Tales of the Tournaments

August 6, 2023

Melbourne, Australia

"Tia Alex!"

Alex Morgan turned to look at the devastated teen calling to her. "What's wrong, mijita?"

"You know what's wrong!" AT's lower lip trembled. "Look at it!" She pointed to the starting lineup, stacked with midfielders and defenders, and only one single forward.

One striker to make the difference and get the glory.

It definitely wasn't their usual formation. But it was Sweden's.

One forward. And while AT definitely didn't expect to be the only forward in a formation, she also didn't expect to see that name put forward alone.

"I see it, mijita," Alex said as gently as she could, feeling slightly guilty to be readying herself to go on now when the other forwards would have to wait on the bench.

"Why?" AT sniffled. "Are me and Lynn and Pinoe not good enough? Is Vlatko mad with me? You're the ones who were in trouble!"

Alex grimaced. "Yes, thank you very much mijita, I remember. No, Vlatko's not mad with you and you're not in trouble. He just wants to try this formation for now."

"But Tia Alex--"

"Alyssa." The sound of her name was like cold water dashed in the teenager's face. "Stop that at once, it's unbecoming. And you might not have got in trouble last match, but you're still on notice, young lady."

AT whimpered softly, throwing her arms around Alex. "But Tia Alex you said I had to stay in an arm's length of you until we go home, and if I don't that's bad!"

Oh.

"Yes, sweetheart," Alex said, gentling her tone, "and you've been a very good girl for me, sticking close like I told you to. But this is Vlatko's decision and we're going to have to listen to him, okay? Can you stay close to Pinoe for me instead?"

"Uh huh," AT sniffled. "Sorry."

"It's alright mijita. I understand now," Alex said lovingly, "and it's not your fault you can't stay close while I'm on the field and you're not. You're not being bad."

"C'mon, kiddo." Pinoe came over, holding her arms out, and AT threw herself into her embrace, letting her teammate lead her to the bench as the starting eleven made their way onto the field. AT buried her face in Pinoe's shoulder.

"Sorry, imsorry..."

"Shh, no, kiddo, it's alright," Pinoe murmured, rocking Alyssa a little. "Come on, sit up, you're here with me and it's alright." she soothed.

AT sat up between Pinoe and Kelley, clinging to their hands as she looked across the field. From the Swedish bench, Sofia gave her a small wave. 

AT immediately felt slightly better. Her storasyster hadn't gotten the start either, so they weren't alone.

The match kicked off, with Lindsey Horan and Kosovare Asllani wearing the respective captains' armbands. AT watched as the USWNT did their best to keep possession, a foul on her Tia Alex whistled for early. 

"The ball falls to Emily Sonnett, today in for Rose Lavelle, who sits out the match with two yellow cards. If the US should advance, she will be back in the game against Japan in Auckland on Friday..." the announcer was saying. 

AT was still focused on his words from a couple minutes before, though. With a win, an advance, a loss means a long flight home. She was stricken by the thought that either she or her storasyster would be on that flight - whatever happened tonight, their time together at the tournament was over. Not that they'd been able to have much time together, though AT had tried her hardest.

There was a roar from the crowd as Sweden's Rubensson pushed down Trinity Rodman, and AT surged up from the bench, yelping as Kelley yanked her back down.

"Hey!"

"Sit," Kelley ordered, and with an annoyed growl, AT sat back down.

"I'm not Rose, you know."

"I know," Kelley replied. "But you were told to stay with Pinoe, you don't want attention being called to the bench. Look, Trin's fine."

AT sighed. The ball was mostly in US possession, occasionally breaking through to Sweden, but Alyssa Naeher didn't let the Swedes in. 

"0-0 still, and whichever team concedes tonight will be facing a long flight home."

"Can he stop saying," AT protested in a whisper to Kelley, who shook her head. 

"I don't think he's going to. It's supposed to be motivating."

"But Sof."

"I know." 

A couple minutes later, Trinity made an attempt on goal, which proved unsuccessful as the keeper headbutted it straight ouf of the goal again. Trinity was clearly frustrated, and AT looked at Kelley.

"Can me and Trin get ice cream after?"

"We'll see, little bit," Kelley ruffled AT's hair lightly. "Ice cream fixes lots of things, huh?"

"Uh huh," AT agreed. Pinoe smiled sympathetically.

"Do you think you deserve ice cream, kiddo?"

AT bit her lip. "Oh...probably not," she said reluctantly, but Pinoe gave her a reassuring squeeze.

"Try to cut down on the outbursts and we'll see, alright?" she said coaxingly. "It depends on if there's time for it, too."

AT distracted herself with thoughts of potential ice cream as she snuggled between Kelley and Pinoe. 

"Sonnett down the sideline - Sonnett's been much more active in this game."

"It's a move Vlatko doesn't make with a Rose Lavelle who's not on suspension," Aly Wagner replied, and AT frowned slightly. Was she saying Vlatko said Emmy couldn't play when Rose did? That didn't seem fair, somehow. 

Whatever Aly meant, Emily was certainly playing very well, or at least the announcers seemed to approve, which was a good thing because 'if the US don't go home they'll need this in Auckland'.

AT glared and bit her tongue hard. "Ow," she muttered.

"No biting, kiddo," Pinoe scolded gently, shaking her head.

"Rodman in the box - Rodman makes the attempt --oh, it's saved by Musovic."

AT tried glaring at Musovic. "I hope Kosse deals with her."

"For what, kiddo? Doing her job?" Megan raised an eyebrow.

"She keeps blocking Trin."

"That is, in fact, her job," Pinoe said again. "Annoying as it may be. She's just being as good as Lyssa."

"Nuh uh, 'cause Lyssa's better," AT said loyally.

"This is so much better than the US we've seen all tournament long," Aly was saying. "And it's because the US isn't allowing Sweden to dictate to them defensively."

"Wonder why that is," Kelley muttered, earning herself a swat on the back of the head from Pinoe. 

"Behave, Kelley Maureen."

"For those of us just waking up on the East Coast, Aly, half hour gone, what'd we miss?"

"A good start," Aly Wagner chimed in. "A center midfield that looks much more put together, with Emily Sonnett replacing Rose Lavelle (because of her double yellow card suspension), alongside Andi Sullivan."

"It's like Aly's saying Rose can't do it," AT protested under her breath.

"Well, she's not here to do it, little bit," Kelley pointed out. "So it's a good thing Emmy and Andi are, hmm?"

"Uh huh."

A few minutes later, Lindsey pounded a header at the goal, but it bounced off the crossbar. Grimacing, she walked away, rubbing her forehead. 

Another wasted opportunity, as the commentary was quick to remind them all - whoever lost would be going home, but for now they'd spent more than half an hour deadlocked at zero. How long could it stay this way, AT wondered warily.

Several more minutes passed. "Sweden have another player down."

AT looked around hastily, but it wasn't Sofia, who was still safely on the bench. It was Andersson, who'd been brought down by Trinity Rodman's elbow to her face as the end of the first half drew near.

She stayed down, and Trinity was called back over, spoken to by the coaching staff. AT couldn't hear what was being said, but both teams huddled up, taking an impromptu hydration break as Andersson was being worked on and the minutes continued to tick down.

Upon video review, Trinity had elbowed Jonna Andersson in the face because the Swede had grabbed her from behind and she was trying to get away. Neither were carded, and Jonna had a bloody nose to show for it, which perhaps the ref thought was punishment enough for the unprovoked grab this time.

It remained to be seen what the Captains would think, obviously.

The half ended, and AT trailed down the tunnel at the end of the line with tears in her eyes, though she was careful to stay within reach of Pinoe. The teen burst into the dressing room, slamming the door behind herself.

She caught sight of Alex, ahead of her, doing something on her phone, and she went to join Alex on the bench remembering her orders.

Alex didn't look up, but she put her free hand on AT's knee and squeezed gently. 

"We don't slam doors, mijita."

AT sighed, kicking the leg of the bench. "But it's not fair."

"I know, mijita. I know it's not fair," Alex sighed. "But there's nothing we can do about it now."

The door opened again, and AT looked up, sucking in a breath as Sofia slipped into the room.

"What is she doing here?" Kelley snapped as Sofia approached. Alex looked up, appalled.

"Kelley Maureen O'Hara! Apologize, this instant."

"I will not," Kelley glared. "We've got AT, she's fine. She doesn't need a spy coming in here."

Sofia's eyebrows rose.

"Would you like to know what happened when Jenna thought she caught AT spying on ours?" Sofia asked conversationally.

"We know what happened." Kelley scowled. "Seger thrashed her and sent her back in disgrace."

"Caro asked for permission to discipline her, and escorted AT back to your base after making sure she was properly comforted and cared for, and that she was reassured that no one was actually mad with her, including the rest of our family," Sofia emphasized. "Now will you back off and let me see my lillasyster, please."

"Foudy's already making plans to come deal with everyone again if the lesson didn't stick last time, depending on how this goes," Alex said dryly. "And I'd really rather not. You, I can deal with myself, Kelley Maureen. Mommy knows how to handle naughty brats. Excuse me, Sof - and yes, AT, you can stay with Sofia, you're not in trouble so long as you two stay right here till I get back."

Kelley's face flushed crimson as Alex pulled her away, and AT threw herself into Sofia's arms, clinging hard. "Sof, they keep saying about how one of us is gonna have to go home."

Sofia sat down on the bench and cuddled AT in her lap, sighing. "I know. I know they do, and I hate that it came down to this now. I almost expected it to come down to us, but not this early."

AT snuggled into Sofia's arms, resting her head on Sofia's shoulder. "What did you think from your side of things? Do you think you could maybe tell your keeper not to be so good next time?"

Sofia snorted. "Are you going to tell Big Alyssa that, then?"

"Um...nuh uh, can't," AT shook her head. "Sorry, storasyster."

"Then I can't either," Sofia said wryly. 

"Oh."

Kelley headed straight for Sofia, seeing that the Swede was preparing to leave. "Um...Sofia?"

Sofia turned to look at Kelley, eyebrows raised. She still had one arm protectively around AT until Alex came into view. "Yes, Kelley, what do you need?"

Kelley grimaced. At least Sofia wasn't calling her O'Hara, so she didn't sound mad. "I'm...sorry for what I said earlier. It was rude and inappropriate, and unfair. I was just frustrated with how the match is going, and not being able to help."

Sofia nodded. "I felt the same. Let's have a good second half, shall we?"

"Hopefully," Kelley sighed. "Though what's good for you wouldn't be good for us."

AT watched all this, sucking on her lower lip as she pressed herself into Alex's arms. "Maybe we can score in the second half."

"Who's 'we', lillasyster?" Sofia asked with a gentle smile, teasing.

AT blushed. "Oh. You know. Both, maybe."

"Maybe," Sofia agreed. "One last hug for now?" 

AT threw herself into Sofia's arms, never wanting to let go. "Can we just keep you?"

"Sorry, lillasyster," Sofia said reluctantly. "I have to go back. The Captains might send Musovic after me if I don't."

"I hate her."

Sofia stepped back, raising her eyebrows. "Hate her? You don't even know her."

AT blushed. "Well...I don't like her right now cause she's like trying to be better than Big Alyssa. And stuff."

"Mm. I'm not Musovic's biggest fan all the time either, lillasyster, but I don't hate her. She's just doing her job, just like Big Alyssa. Okay?"

"Okay," AT sighed. "Sorry. I didn't mean I hate her. Just...you know."

"Frustrated," Sofia agreed, ruffling AT's hair. "It's alright lillasyster. I know. And whatever else happens tonight, I love you. You know that."

"Uh huh. Love you too, storasyster." AT smiled, relieved.

"I know. Now I really have to get going." Sofia sighed. "I'll try and see you after, okay?"

AT nodded, reluctantly letting Sofia go. She turned back into Alex's embrace, clinging like a baby koala.

"I don't want us to go home, but I don't want Sof to go home either! It's not fair." 

"Life isn't fair sometimes mijita. All we can do is play our best, alright? And I know, I know, you haven't played yet," Alex said, stroking AT's hair. "But I'm sure Vlatko will sub you in at some point. Just be patient, sweetheart."

"I'll try, Tia Alex," AT said softly. "But I really don't want to go home now. Only I don't want Sof to have to either. Can we keep her with us if the Swedes have to go home?"

"I'll ask Seger, if things go our way, mijita. Maybe she'll say yes. But we'll see," Alex said.

"She has to come back to California anyways," AT pointed out.

That was, Alex thought, a fair point.