A penalty shoot-out; glory or defeat?!

FWEEEEE!

The game went to penalties!

Badump! Badump!

Standing in the middle of the pitch, Sam could feel his heart beating rapidly against his chest, both from exhaustion and the tension of this moment.

Unlike in the open game where the players had full control over the proceedings on the pitch, a penalty was more or less a gamble, a toss of a coin that neither teams had full control over.

'Is this it?' Sam thought but he rebuked the thought immediately. 'We're still in the game,' he thought, taking a deep breath.

'Calm down, take a deep breath…, we're still in it'.

'We can still win, believe it!' He pumped himself and before he knew it, his blood was already burning hot again, all distractions abstracted from his mind.

Standing beside the young midfielder, Austin Oladapo wiped the sweat off his face with his hand, also breathing heavily.