Noah was the first to reach him.
He jogged over, crouched slightly, and offered a hand.
"You alright?" he asked. "That must have hurt."
Sebastian reached up and let Noah pull him to his feet. "Nah, it didn't hurt that much," he said while staring at his right foot and stomping on the ground a few times with it to confirm.
"I just didn't see the tackle on time," he continued.
He nodded to himself, then turned and walked toward the ball and picked it up.
"I want to take it," he said.
Noah gave a short shrug. "Okay."
Anton had come up beside them by then and simply said, "Sure, no problem."
No one argued.
Sebastian was the one who had won the free kick, and more importantly, everyone on the team knew how good his deliveries were. When he stepped up to a dead ball, something usually happened.
He picked the ball up calmly, set it back down on the grass with care, and took a few steps back to measure his angle.
The tackle had happened about thirty-one yards away from the goal. Slightly left of center.
Not an obvious shooting position, but not impossible either.
Out by the edge of the box, the U17s had already formed a crooked wall just inside the eighteen-yard line, pushing and jostling with the U15 attackers who were positioning themselves for a run.
Nobody seemed to expect a direct shot.
Not his teammates. Not the defenders. Not even the goalkeeper.
Lucas and William were already adjusting their runs, glancing at each other and waiting for the cross. Noah pointed and muttered something under his breath. The center backs had crept up as well, ready to challenge in the air.
Tobias Kristensson, the U17 keeper, had stepped a few feet off his line, prepared to claim or punch away a deep ball into the box.
To Sebastian, It felt like the left side of the post was quietly calling to him, tempting and inviting him to drive the ball in.
Sebastian kept his eyes on it for a moment longer.
Noah didn't join the others in the box or in front. Instead, he stayed nearby, hanging back as support in case the U17s got the ball and tried to hit them on the counter.
Sebastian took five slow steps backward, measured and focused, then stood still and stared down at the ball. His gaze shifted from the ball to the post, then back again, his thoughts sharpening with each breath.
The referee raised the whistle and blew.
Sebastian lifted his left hand slightly as if preparing to swing in a cross, then dropped it and stepped forward into his run. As he reached the ball, he planted his left foot beside it, swung his right leg through with power, and struck it cleanly with the inside of his boot, his left arm flaring wide for balance.
The ball flew off his foot with pace, heading slightly to the right at first, before curling and dipping dramatically through the air. It arced left, the spin dragging it toward the far post, and dropped sharply just as it reached the penalty area.
Tobias Kristensson reacted late. He took two steps back and leapt, diving full-stretch to his right with his arm outstretched, but the ball skimmed just beyond his fingertips, banged against the inside of the post, and slammed into the back of the net.
There was a half-second of silence.
Then came the noise.
"Gooooaaaaallllllll!!!!!!"
Sebastian didn't run to celebrate. He remained just outside the arc, still standing on the spot where he took the set piece from, staring in the direction of Viktor, the U17 central defensive midfielder who had fouled him, and offered the faintest smile.
Around him, his teammates exploded.
Some were frozen at first, stunned by what they had just witnessed. A few stood with hands on their heads, mouths open. Others shouted and ran toward him. Noah was the first to get there, nearly jumping on his back. Anton and William followed quickly, arms raised, laughing and yelling.
On the sidelines, the other boys were on their feet, voices rising in disbelief and excitement.
Even Viktor, still rooted to the spot, was staring at Sebastian like he didn't quite understand what had just happened. His teammates looked just as stunned, as no one had expected him to shoot, let alone score like that.
But he had and now they were two goals down before halftime.
From the sideline, the U-15 coach was clapping hard, hands above his head.
"Great job, boys! Now maintain! Calm down. Don't rush to attack," he shouted. "Hold it. Let's end the half like this."
Across the pitch, the U-17 coach hadn't said a word. He stood still with arms folded, but the frown on his face said more than any outburst could. It was as if the weight of what just happened had finally settled on him.
Seconds later, the U-17s kicked off.
They didn't hesitate. The ball was played forward with urgency, and from the very first pass, it was clear they were coming for blood. But the U-15s held their shape. Every player except for the lone striker dropped back behind the ball. Even he, Diego, had shifted deeper, no longer stationed high up but hovering just past midfield.
They were defending like their lives depended on it. Every step they took had one intention: protect the two-goal lead until the whistle.
If the first goal had been a light at the end of the tunnel, then the second was like a surge of electricity through their veins. A full jolt of belief.
And they played like it.
But the U-17s weren't giving up. They pushed again.
Mattias Svanberg collected the ball just past the center circle and dribbled forward. Noah tried to close him down, but Mattias got past him with a quick change of pace. Now charging straight down the middle, he drew the attention of Kasper Nyström, the left center-back, who stepped up to meet him.
Before Kasper could reach him, Mattias slid a through ball diagonally to his left, splitting the space between Kasper and Abdi Nuur, the left wing-back. The pass ran perfectly into the path of Felix, the U-17 right winger.
Felix caught it in stride and powered into the box. Abdi was already tracking back, and Kasper had turned quickly to recover, both of them angling toward him. But before they could trap him in the corner, Felix squared the ball across the face of goal.
The pass flashed in front of the keeper and across the six-yard box, but Teddy, the U-17 striker, had been held back by the defenders so he couldn't get to the ball on time and there was no one else there.
The ball skidded across the grass untouched and rolled out toward the far edge of the area.
But before the ball could leave the eighteen-yard box, Onur Körhan, the U-17 left winger, had gotten there.
He trapped it cleanly, let the ball roll to his right foot, then flicked it with the outside of his boot to create space away from his marker and then struck a curling shot that bent past Joel Törnqvist, the right center back, toward the inside of the right post.
The U-15 keeper, Elias Svanström, dove full stretch to his left and fortunately his fingertips were able to clip the ball, nudging it slightly off its trajectory. The change was just enough and the ball, instead of slicing into the net, pinged off the crossbar and rebounded back into the box.
Henrik reacted first and thumped the ball clear with his right foot, sending it spinning high and away from the danger zone.
It landed near the far touchline, just a few yards past the halfway line and dangerously close to going out for a throw-in.
But Sebastian was already sprinting toward it.
He had seen it the moment Anton connected and was now tearing up the field. As he neared the dropping ball, he spotted two U-17 players converging, one from ahead and one closing in from his right side.
There was no time to trap it.
Instead, as it landed, Sebastian struck it first time with the inside of his left foot, slotting the ball sharply between the defenders and down the channel.
It rolled straight into the path of William, who had been racing up the field on his blind side. All two defenders had locked onto Sebastian, and none had noticed William peeling away.
He collected the pass without breaking stride and surged forward.
But Dennis Hadzikadunic, the other U-17 center-back, had read the run and was already tracking back. William kept pushing, trying to get a shot off, but Dennis timed his move perfectly with a clean slide tackle that clipped the ball out of play near the corner flag.
*FWEEEEEEEE*
*FWEEEEEEEE*
Before the U-15s could even take the throw-in, the referee raised the whistle to his lips and blew for halftime.