Diligent | alessia russo

Thin ice

I've officially been in the senior squad for 2 years. I've grown into the team, building chemistry with them as time went on.

Though, I'm still a bench player. I was getting game time but not as much as I hoped. Each game I'd get at least 30 minutes.

I'd only start if it was against a weaker team. Despite the large age difference, I've grown close to Tobin, Kelley, sonnett, Kristie, horan, mal and rose.

I've lifted my first trophy with the team in 2018 for the tournament of nations with a 4-1 win over Brazil.

Scoring 2 goals and 3 assists throughout the tournament and even got myself player of the match in the semi-final.

And now we inched our way closer and closer to the 2019 World Cup. I was fighting for a position in the 23 lineup against many great players.

And due to there being veterans and players better than me, I was playing a game on thin ice.

Today we had a friendly against France and I was stood in a circle with Lindsey and rose doing one touched passes in the air.

"Okay, ladies! Let's go!" The booming voice of Jill yelled out before she blew a whistle, "Everyone in the circle!"

She blew the whistle once again and everyone knew better. As the whistle blew the ball was passed back to me.

My eyes widened and I planted my left foot and swung with my right, volleying it perfectly before sprinting towards the middle of the pitch.

"Okay," Jill looked around and pointed towards the back where the last few who got to the circle and wagged her finger, "Sam and Tobin."

Both women groaned as they walked up towards the coach and in front of everyone.

"Warm up your legs, Toby. You're running laps!" I teased earning a middle finger from the woman.

"Okay," Jill smiled as she wrote something onto the clip board, "Here are your captains for today's training. We're doing a scrimmage."

Rose and I bit our lips with a cocky smirk and high fived each other.

"Tobin, take your first pick."

The woman immediately chose me first and I jogged towards her as a gasp was heard behind me.

"Didn't pick your girlfriend first, Tobin? You're banished to the couch."

I joked and laughed when I heard christen yell out 'yes'

"Pick rose next. We can get a us women's national all stars team."

When it was time for Sam to pick her choice, she sent a sly smirk our way and chose rose.

"Fuck!"

Tobin laughed at my reaction before we began scheming our choices.

We ended up with sonnett, ertz, moe, Lindsey, sauerbrann, Carli, christen, Megan, mal and Tierna.

"Each half is 15 minutes and we'll have a 3 minute half time break. Play ball!"

The whistle blew and Alex began kick off. The ball was passed backwards and we began pushing forward.

"Tobin, mark Kelley!" I sprinted forward and began pressing whoever had the ball, following it every move it made before making an intersection.

I passed it back to Carli with a back heel and yelled out to push.

"Push up!" Carli began getting pressed so I ran beside her as I observed my surroundings. She used her left foot and passed it back to me.