𝐊𝐀𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐈 𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐑 is continuously climbing the ranks as a footballer. She only made her professional debut for Manchester United women the season prior, and already she's arguably the world's best youngster on the scene.
Nobody sane can...
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IT'S ONE THING to watch a game from a screen, miles away from where it's being played, and another to watch it unfold right before my very eyes. It's so much more thrilling, especially when it's my team, playing at Wembley Stadium of all places.
The game is up and down, kind of like the fans that fill the stadium up to the brim. They're almost like a wave of Red in their United and Arsenal kits— though Arsenal's team sport their away kit so that there's no confusion— standing when something promising happens and sitting down as a result of it being anti-climatic.
Me included.
To put it simply, my emotions are suffering from severe whiplash whilst I watch them under the lights.
The fact that Manchester United Women are playing at the Home of English Football for the first time is an achievement in itself; I smiled like the Cheshire Cat the second I saw them walk out from the tunnel and snapped a photo of the moment that was now engraved into our history.
But then the match started and in quick succession came the onslaught of nerves, because as much as good passages of play give me excitement and hope, the end-to-end game leaves my nerves skyrocketing.
It's a different feeling than being on the pitch where your focus is in the moment; thinking about where to pass the ball and break the lines rather than focusing on how the game will end before the final whistle.
I realise I'm subconsciously doing both.
As a footballer, I'm thinking of where the player can play the ball before they even receive it. I'm noticing the runs Alessia and Lauren are making every time Ella gets on the ball in midfield. I'm noticing the gaps Arsenal are leaving at times on the flanks that Ona can exploit as an attacking fullback.
And then as a fan, I'm flickering my gaze from the field to the big screens to check how much time there is left.
There isn't much. Just over seven minutes of normal time remaining.
Vivianne Miedema scored for Arsenal— shock— right before half-time, but not even half a minute later Ella equalised the score for us and it's been that way since.
The ball is quite literally flying around the pitch.
One second Lauren's applying pressure to Arsenal's goal, and the next, the ball gets turned over and they're having to relentlessly defend against Arsenal's attack.
I'm sitting alongside the injured United contingent on the bench who had all made their way here separately like me, just behind those that are actually available for selection.
Extra time is looming and I can't stomach another thirty minutes on the edge of my seat. Possession has favoured Arsenal in the last ten minutes, so when Millie Turner cuts out a sloppy pass and it reaches Alessia who starts sprinting down the middle of the field, I grab onto Lucy Staniforth who's beside me.
