T.J. and the Cup Run (3 page)

Deng and TJ had already had several battles. Deng was a terrific tackler, and once he had the ball at his feet he could hit killer passes. And even when TJ had finally got the better of him in the District Tournament, Deng had kept on smiling. Deng was smiling now, as he passed to TJ. The ball came hard, fast, and accurate. TJ took the pace off it, already moving away from the defender who was marking him, and laid it off to the team-mate behind him. Then the ball was back with Deng again and he slid another deadly pass to the player on the opposite wing.

‘Move, TJ,’ called Baz. ‘Look for the pass. Find some space!’

TJ realized he’d been standing still, admiring Deng’s work. He made a darting
run
towards the centre circle and saw Deng move forward to receive the ball yet again. TJ turned and sprinted away down the wing, and suddenly, like a miracle, the ball was at his feet. He didn’t have to think. He knew exactly where the goal was and he struck it left-footed towards the far corner. He struck it perfectly, but as he lifted his head he saw Jamie diving to tip the ball round the post.

‘That was just fantastic!’ Jamie said, when training was over. ‘I mean, I thought there’d be things I couldn’t do, but we’d done lots of it before with Mr Wood.’

‘That’s not surprising,’ said Phil, who had stayed to help with the training. ‘Your Mr Wood has done the same coaching badges as me. There’s no reason he couldn’t coach at Wanderers.’

‘He’d do a good job,’ said Marshall Jones, coming through the wire gate onto the Astroturf.

‘Hey, Marshall,’ said TJ and Jamie. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘I figured I’d come down with Phil and see how you got on,’ Marshall grinned, as all the other young players gathered round, talking excitedly. ‘I’ve been sitting in the car, watching. Nice work, everyone.’

‘Have you seen Mr Wood?’ asked Jamie.

‘Sure,’ said Marshall. ‘He said to tell you “hi”.’

‘I hope he comes back soon. We really need him.’

‘I’m sorry, kids,’ Marshall said. ‘He’s working in another school.’

Their faces fell. ‘Hey,’ said Marshall. ‘Life can be tough sometimes, but you’ll be OK. I’m not having much fun myself, as it happens. It’s taking longer than I thought to get my fitness back. We’ve got to beat Inter Milan next week or we’ll be out of the Champions League and right now I don’t reckon I’ll ever get past their full back.’

‘Rob’s got a theory—’ began TJ, but Marshall cut him off.

‘I’m sorry, lads,’ he said, looking at his watch. ‘I have to go. I’m late already. See you soon.’

As Marshall’s car pulled away, TJ’s dad jogged up with Rob beside him. ‘Wasn’t that
Marshall
?’ Rob said. ‘You should have made him wait. I could have told him . . .’

‘He had to go,’ TJ said. ‘Sorry, Rob.’

‘But Marshall was right about one thing,’ Jamie said. ‘We will see him again soon. It’s my birthday next week and my dad’s managed to get tickets for the Milan game!’

C
HAPTER
4

‘SO, WHAT DID
you think?’ asked TJ’s dad when they were back home at last and eating pasta at the kitchen table.

‘It was great,’ TJ replied. ‘But you and Rob must have run miles while you were waiting for us.’

His dad laughed. ‘I can hardly keep up with Rob these days,’ he said. ‘And he talks all the time too. He never gets out of breath. He says we ran ten kilometres.’

‘That’s good,’ said TJ. ‘You know, I reckon Rob could get in the school team if he tried. He does some really neat things when he
thinks
nobody’s watching him, but he never tries them when we’re playing five-a-sides. He just controls the ball and then passes it. I mean, he never gives it away, but that’s not enough, is it?’

‘Maybe you should practise with him,’ his dad suggested. ‘Like you did with Jamie, remember? He’s probably just not very confident when you’re all there together.’

TJ looked at his dad. ‘That’s a great idea,’ he said. ‘The others can’t come round this Saturday, so I could go to the park with Rob. Thanks, Dad.’

But in the park on Saturday morning Rob was not in a good mood. ‘I don’t really feel like playing football,’ he said.

‘You’re crazy,’ replied TJ, balancing the ball on one foot and then transferring it to the other. ‘I
always
feel like playing, even when I’m watching TV, or eating my
tea
. In lessons too.’

‘That’s just it,’ replied Rob. ‘Everything’s pointless now Mr Wood has gone. Especially the lessons. Mr Potter is so boring. And the football training is terrible. You’re dead lucky you get to go to the PDC.’

‘I know,’ TJ said. ‘Actually there are some things we did there that I want to practise. You can help. And I had this idea for a free kick and I want to see if it works. You take the free kick and you pretend you’ve hit it wrong and it’s going to miss. But I make a run and I pull it back for you to score. I bet we can do it. We’ll use that bench as a goal.’

‘It’s good,’ said Rob, after they’d practised a few times. ‘But it’s never going to be any use, because I won’t be in the team to take free kicks.’

‘You never know,’ replied TJ. ‘Now I’ll show you the new drill we did at the PDC. It’s for practising how to thread a pass
through
a crowded defence. You pass it backwards and forwards across a square with defenders in the middle.’

‘What defenders?’ said Rob. ‘I can’t see any.’

‘We can use that tree over there,’ said TJ, ‘and the bin. And the lamppost. We can move around the outside of them and see if we can pass it through.’

‘Tricky,’ said Rob, but TJ could see he was interested.

‘We’re allowed to take a touch before we pass,’ TJ said. ‘We’ll see how many we can do.’

It was very hard to squeeze the ball through the narrow gaps, and at first TJ found it almost impossible. But Rob was getting his passes through every time. ‘How are you doing that?’ TJ asked when they stopped for a break. ‘I always seem to hit something.’

‘I’m not sure,’ Rob said. ‘I just sort of know what the angles are. I don’t really have to think about it.’

They carried on, and TJ started to improve. They strung twenty passes together before a shout from across the park broke TJ’s concentration and the ball cannoned against the bin. He looked up and saw Deng and Krissy approaching across the grass.

‘What are you doing?’ Krissy asked. The tall black girl was Hillside School’s star striker.

‘It’s a game we made up,’ TJ said. ‘You have to go round the outside here, and you can’t pass between the same two things twice in a row. It’s hard. Our record’s twenty. D’you want a go?’

Krissy grabbed the ball. ‘We’ll beat that, easy,’ she said. ‘Come on, Deng.’

Five minutes later they stopped. Their record was three, and Krissy was out of
breath
and cross. Deng hadn’t missed a pass, but Krissy had found it just as hard as TJ.

‘I said it wasn’t easy,’ TJ laughed. ‘I reckon we should let Rob have a go with Deng. It might be interesting.’

It was like watching a complicated dance. As Deng and Rob circled the bin, the lamppost and the tree, the ball flashed backwards and forwards between them.

When the passes reached thirty TJ turned to Krissy and saw her mouth hanging open.

‘Told you,’ he said with a grin. ‘Hey, you two! Why don’t we have a game of two against two?’

Deng flipped the ball up into his hands. ‘Nice game you’ve invented, TJ,’ he said. ‘Lucky you brought someone who can play it properly.’ He exchanged high-fives with Rob, who had a grin on his face that was nearly as big as Deng’s. ‘Me and Krissy against you and Rob, then,’ Deng said to TJ. ‘That bin can be our goal, and that tree over there is yours. You ready?’

He didn’t wait for TJ’s answer, just dropped the ball and hit it into space for Krissy to chase. TJ went after her. ‘Mark Deng!’ he yelled over his shoulder, but Rob paid no attention. Krissy was a striker and he knew she’d go for goal, so Rob raced to cut off her shot. She reached the ball before
TJ
could tackle her and blasted it at the tree, but Rob was already there. He controlled the ball with his chest and struck his pass instantly before the ball even hit the ground. It flew across the grass, cutting through the narrow gap between Deng and Krissy as they both raced towards him. TJ took the ball in his stride and saw Rob rushing forward, indicating with his hand where he wanted it to go. TJ played the pass and moved off himself, trying to get away from Deng.

As he ran he had the strangest feeling that he knew what Rob was going to do. He checked his run suddenly and turned. And there was the ball at his feet! He had space and a little bit of time as Deng tried to get back to him. Rob was sprinting towards the goal, and TJ chipped the ball over Krissy’s head. It was easy for Rob to run on and tap it against the bin.

‘Yes!’ exclaimed TJ. ‘One–nil to us.’

By the time they stopped playing the score was 6–2 to Rob and TJ, and Krissy looked at Rob with new respect. ‘We found a secret weapon when Deng came to our school,’ she said. ‘Now it looks like you’ve found one too.’

C
HAPTER
5

JAMIE’S MUM HAD
made an enormous birthday cake in the shape of a pair of goalkeeping gloves. ‘Just make sure you wish for a Wanderers victory,’ said Tulsi, as Jamie blew the candles out.