Tom Kottackal,
The Village Football Tournament
CHAPTER THREE
The Village Football Tournament
On the following day, the villagers have arranged a one-day village football tournament, and they expect to start it at 9 am. Fourteen different village teams are to participate in the competition. Lucy’s village also takes part in it. She knows her village team is very poor, and they always get humiliated when they play against another team. They have no one to train their players. Lucy, in consultation with her sisters, decides to help her village team using her special talents. Her parents have permitted all three of them to go for watching all matches. So, the thought of the game itself has excited them and all of them enjoy football games.
All three of them have taken their seats for watching the matches, especially of their village team. The players are like living dead bodies thinking of their past poor performances. In the first five minutes of the game, the opponent team scored the first goal against Lucy’s village team. But Lucy’s voice vibrated in the air, cheering up her team and asking them to fight like professionals. The audience marvel at this five-year-old girl’s bold cheering of her team in full volume. It has boosted the players, and they have played better after that. Look how the Centre Forward of Lucy’s team takes the ball and charges forward with the help of Lucy’s special power. The central forward player is supposed to function as the most tactful, dangerous, and strong player of the team. Lucy makes him great and powerful.
There, he is taking the ball, evading everyone, rushing to the goal post and shoots into the net. But it hits on the upper beam of the goal post, and the ball goes back, spins in the air, and like a rocket rushes into the net. It’s a real sight to see. It was Lucy’s work. The whole crowd is in uproar, cheering Lucy’s team. The team is now boosted up, seeing the way the central forward’s, spinning kicks, and how the ball went inside the net. The opponents are puzzled by that and are shaken by this show. The ball moves again to the opponents’ court, evading all, the central forward takes the ball towards the goal with lightning speed. But the opponent’s Central Back came to confront him. So Lucy makes the ball move to her other players’ side. They take the ball to the goal post side by a connected heading. A mistake and the opponent gets the ball and kicks it to Lucy’s side. But Lucy makes the ball turn back to the enemy’s goal post, creating an exciting scene in the air, giving an impression of the ball spinning, and it flies, knocking down the goalkeeper, into the net. The audience has enjoyed the match to the full. She has put four more goals in the opponents’ net. She has made her team fully boosted up and more excited. The first match ends in a great victory for her team, and the final score is six - one. Do you know how Lucy helps her team? She uses her special gifts of levitation, invisibility and making things move at different speeds.
In every match, she makes sure her team shoots at least six goals, and prevents anybody scoring against her team, except one particular team. She has given an excellent, exciting entertainment to the observers.
She now decides to help one more team as weak as her team is. Her team has to play against that weak team. She makes sure that the team also comes up in their performance before the whole audience. Using her special talents, she makes the ball spin in the air when both teams kick the ball. At first, she allows the opponent team to shoot a goal against her team. That challenged her team to work harder and give a good show to the audience. Within two minutes, her team returns a goal, making the score equal. This continued till the score is 4 against 4. The viewers are very much excited now and surprised to see how wonderfully both teams play with such boldness. Both weak teams are boosted very much by their own performance, and the strong teams get a bit scared of watching their performance. Watch how this game ends. Lucy is making the players very heroic and bold in confronting each other. This game ends in the victory of her team with a score of 6 over 5 goals. The opposing team is very happy over their performance, and they have lost the game only by one goal. The players of both teams are surprised at the way they have played, and are full of new energy. Only Lucy and her two sisters know the secret of this wonderful performance. Lucy, in her tender age itself, has an inner motivation to help the weak and poor people and raise them up to a dignified life.
Her team members become heroes of the tournament under her tactful guidance, without their knowledge. She has made the final match super exciting, especially for the viewers. In the final match, within ten minutes, she enters the football ground, making herself invisible to all. The opponent team plays very rough and harms her players physically. This forces her invisible entry into the field. They are simply kicking her players, trying to break their legs and injure them as much as possible, and thus to defeat them to lift the trophy. They don’t see any way of winning the trophy, except by making their opponents invalid. There, four players together attack her central back. She goes in the air and pulls up his leg as he attacks her player and drops him. This is repeated thrice. Remaining invisible to all, she speaks to him, “Play a decent game, avoid violence, otherwise your destruction comes.” All the players have heard the voice of a girl, but they are not able to see her anywhere. Both team players there are horrified at these words and her strong warnings. Some of them begin to feel remorse over their unhealthy actions. None of her village team players could ever recognize her voice as she speaks in some strange voice with authority.
There, watch, her captain is taking the ball, evading every enemy player at lightning speed and shoots into the net... but it hits the side post and bounces upward. She flies up and snatches the ball from the air, takes to the net. Seeing the ball coming to the net, the goalkeeper with full strength jumps to catch the ball. So she holds the ball in her hands and goes up. When the goalkeeper goes down as a natural consequence of his jumping, she makes the ball move twice in circles in the air, giving an appearance that the ball by itself goes in circles twice and throws it into the net. It was a good sight to see how that ball has gone inside the net, giving true super entertainment to the onlookers.
She goes down to the place where her family is seated. Seeing her way of walking, throwing her buttocks, someone makes a vulgar comment and laughed at her along with his companions. Though it hurts her, she ignores it. Those who are responsible for it, in fact, feel ashamed because she doesn’t bother about it, and someone who is decent enough fires them for such ugly comments at a handicapped girl.
The Game continues with full excitement, because what Lucy is doing on the ground and in the air, no one can see. Look, her team member is jumping to head the ball, and she raises him very high and heads out the ball from the goal area, saving her team, and she brings him down gently. Seeing the movements of this player, the crowd is mesmerized and in cheers for him. Her team has scored seven goals against the mighty and violent team of the tournament. Many times she allows the violent team to shoot the ball to score, but she raises her goalkeeper very high, makes him catch the ball in the air at least ten feet high, and brings him down gently. Sometimes she kicks the ball away in the air. This stirs the crowd to greater cheer and appreciation of him. The final match ends in an unimaginable victory, breaking the super pride of the violent opponents. They have not succeeded to shoot at least a goal. “The proud will be brought down and the humble will be raised” is fulfilled here. Her fearful and weak team lifts the trophy before a mighty crowd. The Judges also award the best player and the best goalkeeper of the tournament to Lucy’s village team members.
Even the other teams who know the history of the winner team are now full of appreciation for them, and all are elated to see this great miracle. The whole village has witnessed the powerful final match today, and the villagers’ attitude towards their players has been changed now. They have picked up confidence in the team, and the team members have multiplied their self-confidence through this event.
Like, great heroes, the players are taken back to the village in a glorious procession through the town. In the village, Lucy’s drunkard-converted pious dad reminds the players that Jesus has given them this great victory. So it’s very important to remember Him and glorify him together. The team members unanimously agree to have a prayer service the following day in gratitude to God for such a mighty victory, and the team and others request Lucy’s dad to conduct the prayer service. Lucy and her sisters take initiative in this prayer service, and their stress in the prayer meeting is to go closer and closer to God by praising and thanking God for everything they have. Whatever they have, comes from God’s free gift. Lucy’s father shares with them how praising and thanking God can bring peace and harmony in every person’s life. He tells them when we give glory to God, give him due credit, God’s power can flow into them, and no enemy can control them. He quotes from the Bible, “If God is for us, who can ever be against us?” May God be praised always. Lucy offers to sing a devotional song at the end to conclude the prayer, praising and glorifying God in a very touching tune, surprising all those who have gathered over there.
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