6: Losing The Game

Down by one with the ball at my feet. Can't turn left, can't turn right, the only way past is to confront the defender between me and my teammate. The reason for this situation is that there are cinder block walls on both sides of me and the goal was the door at the end of my dorm room hall. Its not too hard to stop someone as a defender when you only have to guard 3 feet of space so my only hope is to kick it over his head and try to get past him. Upon leaving my foot the ball soars over his head just grazing the ceiling before it lands at my teammates feet. Now's our chance to catch up as i run past the opponent the ball is passed to me and cut off by the other team. Now they have a clear shot at the goal with both me and my teammate behind them.

What would any rational soccer player do in this situation? I grabbed the opponents arm and proceeded to thwart his efforts to get the ball to the door down the hall. There is no way to win this battle as the other players are gaining on us and will soon be there to aid the opponent's cause. My choices are to hold on and hope my teammate gets there before his or risk it all and let go of him while i try to out run him to the ball just feet away from us. I risk it all and lose----badly. As i try to get past him he starts falling towards me and i begin to veer off towards to doors lining the side of the hall when i come to a sudden stop. The cause: my foot kicking the concrete frame of one of the doors set back about two inches from the wall. A straight shot to the fourth toe on my right foot, OUCH! To make the rest of a long and embarrassing story short i broke the toe and all my chances to play intramural soccer for the next four weeks. What is the moral of this story? I don't know, but the other team scored while i was laying on the ground and therefore risking it all might not be the best choice from now on.