Authors: Bali Rai
Missing! (8 page)
The Rangers defence were wrong-footed and Abs slotted the ball home calmly.
Goal! Abs was on target today â making up for missing that penalty in the last match.
2-1.
No one in our team celebrated. Instead we all ran back to our positions, ready to get on
with our comeback. We'd caught up one goal, but we needed one more at least . . .
âCOME ON, YOU REDS!!!!!' came the cry from the supporters.
Rangers had a couple of minutes of possession before we got the ball back. For the next fifteen minutes, we began wave after wave of attacks on their goal, but we didn't score.
Then Rangers had a great chance, one on one with our keeper Gem, but Byron got back in time and robbed the ball from one of their strikers, just as he was about to shoot. Within three passes we were back on the attack!
Parvy ran down the left wing and then turned, passing across to me. I looked up and saw two Rangers players coming for me. I sidestepped one and passed to Abs. Then I sprinted into the space that had been left by the defender. Abs chipped the ball to Chris,
who ran at his defender. The lad he was running towards looked scared and Chris soon had the better of him.
He played the ball right to Lily, who was totally outplaying her defender. She skipped past him for the tenth time and crossed towards Penny, who was facing the goal.
But there were two players in front of her and she didn't have a clean shot. I was running up behind her, screaming for a pass. I expected her to turn but she didn't. Instead, cool as a cucumber, she back-heeled the ball into my path.
I thought about placing the ball either side of the Rangers goalie but then I made up my mind to blast it. I caught it perfectly and it flew into the net like a rocket.
2-2!
âYESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'
I shouted.
Once we had regrouped, Ian bellowed out at us to let us know we had just five minutes left to play.
âFive minutes to grab victory from defeat! COME ON, REDS!' screamed Wendy.
âCome on, poppet!' added my mum.
I ignored her. Instead I had to chase back after the Rangers captain, Michael, who was making a dangerous run. I caught him just outside our box and I managed to nick the ball from his feet. I turned with it and played it down the wing to Lily.
Once again she set off, twisting left and right and making her defender dizzy. Once she'd teased him enough she pushed the ball past him and accelerated like a sports car. She was heading for the touchline and I was certain she'd kicked the ball too far. There was no way she was going to catch it. But then Lily did something absolutely amazing. She kept the ball in play. Then she
turned to see a defender in front of her. He was huge and he was almost growling as he ran towards her.
Calmly, she put the ball through his legs, ran around him and then switched inside. This gave her a much better angle to shoot at the goal. I thought she'd go with her left foot but she didn't. Instead she curled it with the outside of her right foot.
The ball sailed in a wide arc and then turned at the last minute like a missile. The Rangers goalie tried his best to get to it but he couldn't. The ball pinged off the far post and fell into the net.
3-2!
Our entire team ran after Lily, whooping and cheering as she celebrated by diving to the ground with her arms out wide. She slid through mud and grass, getting filthy dirty, but I don't think she cared. It was an amazing goal.
One by one we did the same celebration. We hadn't planned it though â everyone was just copying Lily. And the camera guy was filming every minute of it, especially with Lily and the rest of the girls. By the time the final whistle blew we were all covered in mud and as happy as we'd ever been.
We'd just won our first game of the season and it felt great! After missing chances in our first games, today we were bang on target â hitting the back of the net three times! Now we were ready to step up and win our next game too. And then who knew where we'd be â cup winners, even the league! All I knew was that the other teams needed to watch out. The Reds were on the up!
Bali Rai thinks he is a very lucky man. He gets to write all day if he wants to, or to go into schools to speak to his readers about what they think of his books. He loves films, music, reading, seeing friends and watching his beloved Liverpool FC.
Bali played for his school team as a defender and loved it. He has been a lifelong football fan since he began watching
Match of the Day at the
age of four with his dad. He enjoys talking and arguing about Liverpool FC and would like to be Rafa Benitez's or Steven Gerrard's personal servant, but if this does not happen he is happy to carry on writing for his thousands of fans.
Bali was very honoured that his short novel
Dream On
(about a young footballer) was chosen for the first Booked-Up list and was made available to every Year 7 school child.
Bali's books are now in ten languages and he also gets to travel all over the world to meet his readers. He hopes that he can encourage anyone to have a go at writing and to find a love of reading. He has won lots of book awards and really enjoys winning the ones that are voted for by the real readers â you!
Bali lives in his home city of Leicester. He has a lovely new wife and a football-crazy daughter.
SOCCER SQUAD: STARTING ELEVEN
SOCCER SQUAD: STARS!
SOCCER SQUAD: GLORY!
SOCCER SQUAD: MISSING!
AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 407 04768 3
Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,
an imprint of Random House Children's Publishers UK
A Random House Group Company
This ebook edition published 2014
Copyright © Bali Rai, 2008
Illustrations copyright © Mike Phillips, 2008
First Published in Great Britain
Red Fox 9781862306554 2008
The right of Bali Rai to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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