I was about 5 years old and it was the day I had my first soccer game, it was an amazing day the sun was rising from a nearby building, the turf was green and had little rocks. I got to the soccer field to practice my shots, my mom urgently screamed out,”Alex juega bien.”I nodded and smiled. I was nervous before the game, I stretched to calm down. It was game time, I was confident for my first game. The coach sent me out to midfield, he said, “ You will be midfield because your a fast runner for your age, now go and don’t let them go through you.” I listened to my coach’s words in my head, I was playing good for the first half it ended the score was 2-0. He said, ”Alex you need to pressure more, focus on the person with the ball, take more shots don’t be scared of the ball.” The second half came quickly, I tried staying calm… I looked at my coach we both nodded at each other. We played good until the moment when I had the ball this kid came rushing at me I tried juking him but he kept coming, he tried kicking the ball but ends up kicking my ankle with all he got. I fell on the floor with pain on my ankle. The ref didn’t call the penalty, everyone began to scream, they threw things to the ref calling him out on that missed called penalty. I was in so much pain, I felt as if the heat was burning through my skin. The game ended minutes later, even though we won the game 4-1, I realized that there are unfair plays in sports and knowing that i kept playing trying so hard to not get injured. Later that year that same ref that never called the penalty was the ref to the finals that we had. I looked at the ref with anger, I went up to him and asked,”Why didn’t you call my penalty in the last game?” i asked in a calm voice. “I didn’t call your foul because I didn’t see it, I thought it was just a push with the body, I’m sorry i didn’t call the foul.” he replied. I was glad I got that over with. It was game time I felt even more calm because I got to talk out what happened in my first game. The coach’s words kept going through my head,”You’re one of the bests players in the team go with all you got, let’s bring the trophy home.” We went out to the field, the ref through a coin and it landed on heads, we got to start with the ball. The whistle was blown I passed the ball to the player behind me. He tried taking one person on then passed the ball to me. I had the ball, I went to the corner then passed the ball straight to my teammate’s head. He headered the ball and scored. The score was 1-0. The ref called the first half. We went to drink water, the coach gave us a thumbs up for good job. He came up to me and said,”Alex that pass was great, keep up the good work!” he said with excitement. The whistle was blown for the second half. The opposing team started with the ball now. New players were on the field. The pressure was intense.

The opposing player ran right passed me but i was able to catch up and take the ball away from his feet. I had the ball juking almost every player that came my way. I took them up with speed. I was close enough to the goal to take a shot. I kicked the ball with all I had to the top right corner.... Somehow he was able to block it. I was shocked that he was able to block the top right corner! He passed the ball to one of his teammates. They kept passing it till they got close enough to the goalie. One of them took the shot and scored. The score was 1-1. We played defence for the moment but five minutes were left. I got the ball from my teammate, taking every player with speed I got to the goalie. I was about to take the shot…but decided to pass the ball to my teammate. The opposing player rushed to him and kicked his leg. The ref called the penalty. The coach ran to him and asked if he was ok, “Yes, it just hurts a little bit.” my teammate replied in a painful smile. The coach decided that I will take the penalty. I was nervous because I’ve never taken the penalties It’s always been my teammate oscar but he was the one who got injured. The ref set up the ball for me and told me,”Good luck!” I smiled and said,”Thanks.” The coach told me to believe in myself. The whistle was blown… I ran to the ball and took a fake shot, fooling the goalie and tapped in the ball inside the goal. The score was 2-1. We won the game and received a big trophy. The coach was proud of me,”I told you to believe in yourself didn’t I.” He smirked and we both laughed. Once we won the game, we took a picture then the coach offered to get pizza for the team. I learned that day to believe in myself and I also learned that there is unfair calls in sports.