The Great Football Match

THE GREAT FOOTBALL MATCH

CHILDREN'S STORIES

There were many football teams in the forest. There were Monkey teams and Giraffe teams, Zebra teams and Squirrel teams. There were Ostrich teams and Elephant teams. Teams of every kind you can think of. Even though there were so many teams, there was one team that was the most feared. It was the rhino team. That team was the meanest, fiercest team in the forest.

 

The Rhino team had won every match they had ever played. They just won and won and won some more. The Rhino team played using a charge strategy. Whenever they got the ball, they would charge at their opponents. Now, I can tell you that charge was a mean, snorting, rumbling charge that could be heard for miles around. It always ended in a goal.

 

Once when they were playing the Buffalo team, for a moment, it looked like the buffaloes were going to draw with the Rhinos for the first time in history. The Rhinos took the ball and gathered round it and kicked their heels in the air and then turned around and made a massive, gigantic, huffing and puffing charge towards the buffalo goal and won the game by two goals to one. Everyone felt sad for the Buffaloes because they had tried so hard.

 

One day the captain of the Monkey team sat thinking and said to the other monkeys during practice "We will never beat these rhinos, They are too strong for anybody. When they put their heads down and charge, the best thing you can do is get out of their way. When they have the ball there is no way you can get it from them. When the ball is in the air, they simply wait for it to come down. They run fast, straight and furious. They cannot see beyond their nose and don't turn around for anything. They work together like a mean machine. "Yeah" said the other monkeys "They work like a mean machine so nobody can beat them".

 

That evening the captain of the monkey team thought about his team then about the mean machine. He thought more about his team and a little more about the mean machine. He went to bed that night and all he could think about was a mean machine. A mean machine. In the morning, he told his team mates to practice their game as he went to see a doctor for a headache. He really did not have a headache, but he was thinking so hard that he thought he needed some help.

 

The captain went to the see the Owl. The Owl was surprised to see a monkey and more surprised to learn that he was the captain of the monkey team. The Owl thought the monkey had come to see him for some wisdom and was shocked when the monkey asked him about football. "Football" said the owl "I don't even know how it is played. I have never been in a football team so go ask someone else." But that is just the problem, nobody else knows how to beat the rhinos". "Well I certainly don't" said the owl. "But you must have some idea" said the monkey. "Not football wisdom" said the owl. "Please give me any wisdom you have" said the monkey.

 

The owl thought for a while and said "okay, I am not the one who has to play so if you get beaten it's not my fault, agreed?" "Agreed" said the monkey. "So ask me the questions and I will say what I think" said the owl. So the monkey  described how the rhinos are a mean machine. He also described the Monkey team and the Giraffe team and the Hyena team and all the other teams.

 

The Owl listened patiently and said "you know what I think?" "No" said the monkey "none of these teams can ever beat the rhino team". "But there must be a way to beat the rhinos" said the monkey. "Look" said the owl "The only way you can beat the rhino team is to use the strength of all the other teams and use your head.  Now I need to sleep so, so take my advice and go away". The owl flew into the wood found a comfortable tree and promptly fell asleep.

 

As he went back to where his teammates were practicing, the monkey captain thought it would not be fair to have all the other teams play against the rhino team.  When his teammates asked him what the doctor said, the captain said "he said we should use all the other teams". "Now that makes real monkey sense" said his teammates as they burst out giggling, laughing and jumping up and down. "Ten teams can't play the rhinos at once and win. That would be unfair and anyway you seem to have forgotten that the rhinos are a mean machine".

 

That night the monkey team captain kept thinking about what the owl said. He had said use the strength of all the teams…In the morning he went visiting. He decided to make a new team. He needed some height so he called a giraffe. He needed a diversion so he got a warthog. He needed a crossing so he got a zebra and he needed to penetrate the defense so he got a squirrel.

 

Next morning he then announced that he had a team that will beat the rhinos. Everyone thought the monkey was joking when he named his team. There had never been any team like it in all the forest. All those different animals stood no chance against the mean machine. That plan could never work. All the animals however came to watch the game. From the number of animals who came to watch the match it was surely going to be the greatest football match ever.

 

Monkey told all his players to be calm and just play according to plan. The match started and the rhinos immediately charged and ran over to the goal, but the monkey who was the goalkeeper, whisked the ball away. Again the rhinos charged, but at the last minute the Zebra heeled the ball away. A third time the rhinos came this time the pressure was too much and the rhinos scored their first goal. All the animals knew the monkey was brave, but this was surely quite foolish.

 

The rhinos, sure of victory, relaxed just a bit, but not too much. Then monkey threw the ball to the warthog who created a diversion and shot the ball through to the squirrel. As the squirrel raced through the legs of a rhino, he passed the ball to zebra who crossed the ball straight into an empty goal. The stadium exploded into cheers of G. O. A. L. The rhinos were shocked and very annoyed. They charged and charged, each time using the same strategy, but each time the money whisked the ball away. Everyone was now excited. They were all asking could the monkeys' team win? But the fury of the rhinos was enough to keep the score at one goal each right into the second half.

 

One minute to the end, monkey turned to the giraffe who had not touched the ball the whole match and said "run, run as fast as you can to the opposite goal". Giraffe tried to ask what for, but monkey just said "run". So giraffe started to run. Meanwhile monkey threw the ball to warthog who created a diversion because all the rhinos were standing next to the squirrel. The warthog kicked the ball back to the monkey who threw the ball over the ring of rhinos to the zebra who had positioned himself to receive a perfect cross. Zebra kicked the ball as hard as he could up towards the rhino goal. Giraffe was still galloping toward the goal and didn't know what to do next. The ball was floating high in the air with everyone watching it go up and up before it began to come floating down. Suddenly, giraffe heard monkey shout "USE YOUR HEAD!". As the ball came down giraffe leaned forward and knocked the ball with his head high above everyone else. The stadium was silent as everyone held their breath for what seemed to be a whole minute as the ball bounced toward the empty rhino goal. Then the stadium went wild as all the animals shouted GOAL!!! It was so loud that nobody heard the final whistle one minute later. The Mean Machine had lost a match for the first time in history.

 

The newspapers interviewed the monkey on his fantastic team victory and how they managed to win the match against the feared rhinos. All the monkey would say was "always use your head".

 

Allan Bukusi 2007