50. Alignment

                                    

                                          

With their next match in Southampton, Kaia relished on the fact they were training locally because she could still go out for dinner with her family, go to all the appointments in London, the photoshoots, meetings, interviews, take Leah to watch a polo match in their free time. The South was just closer to everything, including other teams.  
The whole argument between Sebastian and Jorge was spoken about by a few news outlets the next day, but Sebastian is off-season at the moment so it was down to Jorge to explain it as he was the one having interviews. He said it was a miscommunication and played it off like it was nothing, because he was the bad guy in the situation and he'd never admit to that. So it was brushed off pretty easily which Sebastian's parents and pregnant wife were grateful for. 
For Kaia, her focus was right back on football the second she stepped back into camp. Northern Ireland would be their last game of the group stage, which they were already winners of with six points from two games. Both Norway and Austria had already beaten Northern Ireland which meant they were drawing on three points going into the last game against each other, that game deciding who gets second place. Juicy. 
But what unwillingly had Kaia's attention was that the runners up of group B would be their opponents in the quarterfinal, and with Germany's perfect run and the fact they only had Finland to beat... it was almost written that Spain would come in second place unless they lost to Denmark tomorrow. Even goal difference couldn't see Spain top the group, so it was looking like Kaia was facing her girlfriend in the first knockout stage. 
Kaia had hoped Spain cruised through the group stage unbeaten and then they would've hopefully met in the final at Wembley, a day they'd both be able to experience as players. But no, one of them had to be stopped before then.
She tried- key word being tried- not to think about it, and instead she binged watched Northern Ireland's two games against Norway and Austria the night before the match, it helped her go to sleep and Leah had to take her headphones off her head and shut the laptop amidst her sudoku. 
For the game at St. Mary's, Kaia wore new baby blue Phantom GT's with her white kit and felt energised during the warmup, she was pumped to seal off the group stage with a solid win and have them soar into the next game. 
It took seven minutes for Kaia to put the ball in the back of the net. England were dominant, ruthless and clinical. Meado scored next at 40 minutes, and Kirby at 44 which had them leading 3-0 at the break. 
They came out with the same energy in the second and Kaia once again found the back of the net quickly, this one requiring a bit more finesse to finish it off and dancing around a few players. 
Sarina waited, watching her star player for a few more minutes. And when she saw the back of the net ripple for the third time thanks to Kaia, she swapped out the number 7 for Alessia to keep Kaia rested for Spain. 
"Another hat trick. You're a force, Kaia. Well done." Sarina compliments as Kaia high fives Alessia on the touchline and then low fives the manager. 
"Just doing my job, but thanks." Kaia teases with a slight smirk, breathing heavily and gladly taking the bottle of ice water held out to her by a trainer. Today's another scorcher. So on the way to the bench she pours a little bit over the back of her neck to bring her body temperature down quicker. 
The first thing Kaia does after showering and getting all the dirt and sweat of the game off her is check her phone in her cubby, and she chuckles at one of the messages she sees. 
10:02pm
Cuore Mio❤️: I love you and you're amazing but please stop scoring hat tricks for just the next few days🙏