She’s as cute as a bug’s ear, not much bigger than that, but tougher than a two dollar steak. In addition to shin guards, she should wear boxing gloves, because make no mistake, behind the big, disarming smile, is a warrior. She isn’t the girl you see blasting the ball past the opposing goalie. She’s the girl who mugged the opposing player, took the ball, and the player’s lunch money, and passed the ball to the girl who blasted the shot past the opposing girl. If you see a mob or just two or three girls pushing, scratching, clawing, and kicking, she will be the one that comes out with the ball. If there is a loose ball in her area, she has already filed a claim on it, and you better not get in her way if you value you health. Like I said, she’s as cute as a bug’s ear.
When I told her she looked like a body puncher out there, she chuckled sweetly, and said. “I’ll do whatever I can for my teammates. Like slide, and make a tackle, if that’s what it takes, I’ll do it. Everybody pitches in. Everyone does their part. So, it makes it a lot easier. Everyone has their role. It’s fun.”
Everytime you talk to the girls on the soccer team, two things stand out. First, they are humble, and are very good at deflecting praise to others, and two, they deflect the praise to others, because they are a team. They think in terms of the team. Goals are almost always scored by the one who, after all of the other girls had done all of the work, was just lucky enough to have had the last touch.
I pressed Azia about her role as a hub in the center of the wheel. Again, she laughed, softly, when I said that she was such a battler out there, and wasn’t one getting a lot of glory, but was the one who was feeding the ball to those who do.
“I am fine with that!”, she said, emphatically. “To be honest, I am totally fine with just passing it off to the forwards and letting them get the glory. That’s fine with me. Anything that I can do to help the team. They always help me. So, it works out.”
As I said, it is all about the team, with these girls.
“Yep. Exactly. It’s a team effort,” said Azia.