I'm preparing myself to enter. Concentrating, and calming down myself, thinking about what should I do and where should I go. My heart is beating fast, the adrenaline is pumping up. Shouts are all around the place, and in the peace of my soul, I believe I can do something on the pitch.
I'm watching by the side my team playing to catch up one point before time ends, to go to sudden death. There are signs of nervousness on both side: dropped discs, uncontrolled throws, uncountable fouls called. My desire to get on the pitch is growing, but I need my team to catch up that one point. Only a few minutes left, and I don't want to leave this tournament without having done something memorable.
All the eyes of our substitutes, including myself, are looking towards our key player. He has saved us from so many situations in previous games. Amazing throws, heroic defence and catching unattainable discs, were the things he did, to name a few. Our eyes are full of hope, all knowing he can create something from nothing. Our hopes are not vain. Turnover in our favour, quick play, a hammer, he catches it in their end zone. Tension's smoothing away, but the game's not finished.
I can't wait to get in, eye contact with one of my partner, check with hand, and we exchange places. He says those words to me in the noise:"Go for it". I'm on the pitch now, in our end zone. Captain's saying his words of encouragement and our strategy on Defence and Offence. We keep it to what we know, nothing complicated , keep it simple and sharp. I'm jumping, moving around, watching my opposite. I have to mark one of their fast guy on the team, always tough in those case, because you know you won't have much time for rest, but a good way to progress in the game. Hands are up, let the point begins.
They're doing vertical stack, I'm trying to stay close to my man. He keeps jumping in place, hard to predict where he's going to go. He fakes me and go deep. I have to catch him up, hopefully, the thrower didn't see him. The opposite team, pass well the disc from one side to another, trying to make break our defense. It's been really hard to predict where my man will go, since he always choose different path, different speed and fakes. Turnover. Our defence on the handler was efficient, and we got the disc. Although I'm very tired after a whole weekend of Ultimate. I still feel like I can run miles and miles. I'm excited to play this point. I can see my man marking me closely, it would be hard to get away from him. I fake down and go forward. Unsuccessful, get back in the stack. I watch what my teammates do, and try not to run in the same way, or offer and continuation run to keep the disc moving. It's hard and tough. We advance well and we're close to the end zone. Then our captain throw one disc, eye contact with me, it's really far, I am far from my man, but it is really hard to reach it. I catch it from the bit of my hand. I think I'm still in, everybody seems happy and shouting. Foul called. They argue I'm out. Everyone is looking at me, it's hard to say, I'm not even sure myself, whether I was in when I caught it. For the benefit of the doubt, I agree with them that I was out. Although still some uncertainty, but I do not want to win like this. I want a good win, I win we can all be proud of. So back again on the field. There has been lot of turnovers, the other team hardly came on our end zone but we hardly managed to control our throws which led to a very long point. It's been 20 min already, and every body on the field is exhausted. No matter what will happen, we will all be winner. This point is clearly epic. Every one tries his best to run as fast as he can, but our legs lack of stamina and our arms are heavy. I've been trying a lot of going under and coming forward cut, but it is hard to go deep, since my marker watches me closely on that cut. It's been hard to mark him because he is very unpredictable as a cutter, hopefully the thrower didn't throw too much when I was beaten.
We now reach the same situation as our missed point, on the foul called. The same unreachable throw at the same area in the end zone, by our captain. He admitted lately that it was quite a crap throw. I see him doing eye contact to me , as I am free from my man. I try to reach it like last time, but try not too get out of the lines. I run as really fast as I can, and feel a bit of a cramp on my right legs. I catch it with only my fingers. Am i out? Am i in? Everybody comes to me, and put me in the air. An immense happiness get all of me. I don't know what to think or what to do. I'm just so excited and so happy. A big congratulation to everyone on the pitch, we finished 17/23 teams. We all felt like winner. I was happy to live this point more than the win itself, because I knew it could have gone either way. But the moment i caught it, is a moment I'll keep it with me.
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