by Rich Wallace illustrated by Tim Heitz An Imprint of Magic Wagon abdopublishing com
TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS Who Me 4 Weighing the Options 15 Lineup Shuffle 28 No Help 38 Momentum 48 Worn Out 59 Big Mouth 67 Unsettled 76 Regrouping 90 Title Game 100
ONEONE Who M The soccer ball rolled into my zone with two Cyclone players in pursuit I darted to it nudging the ball toward the sideline and moving away with it A Cyclone elbowed me but I pivoted hard and faked him out With one swift motion I booted the ball up to midfield Great defense Griffin called Spencer He’s our goalie Spencer gets all the credit for our four straight shutouts But without me as the middle defender he’d be in trouble No one had scored on us all season and it looked like we were on track for shutout number five We’re a high-scoring powerhouse thanks to my friends Torry Marcus and Javon up front I should say we’re usually high scoring 4
With the clock ticking down toward the end of this game we’d managed just one goal this morning Still 1 0 is a win If we could hold on The Cyclones were applying a lot of pressure I’d spent most of the second half clearing the ball away or trying to force our opponents into traffic I’d been backpedaling or running sideways constantly I hadn’t done any wheezing yet but I was getting tired Javon made a nice steal and scooted along the sideline He’s the shortest player on our team but one of the fastest so he raced deep into the Cyclones end of the field before anyone caught up He crossed the ball to Torry who one-touched it to Marcus Marcus’s shot was on target but the goalie made a diving save Then the Cyclones came again desperate to tie it up Their defenders were on their way up too so our end of the field was swarming with players 5
