Read Online Goalkeeper in Charge by Matt Christopher - Free Book Online

didn’t say a word.
    The corner kick came across the penalty box. The center forward headed the ball to the left wing, who dribbled closer to Tina.
     As Tina was trying to see where a shot might come from, Cindy raced in frontof her, blocking Tina’s view. As Cindy slid to the grass in an attempt to tackle the wing and steal the ball, the wing passed
     back to the center forward, who got off a lightning-fast shot. Tina lost sight of the ball for only a few seconds, but that
     was enough. She saw the shot coming too late and tried to get to it, but it was by her for a goal.
    Tina’s impulse was to scream at Cindy, but she didn’t. Partly it was because she hated to make a fuss. Also, after seeing
     Cindy’s mom in action, Tina thought she understood what made Cindy do the stuff she did.
    As Pepper took the ball to resume play, Tina noticed Danielle walk over to Mrs. Vane and speak to her. She couldn’t hear what
     was said, but it was clear that Mrs. Vane didn’t like it. After a short discussion, Mrs. Vane walked away, looking angry.
    When play started again, Cindy made a nice goal, heading the ball in on a pass from Zoe. Cindy glanced over at her mother,
     who nodded but didn’t smile. Each team had scored a goal. A minute later, Meg made a quick move to intercept a pass. Cindy,
     who had been looking for another shot, was out of position to defend, so Meg had a long, open pass to ateammate at midfield. Suddenly, Tina was facing another scoring threat.
    A couple of Tina’s squadmates tried to get back to help, but one of the opposing forwards made a nice crossing pass to her
     teammate, who faked a shot to the left side, pulling Tina in that direction. She then slammed the ball past Tina into the
     right side of the cage for a goal.
    “Really nice job!” yelled Cindy, pulling up short in front of Tina. “Why were you out of position?”
    “Why was
I
out of position?” Tina yelled. “
If you’d
been in position instead of all over the field, they would have never gotten a shot at all!”
    Immediately, Tina felt awful. The words had popped out of her mouth before she knew it. Cindy turned on her heel and stormed
     to her starting position. Zoe trotted over, seeing how upset Tina was.
    “It’s okay,” she said. “You’re totally right; she’s trying to be a one-woman team.”
    “I shouldn’t have yelled,” Tina muttered, staring at the ground.
    Zoe patted Tina’s shoulder. ’“Well… no, but Cindy shouldn’t have, either. It’s cool. Really.”
    Play resumed, and a minute later, Tina made anice save, stretching herself full length in the air to get a hand on the ball and send it out-of-bounds. Meg made the corner
     kick, which came rocketing toward the goal. Tina got a hand on it and drew the ball into her belly, cradling it with both
     arms. Seeing Cindy sprinting toward midfield, Tina kicked it in her direction. Cindy headed the ball and dropped it at her
     feet. For once, she passed off— to Zoe, who dribbled toward the opposing goal and then passed back to Cindy. Cindy tried to
     kick a goal from forty feet away — too far again, giving Andrea time to catch the ball. When Danielle ended the scrimmage
     with her whistle, Meg’s team still led, two goals to one.
    As the Wildcats grouped around the coaches, Meg whispered to Tina, “You looked good.”
    Tina shook her head. “I wasn’t that good. You guys beat us.”
    “You stopped more shots than. Andrea,” Meg replied. “And we wouldn’t have scored the first goal if Cindy hadn’t been in your
     way.”
    Before Tina could say anything more, Danielle called out. “Listen up, everyone. It went pretty well. I saw a lot of good play
     and hustle today. There are a few things we need to watch out for, though.”
    Danielle mentioned problems she had noticed: players being out of position, not passing to open teammates, and so on. She
     didn’t mention names, but twice, Meg glanced at Tina and silently mouthed, “Cindy”
    “Finally,”