Pride

 Knees bent waiting
Poised senses on high alert
Womph!
It connects with you teammates foot
Poking prodding punching
You fight for your place
Then suddenly all is
Silent
You jump, he jumps
Crack!
Your elbow connects with his nose
Your head with the ball
He is bleeding the nose broken
But that doesn’t matter now the ball
Went in, we won
Joyful teammates surround you
Fighting free you find him
Bleeding on the field you help him up
Congratulate him on a job well done
But You don’t apologize
He doesn’t want that
You have your pride and he has his