They try harder to provoke me after that. A shove here. A word there. One of them stepped on my boot intentionally during a stoppage.
I look down again.
More dirt.
Enough is enough.
I walk straight to the sideline.
Coach looks confused. “What are you doing?”
“I need a new kit,” I say flatly.
He stares at me. “You’re joking.”
“I’m not.”
The fourth official looks between us. Amin jogs over, eyebrows raised.
“You serious right now?” he asks.
I peel my sock halfway down. “Look at this.”
Amin exhales slowly, then laughs. “If you hadn’t scored two, I’d strangle you.”
Coach shakes his head but waves the kit man over.
I swap shirts and socks quickly, retie my boots, and jog back on like nothing happened.
The Italian crowd loses their minds.
“Disrespectful!” someone screams.
I look up at the stands. “Score two goals and then talk.”
Then the boos rain down. I step back onto the pitch already annoyed that the interruption was necessary but satisfied that it’s handled. The ref blows the whistle again, and play resumes with the same hostility it had before I walked off only now it’s all directed at me.
“Tore” is watching me.
He’s been watching me all match, actually, but now there’s something different in his face. Less smug. More focused. He jogs closer during the restart, just enough to make it obvious.
“Changed kits?’ he asks. “You really live up to your reputation, Titan.”
I don’t look at him. “Why are you talking to me?”
He laughs before he jogs off.
Tore drops deeper to get involved, starts demanding the ball, waving his arms like the pitch belongs to him and it didn’t. Not with me here.
In the sixty-eighth minute, one of those risks pays off.
Amin misjudges a clearance by half a step, nothing dramatic, just enough for their winger to nip in and swing a low cross across the box. Tore is already moving. He doesn’t hesitate. One touch. Clean finish.
The net ripples and the crowd explodes, finally.
Two-one.
Don’tyou just hate it when players finally show up after sleepwalking halfway through the game? Where was this energy the whole time, Tore?
