man city control the opening minutes, and caitlin is left running around the pitch, trying to intercept the ball. kim intercepts a pass in the midfield, and instead of sending it immediately up the field like they have been the opening minutes, she passes it back to leah, signaling her to slow the game down. leah passes it to rafa, who passes it to steph. once steph looks up the field, caitlin starts making a run from midfield, it starts at a slow jog, but when she sees that steph is about to boot it upfield, caitlin sprints past the right back and gets the ball near the corner flag. sizing up the defender, she dribbles to the side a couple of times, before going for a nutmeg right on the baseline. the defender is beat and she knows it, so in order to prevent caitlin from driving into the box, morgan pulls on her shirt. caitlin sells the foul, and the whistle can be heard as she collapses to the ground.
"a bit early for the flopping, don't you think?" a city player whispers under her breath as she runs past caitlin.
the audible groans of the fans can be heard, typically that type of foul would lead to a yellow card, but the referee seems to be lenient, letting morgan out with a warning. as caitlin strolls up towards the goalkeeper, she can hear leah yelling set peice instructions within the six. when beth whips the ball into the box, multiple heads jump for it, but it ends up in the safe hands of the keeper, who clears everybody out of the box.
after the first foul, the game progressively gets more physical. beth is in a constant battle with the city left back, ouahabi, and rarely can get her feet at the ball without some contact being dealt. the combination of steph and caitlin is clear cut and smooth, you can tell that the two friends have played long with each other, the chemistry is unmatched, and steph is picking apart every dribble chloe kelly is taking in their half. city are not letting arsenal run this game however, the challenges in midfield are brutal, quick, and devastating. caitlin soon realizes that pressing high at the moment will not change much, it definitely won't help her get the ball. she stays mostly in midfield, stringing passes together with viv, frida and steph. city are running around in circles trying to intercept the ball and caitlin does well to get rid of it. frida passes it to steph and caitlin quickly accelerates down the left flank. the ball lands comfortably within her strides and she has just entered the final third. she sees frida making a late run inside the box so she cuts it back to her.
the ball doesn't make it to frida, but caitlin doesn't know that. kelly has tracked all the way back and makes a crunching tackle that is clearly late, and sends caitlin off balance, but no whistle has been blown. caitlin is strewn out on the grass, catching her breath.
"you gotta call that ref!" viv yells as she starts jogging back to defend the city counter. caitlin is frustrated, to say the least. she runs back like a madwoman possessed, she has her eyes on the ball and urges stina to press higher. when the centerback passes it to morgan, caitlin is up in her face and successfully takes the ball away from her, passing it to kim.
after a deflected shot from beth, the arsenal get a corner, and this time caitlin is standing outside the box, watching as steph sends the ball into the box. a game of pinball seems to occur in the box as the ball floats from head to head, the goalkeeper unable to make a convincing grab at it. a bad clearance lets the ball come out to caitlin, seeing that most of her teammates are in the box, she sends a lofted ball in.
once again, she doesn't see the outcome of her cross. hemp sprints towards her and sends her planted foot flying into the air, and caitlin straight to the ground. if the crowd wasn't cheering for the goal that leah just scored, they would have heard the scream caitlin let out as the studs came into contact with her foot. if you asked about who heard that scream, the arsenal bench would have said they heard it, the players on the field? they were fully focused on the ball. the stands? only one person can recall the exact moment it happened.
as leah felt the ball come into contact with her head, she heard a scream. maybe it was a premature cheer for a goal. next thing she sees is the ball going into the back of the net, and she immediatley turns to the ref, who is signaling goal. she cheers and sprints towards caitlin, ready to celebrate her assist, but she sees the number 11 standing over her teammate. everything seems to come into realization. caitlin is clutching the side of her cleat as lauren dusts off her shorts and walks away. all she can see is red.
"hey, don't fucking walk away!" she yells sprinting towards her national teammate. hemp backs out slowly as leah can hear her own teammates coming swiftly behind her. "what the fuck were you thinking? what kind of god awful timing do you have!?" she continues to exclaim.
"it was poorly timed leah! even i know that!" hemp exclaims.
"are you trying to sideline her!? what the actual hell is going through your mind when you're making a challenge like that?" leah yells once more. kim starts shoving leah backwards and away from hemp. "let go of me kim. i can handle myself."
"sorry we can't all be world class defenders williamson!" lauren mocks.
"i could kill her," viv adds casually beside leah as if they were discussing what the weather was like. in that exact moment, leah thinks she could agree with her, but the moment passes. kim snaps her back to reality.
"there will be absolutely no killing, and no stupid fouls from us. we've still got a game to win." kim reminds sternly. stina and frida are talking to the referee, asking for a card. laura is talking to a city player, evidently shaking her head at whatever bullshit they think is spewing out of the city player's mouth. surprisingly, beth seems to be the calmest on the pitch, having a conversation with chloe kelly, if she's upset about the foul, she's hiding it well behind a good-natured smile. steph is beside caitlin on the floor, listening to the trainers assess the injury. thankfully, nothing seems to be broken and caitlin is in a good mood.
"she's fine, probably will sting a little bit, as long as she can jog it off she can keep playing," leah hears the trainer say as he takes the bottle back from caitlin.
"we scored though right!?" she asks with a grin.
"yes, you idiot, don't scare us like that next time." leah says pulling caitlin up from the grass.
the ref has some words with hemp before letting her off with a yellow, one which jonas and katie from the bench clearly disagree with.
"this referee is total shit, red, clear as day." katie mutters under her breath. jordan nods solemnly from beside her.
as the clock dwindles down for halftime, man city start pressing high and intercept a ball at midfield. the ball gets to kelly and as she's about to send the ball in, steph comes flying in out of nowhere and gets the ball right from under her. audible gasps turn into applause as steph dribbles up the field. frustrated, kelly comes from behind and makes a tackle from behind that takes out steph's legs. boos are now ringing throughout meadow park. rafa bulldozes in, immediately yelling to the referee for a yellow. the man city players quickly start separating kelly from steph, but caitlin and leah won't let them get away without a word in.
"where the fuck do you think you're fucking going!? what the fuck is your guys' problem!" caitlin yells exasperated. alanna motions for caitlin to simmer down, but leah sees it immediately and dismisses it with a message of her own.
"calm down? nah! i don't think so. you need to get your team under fucking control!" leah says pointing to their captain, and her england teammate alex greenwood.
"take your own advice williamson! your team can't get the ball without fouling our strikers!" greenwood replies aggressively.
"weird, because i do recall that you have now wiped 2 of our players off their feet!" laura adds in a condescending tone.
"you can't win without playing dirty 26!" hemp butts in from the back of the man city team. laura shrugs, walking away calmly to check on steph, which only infuriates hemp more. she thinks better of it before closing her mouth to stop another response that would likely get called for dissent.
"you've been in her pocket all game hemp so we don't want to hear it." viv adds calmly, pushing all of her teammates back. frida, caitlin, and leah all give hard stares towards the man city team before turning back to check on steph who seems to be fine. the ref gives kelly a yellow before rafa restarts play.
beth and caitlin create two excellent chances before the 45 minutes are up. unfortunately, frida's goal gets called back after the referee decided to call a foul on caitlin when she won the ball from the city midfield. caitlin shakes her head at the ref and city begin to restart play. beth's chance was due to a mistake in the city midfield once again, a sloppy pass gets intercepted by viv, and she sends a line-splitting pass to beth, who after scoring the goal, is called offside by the linesmen. the arsenal simply can't believe it, they should have been 3 goals up but obviously the referees had different plans.
a minimum of 5 minutes of stoppage time gets added due to all the injuries and caitlin does well to draw a foul outside the box. beth, steph and frida all stand over the ball.
"run over it," frida tells beth who nods, and motions steph off to the side.
"you sure about this?" beth asks as she takes a couple of steps back.
frida nods staring at the ball. "it's going in the top bin, just you wait." when the ref blows the whistle, beth slowly jogs up, and jumps over the ball. not far behind her, frida hits the ball cleanly. at first, it looks like it's going to sail over the bar, but it starts dipping, and dipping, and it evades roebuck to find its way in goal. frida fist pumps as she runs to the corner flag near the north bank.
halftime comes soon after, the score in favor of arsenal, 2 nil with goals from leah williamson in the 27th minute and frida maanum in the second minute of stoppage time. caitlin is walking back to the locker room beside their assistant coach who is going through tactics when she sees a figure in a hoodie staring at her. lia shyly waves at her and caitlin nods ever so slightly before turning back to the trainer.
"this ref is full of shit!" katie says to the girls, noelle right next to her looks like she could kill. jonas comes into the locker room and discusses tactics that he thinks will work well for the second half.
"hey, 2 goals is better than one, we just have to extend our lead," rafa says drinking water.
"caitlin, steph, you both are going to be running a lot this half, their right back is having trouble with intercepting our balls so the speed of play from now on has got to be quick, alright girls?" everybody murmurs some form of understanding. jonas excuses himself right before halftime ends. katie takes it as an opportunity to speak to the girls.
"let's all be honest, we're frustrated. yes, but so are they. they're making the bad fouls, they're playing like shit, and they're also the ones losing! so let's fucking finish this game girls, don't let a couple of shitty calls and terrible tackles slow down our pace!" katie finishes clapping loudly.
"what she said," kim says grinning.
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SEMI-FINAL BOUND!!! also was leah's birthday! man city game part 1, suggest reading the last, this and the next chapter in one sitting to get the real effect. next chapter is actually one of my favorites, still editing it but it should be out soon. as always, i appreciate the support you've all given me so far, vote and comment!