Page 70 of Couple Goals

She worries that despite their congratulations, everyone in the team probably hates her or is jealous. Jacob might have been lying to her, or going against her wishes – what if she really has just slept her way to a captain position she doesn’t even want. Does she?

Adriana picks at her skin, bites her lip, feeling suddenly self-conscious in her kit. She shouldn’t be here, everything just feels wrong.

‘It’s time,’ says Hoffman. Adriana has to lead the team out onto the pitch.

Adriana turns to face the light of the pitch, hearing the roar of the crowd waiting for them.

Adriana takes a deep breath and starts to run.

Adriana is so in her head that she doesn’t do any of the captain things she is supposed to.

It takes her a few seconds of watching Chloe, the Swan’s captain in the centre of the pitch by the referee, glaring round for the Tigresses’ captain for the coin toss, for Adriana to realise it should be her.

As she runs over, her heart is pounding like a scared rabbit. If she can’t calm herself down, she doesn’t know how she’s going to cope in the match.

Chloe grips her hand tightly, unsmiling. Instinctively, Adriana mentally runs through Chloe’s social media pages, confirming that Chloe is still dating Hannah, and wonders whether Chloe is still jealous of Maeve, whether there might be any issues with her striking out at her in defense. Then Adriana shakes her head – surely as captain she should be thinking about tactics, not gossip!

Adriana loses the coin toss. It is the first bad omen in what she can already feel is a downwards spiral.

From the first whistle, the Tigresses are all over the place.

At the first chance, Kira dribbles with the ball, sprinting halfway up the pitch on pure determination. When the Swan’s defense quickly surround her, Zuri breaks free out on the wing and shouts for the ball to be passed to her, but Kira tries to cling onto the ball instead, trying to dummy with the defense. Kira’s risk doesn’t pay off. The Swan’s defence steamroller through her fancy footwork, winning the ball back and moving it quickly to their midfielders who start the counter attack.

It takes Adriana and Charlie each pressing them – and getting lucky with a mistake from their opponents – to regain possession. At a moment when they are getting their first momentum, and it looks possible that they might be getting close to breaking through, Adriana finds Kira. But then it happens again. Instead of passing to a teammate, Kira sprints off, and makes a desperate kick for the goal that flies over the bar with the Swan’s goalie not even forced into making a save. The goalie grins smugly at Kira through her mouthguard and takes her time collecting the ball and taking her kick to restart play.

The goalie’s condescension clearly riles Kira up even further. Maeve shouts instruction down the pitch, it being second nature to her as former captain, trying to help the team get it together.

‘Hold your shape!’ Maeve yells. ‘Stop pressing so high!’

But Kira has gone rogue, trying so hard to get a goal at any cost and it’s leaving them vulnerable to the counter attack. From then, Maeve’s usually assured and tactical calls don’t sound sure even of herself,because the team aren’t responding. It feels like they’re all playing their own individual games. The team is disintegrating.

The Swans, in their sleek kits, see their obvious weaknesses and barge right through the Tigress’s midfield. They score.

With the Tigresses out of shape and trying to figure out how they conceded, a swift series of slick passes from the Swans slice through their defence again.

Adriana, normally a creative link in the middle of the team, feels stuck in a tug-of-war. She can tell the team are struggling so she wants to dig in and help them tighten up defensively, but she’s supposed to be the spark starting the attack. It’s clear to her that this is about the players each being in their heads, not knowing who they should be listening to, and not knowing who they should trust. But as Kira and Maeve both shout literally opposite instructions at her, she finds herself unable to do her usual mid-pitch mediation. If she were to shout too, it would just be yet another thing in the mix to confuse everyone. She finds herself longing for half-time so that Hoffman can give them all a stern talking to.

In her worst moments, she can’t help looking towards the stands, trying to pick out her family’s shining sun sign. Secretly, she hopes Jacob has surprised her by coming even though he hadn’t planned to join for this away game. But she can’t see them. And in even the seconds that she’s looking for their motivating faces, the Swans are back up in her face, pushing through the disconnected Tigresses to score another goal. 2-0.

Each Swan celebration is a crush for the Tigresses. Chloe screaming proudly at the crowd, her teammates lifting her up, causes even more rupture between the Tigresses. Kira and Maeve are shouting at each other there on the pitch, and Adriana can’t say anything, not trusting herself to choose between them. It’s the worst the team have played since the season started. An abysmal start to Adriana’s first game as captain.

By the thirty-fifth minute, there have been multiple near misses on the Tigresses’ goal, only narrowly saved by Maeve making increasingly gritty tackles with Chloe. The Swan’s striker seems blood-hungry, always wanting another goal, but also another opportunity to tackle with Maeve. But where last season, Maeve’s response had been to be solid like a rock, not giving Chloe the chance through, now, Maeve’s playing Chloe at her own agressive game. Those one-on-ones with Kira have been paying off, Adriana thinks, as she watches Maeve fight back – Maeve would never have used to be able to take someone’s relentless tackles like this. Even if there’s no love lost between Kira and Maeve, training together has clearly been good for Maeve’s game.

It’s the forty-second minute when it happens.

Chloe’s broken through midfield, and trying to steamroller her way past Maeve to get another shot away at goal.

Maeve gets a good block on it, kicking the ball out of play but Chloe stamps down on Maeve’s ankle.

Adriana almost imagines she hears a crunch.

There’s a roar from the Tigress fans who have travelled to watch the game. ‘Red card! Red card!’

Chloe is indeed sent off. But that’s not what Adriana is worried about. She rushes to her friend, whose colour has drained from her face, doubled over and clutching her ankle, which is at an awkward angle. Yet she’s not even crying or grimacing at the pain. She’s clearly in shock.

Kira and Adriana are the first to arrive at Maeve’s side. Kira must have run as fast as a rocket to make it from the other team’s half. She’s reaching automatically to help grasp Maeve’s hand as she tries to stand.

‘I’m okay,’ Maeve winces, trying to lean away from them. ‘I’m okay.’

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