding, she had to come off the field for a minute to get it wrapped. Jill came over and talked to her. She said she was playing the best she has ever seen her this half and she was so proud of her. Jill also asked her if she needed a sub and Mal said no, she wanted to finish this game. As this was happening, Alex took the penalty kick and the ball went in. The crowd went wild. The game was now tied 80 minutes minutes. Everyone on the bench went wild. Mallory went back to the line to wait to get subbed in. At 82 minutes the ref let Mallory back in. Alex had another shot on goal in the 87 minute but the goal keeper got a hand on it. The 90 minutes ended but there was 4 minutes stoppage time left. Mallory knew that this was it. They had to score now or overtime would be much harder. Carli got the ball and passed it up to Mallory with 93 minutes on the clock. Mallory took off running faster than she knew she could. She slid past her defenders and left them in the dust. The only thing between her and the goal was the goalie. Mallory switched the ball to her right foot and blasted it into the back of the net 8 seconds before the ref blew the whistle. The ball went into upper right hand corner of the goal with enough bend to get around the goalie. It was a perfect shot. Mallory took off running as fast as she could. The first person she saw was Alex. She ran and jumped into her arms. Everyone came and surrounded Mallory and was freaking out that she just did that. At this point, Mallory and everyone else was crying. They had just won their third World Cup in a row.
After all of the celebration on the field Jill called a huddle in the center of the field. Everyone kneeled and put their arms around each other and prayed. It was at the end of their moment of silence that Jill said that this win was for Dansby. Everyone was nervous of how Mallory would react. But for the first time, since the accident, when she heard is name she smiled instead of breaking down into sobs.

"For Dansby" she repeated.

Mallory went on to win the golden boot and golden ball.