It was that first Under-8 training that my mom signed me up for as a kid. I remember that as soon as I touched the ball, I knew what I wanted to do in life. I knew what path I wanted to follow. Goal after goal, game after game, and years after years of experience I got to know more about myself and I got to discover the path that was blocked. My name is Amogh Challa, and this is my story.

After 6 years of some major experience through horrible injuries such as muscle tears and a lot of yellow and red cards, I started to develop my way of playing futbol. During my Under-13 year playing, me and my team made it through to the finals of the tournament. We fought hard to beat every other team in our league and harder teams in more professional leagues. This was it, this was the game that decided if all of our effort was worth it. After coming back from a scoreline of 3-0 to an end game result of 5-3, to just barely scraping by on penalties, we made it. Two hours before the game, we all were on the field, practicing as hard as we could, but at the same time, trying not to injure ourselves in the process. Pass after pass during drills made us more determined to become winners of this match. After years of mastering the art of putting the ball into the back of the net, there is no other sound that is more beautiful than a bullet of a ball ripping through the air into the air into the top corner of the goal. For a futbol player, there is no other feeling that can beat that.

The sun was finally trying to find its way through the clouds as it started to get hotter. We did not want to practice any further and sat down in some shade. As soon as we all sat down and started working out our game plan, the other team walked onto the pitch. They were big, bulky giants. To me, they looked like they should have played Rugby! the opposing team looked like giants among men. They looked down upon us with eyes that I will never forget. The amount of intimidation that was rising in all of us was off the scale. Our coach snapped us back into reality and told us that it is not the player that we should worry about, but about how we play as a single unit on the pitch. Still, there was a sense of fear in the air as the sun finally broke free through the clouds and gifted the green grass with sunlight.

Five minutes before the game and everyone was getting into their positions that they have played for years and years. Each individual on the pitch has had immense training for technicality and precision for their specific role. The opposing team's goalkeeper was especially frightening. He was a 6'1'' monster of a player. In my personal opinion, he did not look like he should have played in our age group! Nonetheless, the players were in position and the pressure was high. Foreheads were already sweating and our team was ready to attack at full force. Then came the referees. They had a coin in one hand and a flag in the other. They flipped the coin and it landed on tails. It was the opponents ball. Fear started to crawl onto the skin of our team, but we did not let it crawl through and control us.

The referee was ready and drew the whistle to his mouth. This was the moment all of us had been waiting for. All of our hard work and dedication was all for this moment. The game to decide everything. As the referee blew his whistle, it seemed as if the world around me had parted, and the only thing that was in my view was the pitch. The game started! All the players were scrambling left and right for the ball. All strikers had their eyes on the goal and all goalkeepers had their eyes locked onto the ball. Communication between our team was strangely better than theirs. We expected them to communicate more than us but I guess they underestimated our power as a single unit. They got what was coming to them, eventually. After forty-five minutes of each team holding equal possession of the ball with no shots on either goal, it became half time. That this moment the sun was blinding, this was very unusual.

During the second half, some inspiration from our coach gave us more spirit to push forward and take more risks on their side of the pitch. Nothing happened for a long time. Until the eighty-fifth minutes when we broke free to goal. I was the central striker, the main man up on top! I was running to try to keep up with our speeding left and right wingers. As I found a gap in the defense, I called for the ball. "Through! Through!" I exclaimed. I wanted the left winger with the ball to put the ball through the middle of the defense. At the time, I thought this was pretty clever of me to say. The winger put the ball through, a beautifully placed pass put the ball right at my feet, but unfortunately right in front of the opposing goalkeeper. I shot a low drive to the right, and he made a world-class save to put it out of bounds. We got a corner kick. As our top assisting player in the league stepped up to the corner, he found me, in the midst of the battle in the penalty box. He gave a look that said, "You WILL score. Promise me you will. For our team.". I looked right back at him and nodded, saying, "Promise. Now curl it in and let me smash this one in!" The referee blew the whistle and I ran out of the box. I had the greatest idea my mind could think of at that moment. Fight or flight took over me. To this day, I thank God that my fighting spirit conquered me.

The ball came curling through the air. The sun rays shining off of the logo of the ball and the curl gave me a better look at what was coming at me. With nobody marking me, I did my first overhead kick and produced the greatest spectacle of my career. I produced a bullet that hit and top left corner and went in with a "BANG!". At first there was silence, but then there were celebration all around me. Everyone started to hug me and tell me that we did it. We did it in the last seconds of the game and won the tournament. What I realized the most that day was, people should not judge others by a first glance, because behind that face, is what surprises people the most.