Have you ever wandered what it’s like to be the hero of your sports team in a big game even if you knew it would only be for the day? Well, being sports junky, it was my dream to be able to be the hero of the team. Luckily for me, I got the chance in one of my soccer team’s many tournaments in the summer of 2008. Our team was playing very well and all of our games by a lot of goals. Then we got to the finals and played a very good team, but every team has its weaknesses.

Throughout the game it was very close with both teams getting a fair amount of shots on the goal, but none of them would go in. The goalie for the opposing team was about 6’3” and almost covered the entire goal (or so it seemed). Almost every shot that my team took he could grab with ease. He showed almost no faults in the whole first half. We had a few shots that were very close to going in, but missed by just the slightest bit.

When the second half came around my team had more energy than the other team. We suddenly had more shots on goal, had the ball more, and we were able to keep the other team away from the goal for almost the whole half. The other team was obviously tiring fast, and it appeared that they wouldn’t be able to last much longer. We could see that all we needed was a good shot away from the goalkeeper. And that’s all it took.

Our team had a boy on it who could throw the ball extremely far, so when we got a throw in from just a couple yards away from the corner he immediately went to take it. I ran to place myself right in front of the goal while everyone else was still over by the ball. It seemed that everybody had forgotten about me in the box during all of the confusion, so when the ball was finally thrown I was wide open. The ball was perfectly aimed right at my head so all I had to do was flick it into the goal, which I did. The goalie made a tremendous dive at the ball but wasn’t in time to stop it. I had scored what was so far the only goal of the game with only a few minutes left to go in the game.

As the game ended I felt like a hero on the field with the goal that won the game. Although I wasn’t carried off the field on the rest of my teams shoulders’, I was satisfied with a simple, “Nice goal,” and a high five to go with it. For winning the game my team got our medals, and twenty tickets to go see the Los Angeles Galaxy play a game. Being the hero of your sports team is a great experience, even if it is just for the day.