Sophie's Shirt

It had a been a historic night for Wales as the final whistle blew at St Mary’s Stadium.

Sophie was there with her dad they followed the team everywhere and this was possibly the best game they had seen. The game itself was 0-0 but for a Wales team a drew with England the number tow ranked side in the world was until tonight a far-reaching dream.

The game was over, but they waited at the front of the stand as Sophie hoped to meet her heroes once again. She had met many of the squad on numerous occasions owning to her dad being a football journalist.

The players all came over and one by one gave her a big hug. But there was one player she was waiting for, Jess who played out in America. She was Sophie’s favourite player and Sophie idolised the midfielder.

Jess did make her way down the line of fans waiting to celebrate and met the team. Sophie was hoping for Jess’ shirt but to her disappointment it was given to someone else.

When Jess came to Sophie she asked, “Why the sad face”. “She was really hoping for shirt Jess” replied her dad before Sophie had a chance to speak. “Don’t worry I come find you after the next game and promise I’ll give it to you.” Sophie’s face lit up and she gave Jess the hug she could. “Thank You” she said. Then Jess took off her base layer and give it to Sophie saying, “have this for now”.

Sophie was mad for football, she watched any game that was on, went to every game of her local side, played football games, and read countless magazines and webpages about football. This all good but she really wanted to play. She had played, she was in Chelsea’s academy but got cut when she turned 10. That was two years ago, and she hadn’t really played since. She played some local girls’ football but the spark and the skill that she once had, had gone.

Her brain knew what it wanted to do, but for some reason her body was no longer able to do it. Her Dad wanted her to go back and always told her “Just go and play and enjoy it”. He would say just play for fun and she knew he didn’t care if she was the best player on the park or the worse, but she just couldn’t enjoy knowing she wasn’t at her best.

It was just Sophie and her dad, her mum passing away when Sophie was very young. Sophie's love of football came from her dad. He was a football journalist and before Sophie was born travelled across the world covering games for newspapers. When Sophie’s mum passed away, he stopped travelling and covering games to write features as he could be home for Sophie. When she got signed by Chelsea they moved to London and her dad was able to lots of writing. Now their back home in South Wales there is a lot less for him to cover. But he always managed to make enough to take Sophie to watch both Cardiff City men’s and Women’s sides each week.

They would go home and away unless a long midweek game. And Sophie loved away games, the slowly building excitement as you got closer to the stadium. The butterflies as you see the ground coming up. The noise of the crowd as you enter, a gradual building of voices in unison that would cause goose bumps to form on Sophie’s arms.

It was the start of a new pre-season and encouraged by her dad Sophie had made the decision to go to an open trial at Barry Town. The club were looking at adding players to their under 14’s and were holding some open sessions.

Although nervous about playing again she was looking forward to playing again. The open sessions started with some fitness drills, Sophie was naturally fit and sailed through all of these.

Then came the football drills and Sophie’s nerves began to build. A twisting feeling from the bottom of the stomach as she waited to be called into the passing drill. She could feel herself trembling and sensed doom as her name was called.

There were four of them in the group and Sophie knew one of the other girls from school. Ruby was the sports star in their school, she excelled at all the sports they did. Netball, hockey, tennis and Athletics, their school never really let the girls paly football despite how popular women’s football had become. The drill required one player in the middle while the other three tried to keep the ball from them.

Ruby started in the centre and rapidly chased down the other girls as they quickly passed between themselves. Then the moment came as the ball came towards Sophie. She had time and knew a simple right footed pass to the left would find one of the other girls. “Good contact” she thought as she steadied ready to play the ball. Bang her foot connected with the ball but too far underneath the ball rose into the air where Ruby comfortably chested down and took possession.

Sophie sent the next ten minutes clumsily chasing the ball and unable to get it back before the coach changed up the groups. The open training continued but Sophie’s fragile confidence broken further. They continued with shooting practise and Sophie failed to hit the goal with every shot she tried. She ended up spending more time collecting the balls she lost then she did shooting the ball. Overall, she couldn’t do what she used to do with ease.

Despite not fairing her best it felt good to be back on the pitch and Sophie was determined to try again. With another open trial, the next week she figured that some practise on her own would help her be better ready.

Sophie was looking for football kit in her bedroom and found a top that she had been given a few years ago. It was a base layer she had been given by her favourite Wales player. She needed some kit for the day to go and practise ready for the next Barry trial. She tried it on and was surprised by how well it fitted. She quickly got ready and headed to the park with a football.

The pitch nearest her house was being used by some boys from her school. They were in the same year as her, she knew one of them as he was in the same classes. Henry saw Sophie and run over to say to her. “I didn’t know you played” he asked pleasantly surprised seeing her in her kit. “I used to too I just came to practise as I haven’t played much recently” she replied. “You should join us were a player down and a goal down” Henry asked. She couldn’t, could she? She would be terrible against them. Henry managed to convince her, and she went out on the pitch.

It was now five on five, and Sophie's team were now kicking off. Henry sent the ball from the centre straight to Sophie and before she even thought about it, she sent a pass to her teammate down the right. “Good start” she thought to herself but before she had chance to revel the ball came back towards her. She went to trap the ball as one of the boys chased her down and with ease, she dragged the ball around and spun away from him. She looked up and saw Henry running towards goal. With a pass as straight as an arrow she found his run and Henry smashed a shot into the goal.

“You’re good” said Henry, “Next goal wins?” Everyone nodded in approval and the game restarted. Sophie was now full of confidence and as one the opposition speed down the wing she ran over towards him. She went for the tackle, and not only did she get the ball and break away it was almost like it was glued to her foot. She skipped past the next player avoiding his lunging challenge, wow she was in front of goal. Logan in goal was big for his age scoring past him wasn’t going to be easy. Sophie put her head over the ball and swung her foot as hard as she could. Boom! The ball fell into the top corner of the goal just clipping the post while Logan stood frozen. “YESSSSSS” was all Sophie could hear as the rest of her jumped n her to celebrate.

As she walked home Sophie wondered how she suddenly played so well. Maybe as it was unexpected, she didn’t have time to get nervous, maybe it was luck. She pondered why she did so well after so long where she had been poor. Maybe wearing Jess’ top gave her special powers, lol that wasn’t it.

Then she remembered stories her dad had told her about Dai Owens. He was a football from the 1980’s who had one great season where he scored 40 goals. He was being compared to the best players in the world but after that 40-goal season he fell down the leagues. She was never sure why Dai Owens just disappeared down and down. Her dad had always joked he had a magic shirt that he got from Cliff Jones, the Welsh football legend and he lost it after that season. The shirt gave him the ability and when he lost it, he was never able play like again.

Could it be the shirt?