T.J. and the Cup Run (7 page)

Mr Potter had gone pale again. ‘Impossible,’ TJ heard him mutter under his breath. ‘All that work!’

But Mr Burrows hadn’t finished. ‘We could have an Under–tens team too. The possibilities are endless! But in the semifinal of the Cup I want Parkview School to play our best team. I never want to see us lose 9–1 again. Whatever team you pick, Mr Potter, please make sure that TJ, Jamie and Tulsi are in it.’

C
HAPTER
11

THE FOLLOWING MORNING
Year Six found the deputy head, Mrs Logan, waiting for them in the classroom. ‘Mr Potter will be late,’ she told them. ‘I believe he had an accident last night, and he was limping rather badly this morning so I sent him to the hospital.’

Just before morning break, Mr Potter arrived. He had a large bandage around his right ankle and he was walking with a stick.

‘Just a sprain,’ he said to Mrs Logan. ‘I’ll be fine in a few days. I was demonstrating to the children how to volley a ball.’

‘But it went a bit wrong,’ said Rafi, and several people giggled.

‘Quiet!’ said Mrs Logan. ‘A sprained ankle is no joke. I hope you’re fit enough to take charge of the team for the semifinal, Mr Potter. It’s a very important match, you know.’

TJ had difficulty stopping himself laughing. He tried not to catch Jamie’s eye. Mrs Logan had hated football until the school team had started doing well.

‘Ah, yes, the team,’ Mr Potter said. ‘I’ve been thinking about that. I’m going to announce the squad now. I’ll decide later who will actually start the match and the tactics and so on. The squad is Jamie, Danny, Tommy, Leila, Ariyan, Rodrigo, TJ, Rafi, Tulsi, and Rob. You seem to know such a lot about football, Rob. Perhaps you’ll show us all how it’s done.’

He turned to Mrs Logan. ‘Will you tell Mr Burrows?’ he said, handing her the piece of paper.

All around the room there were smiling
faces
– even among those who hadn’t been picked. But at break time everyone was talking about the same thing.

‘Why did he pick Rob?’ said Ebony.

‘Right,’ said Cameron. ‘Rob’s great, but he never really does much. He’s more useful doing the stats.’

‘That’s not true,’ said TJ. ‘Rob hasn’t been playing long and he’s a bit nervous, that’s all. Mr Potter probably picked Rob because Rob made him look stupid at the Quiz Night and he thinks this will make Rob look stupid. But he’s wrong. It’s the best thing he could have done.’

No one else agreed. ‘Last night at training,’ Tulsi said, ‘you told me Rob would do something special, but he didn’t, did he? Anyone could have done what he did.’

‘You’ll see,’ replied TJ. ‘People can change, you know.’

Tulsi chucked the football she was
holding
at TJ’s head. ‘At least we’re all in the team,’ she said, as TJ ducked. ‘Come on, let’s have a game. We need all the practice we can get.’

The next morning the Parkview football team sat in the minibus waiting to leave. Their Cup semifinal was against Swinburne School and it was being played on the Astroturf pitch at the High School. ‘We’ve played this lot before,’ Jamie said.

‘In the District Tournament,’ said TJ. ‘They were good at tackling.’

‘But I didn’t have to save a single shot,’ said Jamie.

‘They finished third in the League last season,’ Rob told them, with his notebook open on his knees, ‘and they scored twenty-four goals which is an average of two a game, so they do know how to shoot.’

‘We just have to remember one thing,’ TJ said, as Mr Potter limped out of the school door and across the car park towards them. ‘We have to play the way Mr Wood trained us. Stay in position, and pass and move, even if Mr Potter tries to make us do something different.’

They all nodded, as Mr Potter climbed into
the
passenger seat. Mr Burrows jumped up behind the wheel, and Miss Berry got in the back with the team. Then they set off.

When they arrived at the High School the Swinburne Team were already climbing out of their coach. ‘Look,’ said Jamie. ‘It’s Leroy from the PDC. What’s he doing here? I thought he played for Meadow Green.’

‘Surprised?’ grinned Leroy. ‘I thought you would be. We moved house a couple of weeks ago. I play for Swinburne now.’

‘You can’t do that!’ said TJ.

‘Sorry,’ said Leroy, who didn’t look sorry at all. ‘Our PE teacher checked. It’s not against the rules.’

‘Come along, Parkview,’ said Mr Potter. ‘Get yourselves changed and then I’ll tell you the team and the tactics.’

Out on the pitch, Mr Potter explained. ‘I want to start with Jamie in goal,’ he said.

‘Then we’ll have Danny in defence with
Rob
; Leila and Rodrigo in midfield, and Rafi and Ariyan up front. Mr Burrows tells me that you’ve already beaten this team once, and Rafi scored a goal, so I think we’ll give him a
chance
to score another one.’

‘But, Mr Potter,’ said Rob. ‘I’m not really a defender. I’m not much good at tackling.’

‘Well, this will be a good chance for you to learn, Rob.’

‘You mean, TJ and Tulsi aren’t going to play?’ asked Jamie.

‘No,’ said Mr Potter, and TJ had a sudden memory of Mr Potter’s face as TJ had put the ball through his legs. It’s not just Rob, TJ thought, I made him look stupid and now he’s getting back at me too.

‘You can beat this lot easily,’ TJ said to the others, trying to hide his disappointment.

Tulsi didn’t even try to hide how she felt. She stormed off to stand at the side of the pitch with a face like thunder.

‘Right, the rest of you,’ Mr Potter said, with an angry glance after Tulsi. ‘Out on the pitch and warm up.’

TJ kicked a ball backwards and forwards
with
Rob. ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this,’ Rob said. ‘Did you notice that Mr Potter said he was going to tell us about tactics and then he didn’t?’

‘He’ll probably begin shouting when the match gets going,’ TJ replied. ‘Remember, just ignore him.’

The referee called for the captains and the Parkview players all looked at each other, and then at Mr Potter who was sitting down, resting his injured leg on a folding stool. Leroy laughed. ‘They don’t know who their captain is,’ he said to his team-mates.

‘And their best player isn’t even playing,’ said a spiky-haired defender with bandy legs who TJ remembered from their last meeting. The defender clapped his hands together. ‘Come on, Swinburne!’ he yelled. ‘We’re going to thrash them!’

‘Go on, Jamie,’ said Rafi. ‘You do it.’
Jamie
went forward to toss up – and he lost. It seemed as if everything was going wrong.

Swinburne kicked off, and the semifinal of the Cup was under way.

C
HAPTER
12

THE LAST TIME
Parkview had played Swinburne the other team had defended well but they’d been no good at attacking. Now, they had Leroy. He was a top player and every time he received the ball, danger threatened Jamie’s goal.

After a few minutes Leroy won the ball from Rodrigo in midfield and powered forward. Rob ran to meet him. If the situation hadn’t been so serious TJ might have laughed, because Leroy was nearly thirty centimetres taller than Rob and he towered above him.

Rob’s eyes were fixed on the ball at Leroy’s feet and TJ crossed his fingers by his side, praying that Rob would make the tackle. Leroy made his move, feinting to go left and moving the ball sharply in the opposite direction. Rob guessed right, but just as he was about to move Mr Potter’s voice rang out. ‘Come on, Rob! Tackle him!’

Rob glanced up. He couldn’t stop himself. And in that instant, Leroy was through. He had a clear run on Jamie’s goal, but Jamie was ready for him. He had moved out to the edge of his area, and spread himself as wide as he could. Leroy grinned and struck the ball hard and low. Jamie blurred into action.

Somehow he flashed out a leg and deflected the ball wide of the post for a corner to Swinburne. ‘Sorry, Jamie,’ Rob said, as he moved back to mark a Swinburne attacker.

‘Don’t worry,’ laughed Jamie. ‘It’ll take more than that to beat me.’

He spoke too soon. The Swinburne winger took the corner and the ball floated into the area. Jamie rose to punch it clear, but twenty metres out the ball dropped at Leroy’s feet and the tall striker drilled his shot past the stranded goalkeeper.

Jamie pulled the ball from the net and threw it to Rob. ‘It’s OK,’ Jamie said. ‘It’s only one–nil. Just remember, we’ve beaten them once before.’

‘Right,’ said Rob. ‘Only, that time Rafi scored a really lucky goal, and we’re not having any luck at all.’

From the kickoff Rafi laid the ball off to Rodrigo, who slid an expert pass out to Ariyan on the wing. ‘That’s better, Parkview,’ called Jamie. ‘Keep going. Come on!’

Ariyan played a smart one-two with Rafi and he was away down the wing. Leila was racing forward, trying to get into the penalty area, when Mr Potter started shouting at her.

‘Leila, get back!’ he yelled. ‘You’re midfield. Rodrigo, you too. Stay back!’

Ariyan looked up as he reached the goal line, searching for someone to cross to.

There was only Rafi, and he was completely surrounded by Swinburne defenders. ‘Pass it, Ariyan!’ shouted Mr Potter, and Ariyan shrugged his shoulders and obeyed. He knew it was pointless. They’d practised for this situation loads of
times
with Mr Wood. The midfield players should have been bursting forward to give him something to aim at. And Tulsi should have been there, standing tall among the defenders. Ariyan’s cross never reached Rafi. A Swinburne defender nodded it down to the goalkeeper who booted it up the field.