Wednesday, June 4, 2014

The Losers: A Fiction


         It's the end of the season. We did well this time. Our soccer team, Shadows first time in the league history won the Eagles. They were the best last season and were unbeaten since last one hundred matches. In the first leg match they had thrashed us with score of 6-0. It was quite humiliating because the whole leg we played well and were in the second position. But we did not lose hope, so the victory in the last match of the league became ours.

          Everyone was celebrating. The Coach had thrown a party to celebrate the first victory over the Eagles. He was extremely happy because in his fifteen years of career in the Shadows, the Eagles were defeated for the first time. I, as the captain of the team was called to make a victory speech. I was not prepared because the Coach had told that just at the beginning of the party. I was not sure what to say but went on the dais and started giving the speech which was as much as I remember like this:
          "I'm pleased that we won the Eagles. It was my dream since I joined this club as a professional. They were the best but we were better than the best. I thank Mr. Coach for the guidance and Matthew for his remarkable goal…"
    
          I was lost in emotions during the speech and I can't remember much of what I said but I did mention about Ricardo, the Assistant Coach who had improved our techniques and made us victorious in every match of second leg. After he came to the team, the league started to become exciting. None of the matches was predictable. One way or the other, the predictions came out to be wrong. The Eagles were expected to win every match but they lost two and most of their matches in second leg were drawn. In the end, our points leveled and then we got chance to beat them and we did it.

          Our Coach spent most of the time on talking about Ricardo and praised him for the success he gave to the team. Actually, Ricardo was not there in the party. I can't tell why but I think that he was busy packing as he was leaving the city early morning. I had hoped to see him in the party but he did not come. Our goalkeeper, Carlos told me that Ricardo wouldn’t come to meet us again. I got stunned because the team had won because of him and the hero of celebration was absent- actually he would not show his face again. I was quite confused and could not understand the reason he had to leave the Shadows that way.

     The night of celebration was over. I woke up in my home after a long sleep and hastily went in front of the TV. I wanted to see the news on victory of our team. I saw that the news was on our team but not the victory. I saw Ricardo being nagged. The crowd was going mad; people were throwing bottles and cans over Ricardo. He looked sad and lost. I didn't understand what to do. As I tried to ring my coach, I heard from news reader:
       "The MOST WANTED match fixer; Ricardo has been arrested for fixing matches for the Shadows. He, who had been searched by the INTERPOL for five years, was arrested on the basis of suicide letter written by Danny, the Eagles' captain. This can lead the Shadows to the prohibition to play any match in any tournament for at least five years..."

          I couldn't listen anything else. The day before we were the greatest team and our players were better than the best but today we had become the greatest losers of all times and the “hero of the celebration” ended up our careers with a shame.      

           

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