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hugheses · 11 months ago

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literally years ago i started transcribing this and then never got around to finishing it but finally did with some help from oomf. pls tell me if you notice any errors!

below the cut:

5-3-21

AJ: We are so excited to have Ellen Hughes hop on the bus with us today. So Ellen, welcome. And to give a little background, you grew up in Dallas, which, a long time ago before the Stars, there were not- it was not a hockey hotbed, as maybe it is now. Played a lot of sports. You ended up playing soccer, hockey and lacrosse, three sports at UNH, made it to the NCAA semifinal game in Lacrosse in 1987, inducted into the UNH Athletic Hall of Fame in 2012. You ultimately pursued a graduate degree at UNH, and while you did that, assistant coached for both the soccer and hockey teams. Ultimately, you made Team USA for the 1992 World Championship, where with Cammi you won a silver, named to the tournament All-Star Team. Two years later, at the Worlds in ‘94, you served as an ambassador to Norway's national team, went on into broadcasting. You were in the booth for when Cam and I won gold in 1998 with CBS and then a sideline reporter for the 1999 World Cup of soccer. Your husband, Jim, is a former hockey player and coach, has worked for the Maple Leafs organization. And of course, you are the uber matriarch, hockey mom of North America because you have three superstar sons. You've got Quinn, drafted number seven overall, plays D for Vancouver. You've got Jack, who is number one overall with the New Jersey Devils and of course, Luke, eligible for the draft this year. So welcome, Ellen. We can't wait to catch up with you.

Ellen: Thanks so much for having me. And thanks for the nice intro. I know, AJ, you see Jack here and there with the Islanders, could you remind him of some of those things, that I actually had a life? And Cammi, I know you've been nice enough to have Quinn over for dinner, not this year because of COVID, but maybe you could give him that whole intro again that, I did something other than just being their mother.

Cammi: Well, you know, it's funny. There is probably, I don't know what it was, maybe four or five months ago, you had sent me a video that you guys found, which we have to post on our social media channel here. But it was you as this little cute, blond, tiny little voice hockey player being interviewed in Texas, of all places, for hockey. Right? A woman, a female playing hockey, let alone kids playing hockey in Texas is so rare. Right? And I remember Quinn texting me and being like, said something about your skating, how bad it was. And I was like, little do all your kids know is that their talent comes from their mom. I've nothing—taking away nothing from Jimmy, because Jimmy was a great athlete himself. But you and Quinn play almost identical. And I'm going to keep reminding him of that.

Ellen: I love it. I love it. I usually get like just one word, dust[?] with things like that.

Cammi: Yeah, well, thank you for being here.

AJ: Yeah, yeah. But I want to start back with the fact that you grew up in a nontraditional hockey market. I know. According to USA Hockey, we’re not supposed to say that anymore because there are all—they don't really consider that anymore. There are so many with the Coyotes and the Stars and the two teams in Florida and Southern California. But when you grew up in Dallas, hockey was not a mainstream sport. I can imagine you had to have been playing on the boys team. Can you tell us what it was like growing up in Dallas then?

Ellen: Well, it's so funny because you see, you know, it's so exciting to see where the women's game has gone. And, you know, you forget how old you are and you kind of forget like, wow, that was pretty unusual what I was doing back then. And, you know, I'm even older than Cammi, so Cammi's older than you, AJ. Sorry to age you there, Cammi. But you forget that what we were doing in those times as young girls and how… you know, unusual it was, because we were fortunate enough to have parents that encouraged us and led us and pushed us and created those opportunities to play with the boys. And it's amazing to think that we did that and it seemed so normal to me. And my dad's been gone a long time, like he used to coach us. But I think about the fact that as a young girl in Dallas, Texas, a nontraditional market, to have a father that said, “Oh, you want to play hockey? Okay, you can play with the boys and you can go do those things.” And just how lucky I was to have a father that created those opportunities and supported those opportunities. And so it's pretty great. But we used to play down at the fairground. So, so people that know Dallas know that, you know, there's a fairgrounds downtown and the Cotton Bowl is played there every year. And there used to be a CHL team. So the old CHL. And so for us, it was very normal. I have an older brother that played and then went off to prep school and played at Deerfield Academy and then played Division three college hockey at Bowden. He could have played Division one, very academically oriented, and that's what he chose to do. So you want to do everything that your brother did. So when we were really little, we moved from St Louis to Dallas, and when I was in St Louis, all I wanted to do was play hockey. But in the state of Missouri, and I may have this factually not correct, but this is what my parents told me, that the girls weren’t allowed to play on boys’ teams in the state of Missouri. So when I knew I was moving, it was on my eighth birthday and my dad said, Well, it'd be great because you can play on- you can play hockey when you move to Dallas. So that's when I was so excited about the move. Like I could go play on a boys team because there was no girls’ teams to play on. And so there's only one team, if you're good enough, you play on the best team. And we would travel to St Louis, we would travel to Kansas City, we would travel to Colorado a couple of times a year and we would go play the best teams that we could possibly play. I just didn't understand at that point that was the world that I was living in, that that was unusual or different. So every once in a while I look back on it and think how fortunate I was to have parents that really not only supported it but encouraged it and let me really sow my own oats.

Cammi: When you were in St Louis, you saw the game of hockey around you. You wanted to play, you couldn't play. Did you play off ice then to be ready for when you moved and were like able to play or did you just start fresh when you moved to Texas?

Ellen: You know, I don't even remember. I was eight, so I don’t- I don't- it I must have been- I must have learned how to skate, but I wasn't playing. I don't really remember playing, like I remember running around the rinks with your brothers. I mean, you know how that is. You play mini sticks at the rinks, y’know. But I always wanted to play. I wanted to play everything. So, you know, I was just… and then off I went and I just started playing and I loved it. And I was fortunate because, you know, Cammi, you never went to Bob Johnson’s hockey school in Colorado, did you, in Aspen?

Cammi: No.

Ellen: I know, because I know you have a close relations with that whole Wisconsin crew. But every summer we spent the month of August in Aspen, and I would do the Bob Johnson Hockey School. So I actually think I did that like, at seven, before I ever moved, and they would always let me play. So it was Bob, it was Grant Standbrook, it was Jeff Sauer, all these people that, y’know, were so supportive of the women's game, Art Berglund who just passed away. And so I would spend my summers there playing and being groomed by the players that played with Tony at Wisconsin. It would have been their generation of players that were the camp counselors and that was right around the ‘84 men's Olympics. And a lot of those guys went on to play in that. So I think culturally that was exciting for me and that's where my passion grew.

Cammi: And you played soccer as a young girl as well.

Ellen: Yes. So soccer: really competitive. You know, we won youth nationals. And I was, I mean, it's crazy to think that I'm going to be 53 years old. And when I was being recruited to play women's soccer, there were 31 Division one schools across the country offering scholarships. And so Wisconsin was one of them. And I really wanted to go there because of my allegiance with that. But they had no women's hockey. So when we— [...]

Cammi: That's where I- me, too. I wanted to go as well. We would have been teammates instead of rivals.

Ellen: Right, at least for one year. I think you were a freshman my senior year. Is that right?

Cammi: Either junior or senior. Yeah. Yeah.

Ellen: [Laughs] So anyway, so the soccer side of things, you know, if you were an elite player, you wanted to go to UNC. My very best friend on the team growing up on my youth hockey, my youth soccer team was Carla Werden, you know her as Carla Overbeck, who became the captain of the team in the first World Cup team. Mia Hamm, I played with on my state team, so we were really good in those days. Brandi Chastain was my roommate at my first youth national team camp for soccer. So that was my, you know, generation of players. And I wasn't recruited by UNC, but I was recruited by some of the other top schools and I had this like, crossroads, where am I going to go to a school like UNH, where there are startup women's soccer programs, but yet I can play two sports. And they were offering me a full scholarship. And the crazy thing is there was no school in the state of Texas that was playing Division one Women's soccer. Think about that. Not a one. I mean, there was 31. I think there's 360 some odd schools, Division one programs at this rate for women's soccer. So that's how the landscape changed and that's how the lack of landscape really drove my next move.

Cammi: So you chose UNH. You played soccer and hockey, but then you also added lacrosse.

Ellen: Yeah. And the interesting thing about hockey is here I am, this girl coming out of Dallas and nobody knew about me. And as you know, Providence at the time, so all the Ivy Leagues were playing hockey and then we didn't have a lot of programs back then that were playing. So it was all the Ivy- it was the ECAC. So it was what, maybe 15 teams playing? How many, 22?

Cammi: Yeah, roughly 22.

Ellen: And so there weren't a lot of options. So there were so many girls playing that wanted to get on those teams. So I remember reaching out to Russ McCurdy who was the coach and saying, “You know, I'm being looked at by UNH for women's soccer, but I'm only coming there because I want to play women's hockey,” and he was like, “Oh, you know, you're probably not going to make the team. You know, we're a fully funded program.” I mean, you know how that goes, right? Right, right. Why would you take a girl out of Dallas you knew nothing about, playing in these, he asked if I was playing women's hockey at that time. And so I had- you know, I wasn't guaranteed a spot, but I'd watched them play, and my mom and dad watched them play. And I really, in my heart of hearts thought I'd be able to play. And they were a fully funded program and my scholarship was coming from soccer. And so, I decided that I wanted to do it. And he said, and I remember having Bob Johnson at the time call on my behalf. He called, he was at Wisconsin still, and he called and said, you know, she can play, she’s been with me every summer, and I really think you should give her a shot. So he said, okay. So the deal was, I was going to play soccer. Well all the women start with hockey, probably—when did we start, in the fall, like in mid-September. And they had the whole training camp, while I was still playing soccer until Thanksgiving. And so I said, when you get done with soccer, just come see me and I'll give you a week to try out, to get up to speed. So he really had no thought of me or like, there was no, like, ‘she's not making this team.’ So we finished soccer and then I went over to hockey and I remember after my first day he said, “What size states do you wear?” So that was like, that, that made me happy. Like that was it. I was on the team, so it was pretty good.

And then our women's soccer coach, Marge Anderson, was one of the most decorated women's lacrosse players in those days. She had played at UMass for soccer and hockey, and she was on the World Cup team for lacrosse. So she would take a couple of athletes a year because in those days you needed female athletes to play more than one sport, to really round out your depth of your programs. So she had encouraged me to come out and play lacrosse. I knew nothing about it. So our first year they had just won the national championship the year before, believe it or not. Did you guys know UNH won the National Women's Lacrosse championship? Different landscape in those days. So they had won the national championship. None of the Southern schools were playing. Nobody across the country was playing. It was a real Northeast-driven collegiate world. And so I walked onto this field and, um, let's just say… I wasn't very good. I could run, but my stick skills- and I learned and I did everything, and it was great, and we went to the Final Four, but I was out at that point. So everybody always says I played three sports like, I was on the team. I was, you know, three sports at that level. I was done at that point and I stuck with soccer and hockey after my first year. But it was a really cool experience.

AJ: Well, a kudos, too, by the way, to go back to something you just said, that McCurdy asked what size state you are. Kudos to UNH for giving you guys skates back in the 80s. I didn't get skates in college until my senior year, which was the fall of 1998. That was the first time I got skates bought for me. So that's, that's pretty good on UNH, I give the Wildcats props.

Cammi: Well, Ellen, you know what? So, Russ, I actually- I was. I was the same, a kid coming from Illinois. So, such a similar story where nobody wanted to talk to me really, until someone saw me play when I went out to the East Coast, I just played with a girls’ team for one game and I got seen by Providence. Other than that, I called Russ. Same thing. No interest, but I got to say, Russ, and I know what he meant to you, when I look at all the coaches that I've been coached with, he coached us at the — at the ‘92 World Championships where you were named best defenseman of that tournament. He taught me a lot, not about, not just about hockey, but just like how to organize yourself off life, how to make your bed every day. Like, there's things that stuck with me from Russ from that one or two, I think, seasons we had him. He was a special guy, you know. You know, I just— he never gets any recognition. He's very unknown. But did you remember that about him? Do you have that same sort of view of him that I do?

Ellen: Totally. And I'm still really tight with him and Sheila. And, you know, when you think about it, for what he did as a male player, you know, in that generation, he was a heck of a hockey player. And then, I don't know what he did, but he left the game and did something, you know, I'm not really sure what he did and came back to the game, but for his stature to come back and coach the women and do what he did, and he coached tennis as well, and he cared so much. He was so passionate about the game, and teaching the game, and teaching away from the game. And he cared so much about the people, you as a person. And I always laugh because, you know, Quinn had Donnie, you know, your brother, at the NTDP. And he reminds me a lot of Donnie. I don't know if you feel that way, but-

Cammi: I totally feel that way because as you say, first of all, from a mental standpoint, they're both like, they help you so much with the side, the mental side, and also the skill based stuff that Russ taught us. He goes beyond the game and I feel, yeah, it's really interesting that you say that because I can see that as well.

Ellen: And it's just the, you know, some people have their skills and then some people like, have different skill sets. And I feel that the best of the best try to cover all the different skill sets and really get to know the different human being and try to push the buttons. And it doesn't work for everybody. Not everybody would feel that way, but he was an amazing man and still is an amazing man. And I also think it's funny because one thing that, you know, I don't know how you are with the kids, but this sticks with me. And I don't know if you remember this, Cammi, but the interesting thing is, I've seen my boys be taught that same lesson from coaches at a younger level, and I can particularly say the NTDP level is: get up every day and make your bed. You've accomplished one thing. Do you remember that from him? And then it was either Donnie-

Cammi: No! Always.

Ellen: Or Wroblewski that I remember had Quinn and Brady, like, make your bed every day. And then I saw with, with Jack and Luke. Like, “we got to make our bed every day because that's orderly” and like, little things like that.

Cammi: Well, I got to say, Ellen, that stuck with me for— still to this day, I think of Russ when I make my bed. I'm not kidding. And I tell the kids the same, like if you just… and it resonated with me. So like, I don't know, it stayed with me. It resonated with me when he said it. And then his… just his stuff about practicing skill. And we hadn't really done that so much, as an, I guess where we were at Providence. Like we would just go practice, but like, he was working on skill-based stuff. He’s a very smart man. So I'm happy to hear that you're still in touch with him and you felt the same way. But I love that we're both making our bed because of Russ McCurdy. You taught your kids that.

AJ: I obviously didn't have Russ, I obviously didn't have Russ McCurdy, you can see behind me in my hotel room here. So I do not make my bed every day. And I know the value of it, but yeah, no, never had a coach who told me that.

Cammi: He was pretty special.

Ellen: Then. AJ, I was thinking about when you said about getting skates. I don't know how you guys were, but how would your shot be today? Like when I was playing, like, of course I couldn't shoot the puck because we would take the old men's sticks that were wooden and they would cut them down for us. Like, how would I have any flex on the stick?

AJ: Right? Right. So stiff. And it's like, it's crazy when you think about that, and the technology. And even when I did get a pair of skates, when I came back after the Olympics and played at Harvard, they were so much lighter. They were just… the material and everything, and then you look at the sticks and it's crazy. I mean, I never played with the one piece that they have now, that was just coming out when I was at the tail end of my career. But I remember I tried them, but the puck was all bouncy and I didn't like them. But you think about how quick the release and all the kick point on those sticks, that technology's insane.

Ellen: Right? You also think about how great the women are and where they're at. Like we didn't go in the weight room. We did not go in the weight room. The weight room was not for women's sports.

AJ: Our coach actually, my first year at Harvard before Katie Stone took over, he actually thought weightlifting was unbecoming for women. He didn't, he didn't book us. He wouldn't let us go in weight room. It was a, it was sort of an off limits thing. So he was a lovely man. But it was… not appropriate.

Cammi: Well, our Providence College coach, John Marchetti, who I love, I have always loved him as a coach. We had to beg him to just get us to get in shape. He thought women, that was just the way it was at the time. He was old fashioned and women would skate from the blue line in, so we would have half ice practices. And I was like, “We're out of shape. Like we got to skate!” “You guys don't need to skate full ice.” And it was literally all great intentions. Wonderful man. But that's what he felt. And I mean, think about that. Like I tried- it blows people away to think that that was the way it was. But that's how we were viewed as women. We can't exert ourselves the same way as men. And we were begging him to.

Ellen: Okay, now I know why we won, then. Why we beat you? Because we skated. [unintelligible]

Cammi: You didn't. You didn't beat me. Did you beat me when I was there?

Ellen: I don't know.

Cammi: We won. We won. I think we went the last year. You remember freshman year. I think you beat us in the finals. I think we[...]

Ellen: I think we met four years. Was just super cool, but I only — I was there five years. Much shorter. One year. But we went three years.

Cammi: Okay? We went three years. So we must have crossed over. And you beat us once? Yeah, you beat us. Let's get into the hockey mom stuff because I think a lot of moms are interested in the landscape of sport. Our kids that are passionate about anything. And it typically it's like, well, we know the sports world, but I mean, nowadays it's, it's everything. Like, whether it's music or some sort of non-sport, a passion that someone has. We're always trying to get our kids to pursue excellence. And AJ and I have talked a lot on this podcast, how sometimes things are flipped a little backwards and we're a little bit out of skew right now with the way we push our kids and just how fast they're put through the system. And you had three boys that you raised with Jimmy, who are now… two are NHL superstars. One's on his way. How, what was it like in your house? How did it start with the kids? What were you like as a mom and Jimmy as far as like, having, cultivating that for them?

Ellen: You know, it all seems like a blur. You know how that is, right? You're in the middle of it, both of you with young kids. So you're just day to day. I mean, you're day to day, right?

Cammi: Survival.

Ellen: Right? It's survival mode. So for me, you do things that you enjoy or you- you teach them things that you feel like you can teach them, Right. So it's kind of a slight on me that I wasn't more worldly and wanting to take them to museums. Or maybe like I felt like I had do those things because like, ‘Oh my God, what am I teaching them?’ But you tend to do the things that you - you're trying to find activities. Jimmy was off coaching a lot, I had three young boys that were really close in age. So what do I know? What can I do to pass time and keep them active? It was kicking a soccer ball. It was throwing a ball, it was doing rollerblading, it was passing the puck, it was taking them skating. So for me, those were mommy and me activities, right? And then every once in a while I'd be like, you know, I'd be like, ‘uh, we got to do Kumon, we gotta do like - we gotta read.’

You know, academics was really important to me because I felt like I was so driven the other way that like, I didn’t want to miss out on the other. So for us, it was never this grandiose plan, and I'm sure you guys were the same way. It was more like, ‘be the best at whatever it is you're doing, work your hardest at whatever it is you're doing.’ Working the hardest didn't mean scoring the most goals. It was playing the right way, whatever it is, being a great teammate and working really, really hard and we always felt like the other would come.

AJ: Do you feel like with your boys having you as a mom, Jim as a dad, did they feel pressure to perform on the rink?

Ellen: I don't think so, because we never put pressure on them. We would put pressure on them to work hard and play the right way. I mean, there were days I can remember with Quinn when we moved to Toronto, we were like “Ah, he’s doing pretty good, he’s a pretty good little hockey player. This is good.” Like, hmm. And we were coming from New Hampshire and Jimmy taking the job up in Toronto and we got there and I remember Jimmy going somewhere and he's like, “He is not even in the top 300 players in the city.” Do you know what I mean? Like he was, this thing was not—

Cammi: Was that what age? What age is that?

Ellen: He probably would have been… I'm trying to think when we moved. So Luke was born six, seven, eight, maybe? He was in first grade. What grade are you in first grade?

Cammi: Yeah, about seven or seven. Seven.

Ellen: And we thought he was doing great, but we never cared. What we would just say to him, like, and he was on a good little team and we would get beat by Ryan McLeod, who just played with Edmonton in and, and, Strome was on that team, Matty Strome, the youngest of the Stromes. And those two were like, I mean, I mean, they would score five, six, seven goals and I would be in awe how good they were at a little age - at a young age. So what we would do is we would just put them up against the best in the spring and in clinics and have them chase, try to be the best you can be. It was never like, “why aren't you that good” or “why are you scoring” or - and, you know, Jack was a little bit different. He came in and he was playing up a year with the older kids, you know. And Luke, we didn't even think about, like, third child, he's probably benefited the best because we were just trying to get the other two other places and we didn't even know how he played or what happened. And, and I think that was the other thing with them. You know, Jim was so busy working that we didn't watch ‘em practice. We didn't, you know, I might drop one at a the game and try to get to the other one to the game, to get to the other one to the game. So they had to self evaluate at a young age and really decide how they played. You know, you guys are probably the same way with your busy schedules.

AJ: Yeah, it's interesting. I look at it like I'm at the Nationals right now with my daughter Jamie, and talking to some of the parents last night and they were asking me like, what did you think of the game? And we were talking about it. But they don't watch far more than I do because I travel. So, you know, they're asking me, knowing that I have a hockey background. But it's to your point, I love coming to watch my kids play, but I really feel like I can just watch them and enjoy. I'm not coaching this year and it's a really- it is fascinating because I do feel like my kids have sort of they'll tell me how they played and, you know, usually they're tougher on themselves. I mean, I think most kids or most athletes are probably tougher on themselves anyway. But when- like as a hockey parent, I'm surrounded by people and you see all the studies about the low percentage of players that will make it from youth hockey to even D-1, let alone the NHL. You have three kids, three boys, two that are gone first round. Luke obviously is on his way to the NHL. So at what point did you think they were going to make it? Like, was there a time like you're talking about when Quinn was seven and you guys were just trying to have them compete? But was there a moment where you were like, wow, our - our kids are legit?

Ellen: You know, there was a point where I said, All right, this is good. Like, they're going to get to Division one college hockey. Like, I was pretty pumped. And at the end of the day, there's a point where you say you can only provide so much information and now they have to have their inner drive. Now that's gotta kick in. And I think for each one of them, that was when they got to the program. So for junior hockey, I guess, would be the equivalent. And I think it's the every day focusing on getting better, doing I mean, living it, eating it, not liking it, loving it. Y’know? And there's kids who get better from 18 to 20. There's, you know, you got to keep getting better. Doesn’t matter if you're the best at 16 or 15. So I saw my kids take different paths, you know, and just staying to have fun and having fun. Having fun is everything, as you know. You know, I mean, it's got to be fun. I mean, Cammi, you have two sons who are elite little soccer players, but if they're not having fun, that changes their drive for wanting to get better.

Cammi: Fully and if it's not cultivated as well, I mean, you have to have the right people above you and leading you and coaching you to believe in just playing and not just playing for- to be this best. There's a lot of pressure on kids these days and I think about your boys and knowing your boys and, and getting to know Quinn better since he's been out here as a person. Your kids are such great people. They're so well-balanced. They're such they get it. Like when they met Reese and Riley, my sons, they get it. They look kids in the eye. They joke around. They look adults in the eye. I mean, there's- they're just great kids. The other thing I noticed about them and and before I let you comment is when they play, when things are not going their way, they go straight ahead, like there's no pouting, there's no emotion. I mean, of course, we get emotional about the game, but as far as like, you know, what you taught them, like, where did that come from, that confidence and that humility and then that just that drive inside to just keep going?

Ellen: Well, you are awfully kind. And, you know, it's like, up and down. You know how parenting is right. And, you know, for me, it's the competitiveness. You both were uber competitive, Olympians, got to the highest level, accomplished so much, gold medals. So you know, that competitiveness. So you instill that in your children. You don't realize that you're doing it, but it just organically happens. Right? I'm sure. And AJ I see some of the fun things that you do, but I'm sure it's competitive at dinner, whether it's, you know, Boggle that you're playing or - I aged myself. But you know what I mean? Or Jenga that you're playing or if it’s a race, or- everything is a game at my house! Like, Luke and Quinn this summer. We had a lot of time together and they're creating a game out of nothing in the pool. We're like - Jack and I are looking at each other like, ‘What are those two doing?’ Like, it's games and there's a winner and there's a loser. So for me, I think it's more about they really care about winning. They really want to win. And in everything’s a team sport and they wanna - They take it personally. They want to be the best that they can be to help their team win. You know, whether it's giving something up and feeling bad about that and wanting to get it back. And that's probably the same mindset both of you had as Olympians. Is that fair to say?

AJ: Yeah. I mean, I think that that is, you know, the ultimate drive to compete is something that I'm not sure can be cultivated. Right. I mean, I think you but what what is so impressive about your boys is that the balance that Cammi’s talking about. Right. That confidence and that drive to compete coupled with the humility and on seeing them being interviewed, seeing the way they carry themselves at a very young age, that that's what I think is, you know, you and Jim should be very, very proud of. But I do think that that drive to win and it's not win at all costs, but it's win whether it's the right way or as a part of the team. I think that that is something that can be very unique. And obviously they come from two very competitive elite athlete parents. So they were, they were given that at a young age. I was just reminded while you were- we were talking about Quinn, last year in the playoffs, do you remember getting a text from me Ellen, when I talked about in on the broadcast, I talked about Quinn, he was so relaxed playing the power play that it was like he was playing shinny hockey. S H I N N Y and I got blown up on Twitter that people thought I said he played S H I T T Y hockey. That I was like, ‘oh my God, the Hughes family hears me on NBC telling like’ and it was a compliment. I mean, it was like the utmost like, this is amazing how great he is that, you know, as a young player in the NHL playing with this sort of poise but also like freedom, he just plays with his freedom. And I'm sitting there thinking and my producer was like, “You can't use that term. That's such a hockey term.” Like, who doesn't know shinny hockey? But anyway, that was just so.

Ellen: So I laughed at that when I got your text and I think I wrote back like, “it's okay if you ever want to say he's saying the other - the S H hockey too.”

AJ: I would never say that.

Ellen: You know the game, you're allowed to say that and we would be just okay with it. We would probably agree with you.

Cammi: So when you're watching Ellen, when you get to watch your kids and I know I've texted you before, I'm like, I wonder if she's still up. But of course, you're watching the games when you're on the East Coast and you're watching them and watching the West Coast games, probably late at night. Right, with Quinn. And... can you relax? Like, are you feeling like now? Like you can relax? Is it still, like, feel intense? Like, what's the feeling that you get as a mom? You know, I know Luke’s on his way, but like, do you get to see you get to enjoy it all? Do you get to sit back and enjoy it?

Ellen: Let me ask you this. When you watch Riley play and it's a big game and [unintelligible], how do you feel?

Cammi: So do you feel like at every game - do you feel like that every game?

Ellen: Well, your logic tells you it should change.

Cammi: Yeah.

Ellen: But I think it's just your competitiveness. But I can tell you this. Now my oldest two are at a level where I don't get involved in the hockey anymore, I just really try to be a support system. They don't need to hear from me when they get to the next level. You don't know how many people are badgering them or bothering them or sending texts[?]. And you know, they got here because this point, they got here and they're driving their own business. They don't need to hear from me. Now, do they… Do they lean on Jimmy with hockey? Do I know a lot about hockey? But I just need to be a different support system for them. You know, I need to be an outlet for them and someone that's not going to talk about hockey unless it's something specific. Does that make sense? Like when I talked to Quinn today, it wasn’t about last night's game. It was about other things, you know, he's got enough of last-

Cammi: That makes sense.

Ellen: And he's got this - he doesn't need to hear from his mother, that that ship has sailed. Does that make sense? And I don't mean that in a negative st-

Cammi: Totally, because.

Ellen: It's just that's not what they need and, and that's not what I want to be that - be there for them. That type of support system.

AJ: I don't know how you got away without having one of them play goalie. I'm just going to leave it out there.

Ellen: Well, Luke. [...] Luke in net. and I was telling this to someone the other day, I mean, I got funny stories, like when you say, oh, you guys were great parents. I'm like, Oh, really? Like the time I showed up for this massive tournament with Jack and Jimmy's taken everybody's skates sharpened and I got everybody’s skate sharpened and he was off somewhere. I was going to meet him at the university. I'll tell you one story. So this is just typical. So their cousin was playing for B.C. and we wanted to go to a college game because we want to expose these kids that were growing up in Toronto to what college hockey was, so that that could be an option. So we took ‘em to see B.C. versus Michigan, their big cousin. We're driving down and Jack had this massive tournament, which we thought was massive as a you know, you always think these youth tournaments are massive and have grandiose importance, sorry, because you are at nationals and that is important with your daughter AJ. So Jimmy had said, I think Quinn was going to play in Michigan. And I said, okay, I'll bring the boys down I’ll get the skates sharpened and then Jack and I will leave after the game. We won't tell his coach that, like, we're getting into a hotel in London at one in the morning to drive around- around the lake to get to Buffalo for his 9 a.m. game. So I'm driving to Michigan first so he can see his cousins. And then whereas all the other parents are in Buffalo for that 9 a.m. game spending the night getting a good sleep right. Well I let him come watch his brother play. I left two hockey bags with Jim, of Luke's bag and Quinn's bag and I, Jack and I left after the game. We got into London at like one in the morning. We went to sleep. We got back up at six and off he goes for his game. When we get to Buffalo, I'm like, ‘This is great. I did it.’ And they're playing. I think they're playing Shattuck St Mary's and Oliver Wahlstrom is on the other team just to give you a few names. Right. So because he's an Islander, right AJ?

AJ: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Had a goal last night.

Ellen: And it was a non parent coach. So you don't talk to these coaches. I don't think I had a conversation with them and they're young they’re- I don’t know Jack was an underager so he's playing up a year. And so the coach calls me. He's like, “ Umm... We've got a problem. Can you come back to the locker room?” So I go back to the locker room and he goes, “Ummm Luke skates are in Jack's bag.” You know what that means? Where are Jack’s skates? In Luke’s bag or God knows where, right? So I'm like, agh and they're like, “Where are Luke’s skates?” And like, I think he - I left his bag in Toronto. So at this point. So I look at Jack, I'm like, “What you want to do?” and he goes, “Find [buy?] me some skates.” and I'm like, “Okay, what size are your skates?” So I go around, I find the Chicago mission, and if he was in CCM some guy had a Bauer of a size four and a half or five or six or whatever he was in, and they're like, You can borrow these skates, but our game is offset from yours so you can only play until we need the skates back.

Cammi: Oh my God.

Ellen: Right?

AJ: I'm like, my stomach's dropping listening to this. I know.

Ellen: So he’s in these random skates and sorry to go off on a tangent here, but you saying you were great, You know, we do the same things that everybody else does. So it wasn't a completely tightly run ship. So. But maybe that's the adaptability. So Jack goes out and he plays two great periods, and all of a sudden I see this guy walk around and you see them take Jack's skates off. And this is a tight game and it's a big tournament. And he sits on the end of the bench with no skates for the third period. So here you are. We both have - we all have husbands. So Jimmy’s like, “How was the game?” I'm like, “He played great for two periods and let's just leave it at that.” He's like, I was. [unintelligible] But so anyway.

AJ: Yeah, I think that's building resilience. I think you're right. There is something to be in moment. It's- that's the worst feeling possible. But in retrospect, it's a great story, right? And it's one period of hockey that-

Ellen: [unintelligible] five like that running down the coach whenever Jack's hockey bag and his helmet was sideways like, I hope you guys have stories like that.

Cammi: Oh, man. You know what is funny is, those- that's just part of sport and part of the life where you have that happen. But I do as a kid, remembering, feeling like there was nothing more important. And I remember my brother Tony had just got his license. He was driving me over to a friend's house that was going to take me to an away game. It was about 45 minutes away. He went through a stop sign with just skated through a stop sign, hit the front of another car. I'm in the front seat. No seatbelt at that time. Right. And the first thing he goes, “You okay?” and the first thing I said is, “I'm not going to miss my game, am I?” And sure enough, we had to drive home. Somehow we got home. My mom is pregnant with my younger brother Joey, eight months pregnant, and I somehow cried my way into making my mom get in our trans van massive truck with Tony in the passenger seat, driving through snow to get me to the game, which I got there in the third period. But it was to me it was like, I know that feeling like it's- you cannot miss, you cannot. And I see with my kids too. So yeah, those are the best. Some of those are the best memories actually, right?

Ellen: I'll give you one.

AJ: We spent about five and a half hours driving down here to Philadelphia. My daughter, I think, checked nine times to make sure her stuff was in the bag because I had to. She was at school and I had to get it. She does not trust me at all. I'm like, okay, yeah, you just make sure you got two- a right and a left skate in there.

Ellen: I'll give you one last story. To just - to say, like, like here I am, a hockey mom, thinking I’m going to teach my kids to skate. So when Jimmy was coaching in Boston with Robbie Ftorek, I didn't have Luke yet, so Jack... Quinn must've been three. So I wanted to have some one-on-one time. You know, with your first child, you feel like you have your second child and you just need some one-on-one time. So there was free kindergarten skating at the Reading arena. And so we were living in.. in uh.. oh my god I can’t even remember - right around the corner from there. So anyway, so every Tuesday I would take Quinn to skate and that's how he learned to skate. Like it wasn't like I was teaching him strides, I was teaching him to skate. I was getting him on skates. So I was really proud of this kid. He’d gotten off his crates that he was pushing and blah, blah, blah, blah. And at that point Robbie's parents were still alive. Steve and Ruth and they were amazing. And we would go to the games and, and so they didn't live far from there. So they wanted to come watch little Quinn that they see at the Bruins games skate. And I was so proud that I’d taught this kid to skate y’know, he was standing up on his own, he was pushing, the whole bit. So Steve comes out who had taught Robbie how to skate and Robbie was a great skater and I'm like this particular day, Quinn is terrible. He must have been three. Like he just looked like he had two left feet. I’m like, “he's not skating like, I swear, like he could skate, like, something's not right.” And Steve goes, “Ellen, I think his skates are on the wrong feet.” And they were! Do you know how little skates are? Yeah. How would you know? Like [unintelligible]. So we laugh about that story. So, Quinn doesn't know. He can't communicate to tell me that his skates are on the wrong feet. We sit him down, like literally in the doorway. We switch his feet and off this kid goes. And he's pushing and like a little three year old and he's doing great. So that's one of my many [unintelligible] stories.

AJ: But just to make you feel better, I did that to my son Sam, when he was however old, probably five. We went skiing. It was ski boots on the wrong feet. He kept telling us his feet hurt. And we basically were like, You're fine. It's just ski boots they hurt. And the end of the day I was like, Oh yeah, no, they really hurt. That's actually a legitimate point. So been there!

Cammi: Before we wrap up here and get to our rapid fire, I just wanted to ask you about the couple of times where I've seen the boys play tog- Well they played together on the World Junior team and it was in Vancouver. Jack and Quinn played together. What was that like and what was it like when they played their first NHL game toge- against each other for the Jersey Devils and for the Vancouver Canucks? Can you take us through those two times and what it felt like?

Ellen: Yeah, that's great. I mean, the- we had the fortune of them playing together at the World Junior Showcase up in Kamloops the summer before, leading up, kind of the tryouts. So I think that was my first experience. It was great. It was great. Really competitive. They played together. They were on the same PP that was a ton of fun. They were on the ice together a lot. Then the World Juniors that- in Vancouver, that was great too. But Jack was injured, so he was kind of in and out of the lineup, but it was just really great for them to be able to, as- they're so tight, they're best of friends, all three of them. So I think it was more letting them have that experience together and you know, you're disappointed for them in the way that the outcome was because they were so close to winning a gold medal. But it was super cool. It was a lot of fun. And then when they played against each other it was super special, I think for our family, just because it was the first time we got to share something like that with our whole family, we had a huge crew there. The Devils were nice enough, they were amazing. They had a box there and we were able to have all Jim's extended family there from the Northeast, which is a huge group of people. And Jack happened to score his first goal that night. So that was a relief and great and exciting. And then the next time they played together Cammi we went with you. You had the boys and Ray, and that was a great game, too, right? That was a lot of fun. I think the biggest thing is I like it better when they're not on the ice at the same time, especially with one being a D and one being a forward. I prefer, and it's hard to watch them. I don't know who you guys are, but AJ, your daughter right now at Nationals, is a stay at home defenseman so you watch all the D and you have a good feeling. It's really hard to watch two positions let alone two teams play.

AJ: I agree with that when I think about what you're, what you went through, with that and it's not even allegiance of which team you want to win. It's more what they're doing individually and you can't focus. I think that must have been so cool. Was there added pressure on the boys? Did you notice any nerves that night playing against each other?

Ellen: No, but I don't know what kind of side bets there were. Like. I'm going to need [unintelligible] Haha I could have used a girl so I could get a little more information, a daughter y’know they’re a little more forthcoming. I think it was exciting. They were both very young. I mean, it's crazy to think they entered their rookie year together. I think as they, y’know, hopefully have a really long, sustained career. That's your greatest hope for all of these players that play in the professional sports is to be able to stay healthy and have a long, sustained careers. So I think as they age and- it'll be more and more fun to watch it evolve.

AJ: Now we're talking about Quinn and Jack. Is there. Do you think that there's added pressure on Luke right now because of the successes that his brothers have had?

Ellen: You know, it's funny because I always worried about that with Luke, like, you know, as a parent, you know, I want them to all be successful in their own right. I want them all to have their own passion. I want them to care about school and do well in school and so, you know, you're always like, which one needs what someone will, you know, whatever it is you want to try to support them. And so Luke was really small for a while and he was playing against kids that had already hit puberty. And- and you know, I know you dealt with that Cammi with Riley and then he took off and he blew them like his whole game was a new you know, as soon as that- the playing field was evened. And that's a hard thing to try to nurture them through, you know, like, “just keep going” and “it's okay,” and “you’re gonna have your man strength,” and “you’re gonna have more separation speed because of that,” so Luke was really young and I mean, it took him a while before he grew. And so I wondered in my heart, like, is there pressure on him? Does he feel bad about himself? Like, I didn't know, you know what I mean? So then he made the program, which he just kind of started to take off.

Never in a million years did I think he was going to be 6’2” like you could’ve- I would never. I mean, he was who would have thought he was going to tower over his brothers? He was so late. So we used to talk to him about it, you know, and I used to try to ask, but it's hard to get information. But he drove his own bus and he had his own inner desires and his own inner strengths. And it never seemed to faze him or bother him, which, you know, was- we tried to communicate about it like you guys would as parents.

Cammi: It's so wonderful. I just love your whole family. I love everything you guys have instilled in your boys. I love watching them. We're such you know, we've grown so much closer. We get to see each other more often. And I just yeah, I commend you and totally appreciate all the insight that you've given us today. We've kept you a long time on, but we have our not so rapid, rapid fire, if you don't mind answering some rapid fire questions you can answer ‘em slow or fast. It's up to you. AJ and I seem to go the slow way sometimes with our long questions. But let's put you in the hot seat.

AJ: So, yeah, this means you're coming to the front of the bus. So I don't know if that in the bus or trips that you went on that meant you were in trouble. But I'll say that just.

Ellen: Time out before you go. Where were you guys on the bus?

Cammi: I was in the back on the right, about maybe three seats from the bathroom, two or three seats from the bathroom, and AJ was up front.

AJ: I was more like middle, but on the other side. So it was like.

Cammi: You were like two rows ahead. Yeah. Yeah, where were you?

Ellen: Cammi. I think I was right where you were.

Cammi: Yeah. Okay

AJ: Not quite far enough back for, like, all the crazy card games and everything like that, right? That was always our bus. There was a lot of shenanigans in the way back of the bus. Actually maybe our rapid fire should be called Go to the back of the bus. That might be a little I don't know, might be a little different. All right. So here we go. Let's start. What is your favorite youth hockey, or any sports since you played a lot of sports, memory?

Ellen: Probably winning the national championship with the Dallas Sting in soccer, which still today is one of the premier club teams in the country.

AJ: Oh, that's a good one. How old were you?

Ellen: I was probably 15. And then one other thing is we went to China when I was 15. That was a pretty cool experience. Before women's soccer had a national team and they were playing, they were having their first international tournament. And since we had won the club championship they sent us, which is amazing to think they sent a bunch of women to China to play in an international tournament. You know.

AJ: That’s very cool.

Cammi: How’d you guys do?

Ellen: We won it.

Cammi: You're kidding.

Ellen: There's actually someone that's trying to, I just get the emails, that’s trying to make a movie about it, because it's pretty unheard of.

Cammi: It's amazing.

AJ: That is amazing. So we didn't really get into this. The one thing we were carrying our time up for is that you had the good fortune of having all of your boys home during COVID. Maybe a silver lining to what was going on in the world. Everybody got to be back under one roof. But when everyone's home, what's your go to family dinner?

Ellen: Oh, our go to family dinners, steak. They are all about steak. So steak and pesto pasta with a spinach salad is the go to. They would eat steak every night.

AJ: Oh, that sounds good.

Ellen: Cammi, Quinn’s cooking [?]. Believe it or not, [unintelligible]. When they're allowed to go places next year in Vancouver over you and Ray should-

Cammi: I can keep him honest for that?. Yeah, I know I will definitely. If I know that now. What is he cooking in these?

Ellen: Cooking steak and lots of he cooks some, tuna ahi tuna and lots of peppers and veggies and that's a good thing about COVID. Is that most of these young kids have learned to cook, which is amazing.

AJ: That is amazing. That's actually that is another- that's a good silver lining. I know. Speaking of your three boys, Quinn, Jack and Luke, which one was most mischievous as a kid.

Ellen: And I mean, you know how it is, it's a three month cycle like, just like one needs your attention more than the other when they were little. But um… Quinn and Jack together? This is not rapid fire, but I can remember when they were really level and I don't know. And I've already taken up too much of your time. But I remember Jimmy had taken off to Toronto and, oh no, then he must have been littler than this and Jimmy and I, Luke was just born, maybe six months old, and we heard this rustling. You know, you have that in the baby room, on the other room. And I don't know if this has happened to either one of you. And I'm like, it was like six in the morning. You're trying to get sleep, and I heard something. I mean, “Jimmy, what is that?” You know, So we listen to the voice and they had this grandiose idea that they were going to throw the baby out of the crib, Jack was inside the crib, picking up Luke to hand him off to Luke- to Quinn, who wasn't big enough, it was going tobe a drop outside the crib. So let's just leave with that. Right?

Cammi: How old were they? How old were they when that happened?

Ellen: Luke was under one because he couldn't get out, right? I mean, it was not a great plan. Then. Thankfully, we rescued them.

Cammi: So if you would have had that nanny cams that are the baby cams, that would have been brilliant to have that on video.

Ellen: Right.

AJ: Good. Some Hughes boy mischief. I like it. Now, of the three, who is the most competitive?

Ellen: Probably, I don't, I can't.

Cammi: Can’t choose, you’re a mom.

AJ: Yeah no I actually we were just talking about the drive to win and everything. I understand that. But it's all three, I guess. Now we you, you mentioned being nervous still, when you watch your boys play, what can you remember being the most nervous you've ever been as a sports parent?

Ellen: Mmm that's a tough one. Probably for me, it's not about the kids. It was more about the team. So, you know, having your kids go through the NTDP you want them to win these big tournaments. So you’re nervous for the group because you want so well, they're representing their country so the World Championships, the World Juniors, I mean, Cammie, you've sat with me and seen me between periods at the World Juniors, so that might be a fair one you can attest to, like, you're like, Really? You probably walk away from meeting with the boys between periods and me. Like, she's a little wacky over there. I don't know.

Cammi: Oh, they love you.

Ellen: You're stressed. Not for your kids. You're stressed for the team in your country. And you want so well, you want them to win! Their competitive side and they're tight. And you’re just on the edge of your seat. More like a fan, I would say, than a mother. So much too. Is that fair to say?

AJ: Yeah. Did you ever coach any of them?

Ellen: Yeah,

AJ: I think they're so close in age. You. Oh, you did?

Ellen: Yeah. So I coached them in soccer. I coached them in lacrosse, but they played box lacrosse. I didn't coach them in hockey. They would do a lot of spring hockey. What I would do is get on the I would just buy outdoor ice like and I would run the skates. But when I say I would run the skates is, I would get out of the way. I would turn the nets. Three on three, three on three, three on three, no direction, just let them. And then it was more, you know, just playing, like the environment, the competitors setting up the competitive- competitive mini games. So that type of stuff as extras.

AJ: The last question we have for you is what advice would you have to hockey parents out there or what kind of motto did you guys, would you say you followed?

Ellen: You know, who gave us really good advice, especially as they got older were Keith and Chantal Tkachuk. They were amazing role models for us. Quinn was fortunate enough to live with them and, and Keith always. They always said it, just be a great teammate, be a great human being, great- be a great person and work hard, be one of the hardest working. Get out there and have fun. You know, I know it's easy to say, but there's so many great things you can do in this life. There's so many greater things you can do in this life. You know, you find your passion, find lots of passions and be you and follow your heart in whatever it is that your [passion is like, live it, eat it, drink it and be it. I mean, I think those are the same advice that both of you as past Olympians give your own children.

Cammi: That's wonderful.

AJ: That is, that's awesome. And you are so awesome. I love hearing the sort of inside scoop from the first family of hockey, the Hughes family, and everybody's favorite hockey mom, Ellen Hughes. But at the same time, I love also taking that little walk down memory lane to make sure everybody remembers what a stud you are.

Ellen: Well, I so appreciate it. And I'm having so much fun listening to you two on your podcast. It's amazing what you're doing. I think you're amazing human beings. You both know how I feel about you and my admiration for what you've done for the women's game and what you're still doing in the game of hockey is so cool and you're both trailblazers. And I love this podcast and I love the guests that you have on. I take myself out of that like I don't fit in the realm of guests.

AJ: Yes, yes you do.

Ellen: I'm just saying that in the heart of hearts, I love the guests you've had on, and keep rocking it. You two are amazing and I'm lucky to have you as friends. And AJ, I laugh. I think about watching you at the Olympics and Cammi and I already had a relationship because we played together. And then I think about you today. And it's incredible.

AJ: And you are. I do remember you paved the way for us, but I do. I'm glad. I think you're buttering us up just in case I say, I will say anything negative about your sons on the ice, which so far I haven't had to because they're such superstars. But, you know, don't hold it against me if I do.

Ellen: You know, And then and hopefully things will get back to normal and we'll be traveling and I'll see you guys one day.

Cammi: Well, Ellen, thank you so much for being here. We were so happy you joined us and we'll have to have you on again at some point. And when the whole quarantine is over, well, I'll be looking forward to when you come to watch Quinn in Vancouver here.

#thank you to leo without whom this would just be sitting unfinished in my google drive for eternity #ellen weinberg-hughes #jack hughes #quinn hughes #luke hughes #transcript

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goatmati · 1 year ago

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Aitana Bonmatí, one step away from the Golden Ball: "I suffer because I always want more".

In her book United We Are Stronger (2022) she says that as a child she was "cold and hard". Why does she say that? She answers in the photos, sitting on the visitors' bench at the Johan Cruyff stadium: "My childhood was not easy because I was the only girl in a man's world, and the fights, the insults I received, I think I kept them to myself, I was not able to get them out and I simply put on a shield.”

“Sometimes you would end up in fisticuffs.”

“Sometimes, it wasn't the usual. The usual were the insults.”

“They got you fried.”

“Quite a lot.”

Andrés Iniesta writes by message: "I am proud that Guardiola compares me with the best player in the world today". The prodigy says of Bonmatí: "What I would highlight most is her evolution: she has gone from being a good team player to having an increasingly important role to the point of currently leading the national team and Barça along with Alexia Putellas and other great players". He emphasizes her technical quality, her speed, her skill, her goal sense and "her great winning mentality".

Her former coach emphasizes one word: ambition. Aitana Bonmatí's ambition.

“What is ambition?”

“Wanting to be the best in everything, having the desire to improve every day and to reach the top in all areas," the player answers.

“Where does that come from?”

“From me.”

“But where does it come from?”

“I've never asked myself that question. I've always been very competitive, very ambitious, a winner, haven't I? Since I was a little girl. I don't know, I would say that it doesn’t come from my family, they have many virtues, but they are not competitive and even less so in sports.”

“I don't allow myself to fail.” Too self-demanding?

“Yes, but over the years I have learned not to be so hard, to understand that one is not perfect and that mistakes sometimes make you improve.”

Bonmatí this year has won the World Cup, the Champions League, the League and the Super Cup, and has been MVP of the World Cup, MVP of the Champions League, MVP of the Super Cup final and best player of the year for UEFA. She should be satisfied, at the very least. "I don't know, she's insatiable," responds Cristian Martín along with Ignasi Cardó, her representatives.

Bonmatí knows about the double-edged sword of perfectionism. She deals with it with her club psychologists and in private therapy. "I'm rarely happy with my games because I always want more, but I'm managing it better and better. I still suffer, but not as much as before. I allow myself to be a person and I allow myself to fail."

In the last World Cup, after winning the match that gave them the pass to the final, she spoke with Mayca Jiménez, a journalist from Relevo. There were a few days left before the final and Jiménez asked her if they would celebrate that night. "No celebration", was the answer, followed by the need to sleep eight hours and other comments about essential guidelines that should not be skipped, not even that night. Jiménez underlines her courage in standing up for herself. When Japan beat them in the group stage of the World Cup, Bonmatí spoke to all the media, Spaniards and foreigners, in good English. She pledged that they would learn from the defeat. She said: "I ask for forgiveness.”

"Ambition is wanting to be the best," says Bonmatí.

She says she has seen women's football grow a lot, but points out that it still has a long way to go. "This is the beginning," she says. On what is lacking in women's football, she prefers not to say just one thing out of the many she would have to say. Although she mentions the obvious "precariousness" of some fields in Liga F.

She reflects on language. Should we continue to say women's football? She thinks not and proposes: "Either specify masculine or feminine whenever football is said, or not specify and that according to the context it is understood". She praises Barça's vision in betting on non-hegemonic sports sections and declares herself a "convinced Culé", although she had an offer from Olympique Lyon in 2021 that gave her pause for thought. "Important decisions should not be taken from one day to the next. I like to evaluate all the options," she explains. In December 2021, she renewed her contract until 2025.

She has recovered a bit of her tone. When asked what she thinks of the cliché that a footballer should not talk about politics, she replies that freedom of expression is the same for those who work in a company, in a hospital or in a football team. That said, today is not the day she feels like exercising it. It's over. Aitana Bonmatí needs to go and rest.

Note: Aitana has played 140 consecutive games for club and country. The grind hasn’t stopped for a second.

But also,

Please let my girl rest. She’s done so well.

(Excerpts of the interview she’s done with El País Semanal.)

#aitana bonmati #aitana bonmatí #fcb femeni #barca femeni #barcelona femeni #balón de oro #she’s so well spoken #I love her interviews

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aus-wnt · 1 year ago

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Caitlin Foord: ‘Men think women’s football is a ‘pussy’ sport’

Despite overtaking the Wallabies to become the third most popular national team in Australia, Matildas star Caitlin Foord says some Australians still see women’s football as a “weaker sport” - but she predicts that’s about to change.

Australians are on the cusp of witnessing one of the country’s most significant sporting tournaments when the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 kicks off this month here and in New Zealand. And the excitement is demonstrably palpable: with more than a million tickets already sold, the event (which takes place from July 20 till August 20) is on track to become the most attended standalone women’s sporting event in history.

For Matildas star forward Caitlin Foord, this World Cup will mark her fourth; in 2011, she became the youngest Australian ever to play in the tournament. And to think her record-breaking career may never have happened. “Rugby league was what my family supported and I wanted to play rugby league when I was younger,” Foord tells Stellar. “But my nan told Mum that if she let me play then she would never speak to her again. So that went out the window. But if there were more girls playing at the time, and [if] it was more normal for girls to play, then I don’t even know if I would have gone into football.”

Like many children, Foord’s introduction to soccer began when she was a sporty nine-year-old playing with the boys during lunch at her school in the Illawarra region of NSW. “I was tearing the boys up a little bit, and they asked me to join the local team with one other girl,” Foord recalls. “Mum was hesitant because I was already doing a lot of other sports like Oztag [a non-tackling version of rugby league], and surf lifesaving. But then I got a little bit of help from my sister, who told Mum, ‘She’s really good, she beats all the boys at school.’”

In her first match, she scored six goals, and from there, she never stopped playing. “Before I started, the game wasn’t as professional as it is now, but I probably wasn’t thinking about that,” Foord admits, adding that since she wasn’t much of a student at school, she was all too happy to find herself playing for Sydney FC as a 16-year-old in 2010.

But as her abilities developed, so did the opportunities for women in the sport. Foord moved to the US to join New Jersey side Sky Blue FC in the inaugural National Women’s Soccer League season in 2013. She then signed with Vegalta Sendai in Japan in 2017. Now she calls London home, after renewing her contract with powerhouse Arsenal FC, where she’s played since 2020. “My transition in the game came at the same time that the game was growing,” she says. “It kind of just fell into place for me as I went up the ranks.”

Parallel to Foord’s personal career, the women’s game itself has made huge inroads. In 2019, Football Federation Australia signed a four-year-agreement with the player’s union, Professional Footballers Australia, that would see the men and women’s national teams receive equal shares of national team generated revenues. And, thanks to the likes of high-profile teammates such as Foord and captain Sam Kerr – arguably the greatest Australian football player – the Matildas have this year overtaken the Wallabies and are close to overtaking the Kangaroos to become the third most popular national team, according to independent market research firm Futures Sport & Entertainment.

Foord says the bond within the Matildas is a special one. “We’ve all grown up together,” she explains. “We’re a close-knit team. We’re not just teammates, we’re all friends, as well. We all thought that was the normal thing. But being overseas and playing with girls from different nationalities, I’ve heard people say they hate going into the national team. I find that so hard to believe because we love being around each other and I think that’s unique.”

Foord enters the World Cup with not just this camaraderie, but also a considerable home-field advantage and a golden opportunity to raise the profile of women’s soccer in the country. “Football is the world game, yet I’ve had a couple of conversations with people around home and they still don’t really see the women’s game,” Foord tells Stellar. “When we play overseas, it’s on at 3am.”

Which is why this upcoming World Cup is so pivotal. “Australians love sport, so I feel like they just need to see us and that’s enough,” she continues. “That’s all we need. That’s going to be the turning point, especially for the males who have spoken down on the sport before or think of women’s football as a weaker sport or a ‘pussy’ sport. But once they watch us and see how tough the game is and how we all get stuck, that’s all it needs.”

Following the team’s fourth-place finish at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the Matildas are expected to go deep in the Women’s World Cup. This year’s tournament offers the field a record $165 million in prize money, more than three times the amount from the 2019 Women’s World Cup (though far less, still, than the almost $700 million offered to the men at the 2022 World Cup).

Even so, if the Matildas take out the title, Foord says she will celebrate by purchasing some jewellery.

“As an athlete, I’m used to wearing tracksuits and comfy clothes and the odd dress for an awards night,” she says. “But the older I’ve got, the more I’m into fashion.

“I didn’t grow up with money or anything like that, so when I see something, I don’t buy it straight away. If I’m constantly thinking about it afterwards, then I know I really want it – and I’ve always wanted a Cartier ring. If we went on to win the tournament, I’d buy the one I absolutely love, which has diamonds in it.”

But no matter what happens, Foord plans to keep on kicking on. “All the benefits that come with the game now, me and the girls were part of [building] that,” she says. “We’re obviously grateful for what we have now, but we know it still deserves more – and we need to keep pushing.”

#caitlin foord #matildas #auswnt

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themaresnest-dumblr · 1 year ago

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World Cup Semis

Obviously happy with the result, but sympathise completely with Aussie fans - the team that had the big momentum to go on and win the tournament were undone by some appalling decisions that must surely see their coach Tony Gustavsson sacked.

If there was a moment that doomed the Matildas to lose the match, ironically it was this one:

Sam Kerr scored thanks to a goalkeeper not paying attention (if Mary Earps reaction time to the shot had been any slower, she could have been a British Rail train), after a game - and a tournament - where the few times she's played she has been less than average.

The moment she scored, any remote chance of her being substituted not before time was gone. And it cost Australia dear.

Forget the goal, this was no different - she missed three absolute sitters from point blank range (including a howler of what should have been a basic header) that just about any other Aussie player would have converted, and spent most of the match lumbering around like a constipated cart horse.

This was the first game Kerr started in the tournament and stayed to the end, and it cost the Australians the match.

The Matildas had advanced to the semis largely without her onfield presence - common sense by this stage would have meant keeping her appearences due to injury restricted to substitutions when the team was needing a psychological as well as physical lift.

But under pressure from the media (and probably Australia's football chiefs, under pressure in turn from the sponsors ...), the 'talisman' had to get her full match.

Which meant Courtney Vine - excellent all tournament, and when brought out tore England apart with her speed - spent most of the match bum warming a bench. Considering Australia's game plan was clearly to hit England on the counter attack - hence the ludicrous amount of possession they allowed England to have - why was Vine not on from the start instead of Kerr?

When she was finally brought in, it was to replace the brilliant Hayley 'Ribbon' Raso, arguably Australia's best outfield player all tournament, and despite the fact she'd plenty left in the tank in a game she never seemed to stop (does she ever tire?).

This was beyond stupid, as Raso along with the most underrated player of the whole goddamn tournament - Mary Fowler - had been causing England endless problems when she got the ball.

Fowler in particular was a delight to watch, her turn, her pace, her crossing, everything about her is an advert for all that's best about the women's game, and someone with a good shout of being the best player in the world in a few years time the way she's playing now - an absolute revelation in this tournament.

A Raso - Fowler - Vine frontline line would have done the job, but instead seemed to have been drilled to send everything to the 'talisman' - who proceeded to waste chance after chance after chance.

But the final piece of madness from the Aussie coaching staff was taking off Clare Polkinghorne.

Australia's most capped player of all time, a solid tank of a defender who kept the backline well and bailed the Aussies out of jail too many times in the match when the others weren't doing their jobs, taking her off of all defenders when they were a goal down and nine minutes left on the clock was nuts.

Good defenders are all about situational awareness, and that only comes with experience. Given they were in trouble, why take off your most experienced defender? Especially when it was taking off a defender for a midfielder - if you're gonna deplete the backline to save a match, at least leave your back anchor in place.

Five minutes later with Catley and Hunt sleeping yet again on the job, it was game over. Crazy, absolutely crazy decision to take her off.

So yeah, happy with the result, but a match that would and should have been a hell of a lot closer were it not for some self-destructive choices by the Matildas management. Australia should have made the final, the one team becoming significantly better with each match. Instead they've been left with memories of what might have been.

And please, British media, STFU about all this 'first team since 1966' cat's piss. This is the first woman's team to have done it in the woman's game, stop trying to make it all about the bloody men's game as per usual.

This is their win, their moment, stop trying to co-opt it so the fans of the Shit Penalty Takers XI (Three Lions On A Shirt, Eleven Donkeys On A Pitch ...) can feel better about themselves.

#women's world cup #england #lionesses #australia #matildas #sam kerr #tony gustavsson #hayley raso #mary fowler #clare polkinghorne

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daydreamgoddess14 · 1 year ago

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The Name’s Welton, Rebecca Welton pt. 1

The last day of the Tedbecca Prompt Party! 😅

Ted Lasso / Rebecca Welton

For prompt No. 45 - Ted is in Kansas & he starts seeing Rebecca everywhere & thinks he’s losing his mind… Only it turns out she is actually doing the adverts, was at the mall, bbq place, post office… etc because she's messing with him...

So I'm not going to have time to finish this today as I'd hoped, but here's my contribution for the last day of the Prompt Party with more to follow in the next few days!

~~~~~

Rebecca Welton had almost forgotten that she could be silly. She'd let loose at the dinner held by Edwin Afuko, turned up at Keeley's with food splattered clothes and a sense of mischief… but then she'd taken Ted's news badly. Not intentionally so. She wanted him to be happy, but she selfishly wanted that to be in Richmond. She'd spent the first weeks of the summer break grieving, almost. She and Keeley went to Italy on a girls trip, she'd mourned the loss of Ted. There weren't quite the words to describe just what he meant to her, it wasn't something she'd fully realised until he'd gone. But she was getting there, getting back to herself, and she was determined not to go back to the way she was before he'd arrived.

She went to Keeley with the outline of a plan. The benefits of being the co-owner and investor of a PR company and having the one and only Keeley Jones at her fingertips meant they could go all out on the plan. It started with a phone call.

"That you, boss?"

"I'm not your boss anymore, Ted."

"Well, some habits are hard to break. To what do I owe this call?"

"I wanted to apologise. I don't want you to think I'm angry with you, or that I don't support you."

"That means an awful lot, it really does. But I'd never have thought that of you, I know we all took it hard."

"You didn't."

"I hid it well."

"Are you happy?" There was a pause.

"I'm not unhappy. And sometimes, that has to be enough, so it's enough for me for now."

"Are we still friends?" He chuckled softly.

"Rebecca, you're one of my very best friends. I sincerely mean that, it's you and Willis."

"Thank you. You won't get rid of me that easily, you know. I'll always be there, lurking."

"I should hope so. Feels weird not seeing you everyday, I must admit."

"You'll see me soon, Ted. I promise. You're only in Kansas after all, it's not that far."

"Not far at all boss, barely half a world away."

"Just a hop across the ocean. Oh, I'm going on my Drink, Sleep, Fuck holiday!"

"Great news! Where's the first stop?"

"Oh, I haven't decided yet. I'll let you know if I decide to make a stop in the US."

"It’s a big place, but Kansas would be happy to have you here."

"Thank you, Ted. We'll speak soon?"

"Sure thing. I'll be seeing you Rebecca," she could hear the smile on his voice as she hung up the phone.

"You certainly will, Ted." She said wistfully.

Phase one completed, Rebecca and Keeley turned to phase two - preparation. With a few strategically placed phone calls by Keeley, Rebecca spent nearly a week doing voice recordings. Innocuous voice overs for Premier League football TV that she knew Ted would watch in Kansas. The voice overs were the easy part. The next step involved a trip to Los Angeles, where she recorded TV adverts for a multitude of services; Pepperidge Farm Cookies a car hire company, Johnny Walker whiskey and most ludicrous of all - the promotion of the 2023 Women's Football World Cup promoting the US national team, which included video introductions of every single game - not just the US matches - player highlights and reminder messages for fans. All of the adverts would be broadcast nationally. She filmed adverts for Target, for UPS, even for erectile dysfunction. She'd never really grasped the power that came with her money before, but every TV executive, every TV station, welcomed her and treated her as they would any other actress. She then went on to do photo shoots for each of the adverts that she'd done, so they could go out as billboards and posters, as well as television adverts. She would be visible across the whole of the US. Easy enough to blend into the background by using adverts that people seldom paid attention to, but also visible enough that if he looked at the TV at just the right time, Ted would be mighty confused. Once Phase 2 was complete, she took herself on holiday just as she told Ted she would. She waited for the adverts, the voiceovers, the posters and the billboards to drop. Time for Phase 3.

To be continued…

#ted lasso #ted lasso fanfiction #ted lasso fic #tedbecca #ted and rebecca #rebecca x ted #ted x rebecca #rebecca welton

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news365timesindia · 1 month ago

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[ad_1] India Women vs Australia (Image: ICC) As I sit down to write this piece, India’s Women’s T20 World Cup campaign is over. Inconsistency and the inability to chase down totals has impacted the team hard, and the pressure, needless to say, will mount on the captain and the coach. Interestingly, it has always come down to that one crucial game for India in key tournaments. In the 2022 Commonwealth Games final, it was the very same Australia. The script was the same in the T20 World Cup semi-final in 2023. India lost to Australia and were out. That 2024 has been no different is what leads me to introspect. India played four matches in the World Cup and lost two. We won against Pakistan, yes, but that win hurt us more than anything. In all, it has been a very poor campaign. And yet, we hear the coach saying this is a very special group. We hear players saying we fielded well, and the coach say Australia got over the line because of experience. This is where things start to get problematic. It takes courage to own up and say we played badly. We weren’t good enough and need to get better. We weren’t really there in this World Cup. To say anything to the contrary is a defensive reaction and doesn’t really help. And that’s where Amol Muzumdar needs to do things differently. While it is good that the head coach tries to stand up for his players, it is also important for him not to turn a blind eye to reality. India haven’t fielded well, and that’s the reality. We weren’t good enough with the bat either. To not accept that is counter-productive. Is this an emotional rant, or is it based on rational, objective analysis? It is a fact that Smriti Mandhana has had a poor World Cup. She looked jaded and hasn’t been able to give the starts that India expected of her. We need to accept this. For only then can we feel optimistic about the future. It is because she has the experience to bounce back when chips are down. She has been in tough situations before, and has the ability to change things. And isn’t sport more about failure than success? Isn’t that what makes sport what it is? But unless we accept the bad, which is the problem with Muzumdar at the moment, can there be anything good round the corner? Sport is that unique platform which forces a performer to fail in full public view. In every other sphere, failure is an acutely personal experience. Sport, however, is different. That India have not done well is in the public domain, and a recorded fact. But again, that’s where sport redeems itself. It is the only platform which also allows a performer to come back and win in public. With the help of your team and support unit, you can recuperate and come back and prove to the world who you are and what you are made of. In sum, redeem yourself in the full public gaze and make a difference. That’s what I am expecting India to do going forward. For, in the end, sport is also about hope and fulfilment. It is about stories of courage and success, and triumph against adversity. When the Indian women’s team made the finals of the 2005 World Cup, few celebrated the achievement. Jhulan Goswami and Mithali Raj still had to travel in unreserved compartments sitting next to the toilets on occasion. Those days are long gone, and come the WPL, millions will be in front of their television sets to cheer the players. The players are now stars. With stardom comes responsibility, and the need to be accountable. They need to introspect and, subsequently, deliver. Accept the failure, and get ready for a comeback. While it is not fair to look too far ahead, it can certainly be said that India need fresh thinking. The time is now. To run away from this reality would be the worst outcome possible. Also Read: Without addressing fear of failure, India’s women will continue to slip up The post Without honest introspection, India can’t move forward from this World Cup debacle appeared first on Sports News Portal | Latest Sports Articles | Revsports. [ad_2]

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news365times · 1 month ago

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bystreetlight · 11 months ago

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Apparently it's the 21st of December so I better do this!!

1. What did you do in 2023 that you hadn’t done before? Went to a therapist, went to a Grand Final at the MCG, participated in the inaguration of a Governor and the swearing-in of a Premier…

2. Did anyone close to you give birth? Not this year!

3. Did anyone close to you die? Thankfully, no.

4. Did you travel? Where did you go? Best holiday memory? Went to Mildura twice (in March and December) and had THREE actual HOLIDAYS (to Brisbane in May, King Valley in September and Adelaide in October). Best holiday memory was the amazing vibes in Brisbane, a city I've always treated with disdain but turns out it's actually quite cool and I enjoyed it thoroughly?!?!? And seeing Chromeo in Adelaide.

5. Best thing you bought? Even though we "bought" it in 2022 we only got our new car in May and that was definitely the highlight of the year 🚗

6. Where did most of your money go? Savings? Mortgage repayments? When our hot water service died and we had to replace it? Far out when did I get so fucking old 😭

7. What do you wish you had done more of? I feel like I got the balance right in a lot of areas this year so I can't really think of anything!

8. What do you wish you had done less of? Stressing about rain and bad weather THANKS PTSD!!!!

9. What kept you sane? Having a job that I enjoy and an awesome team! I had to spend a lot of time back in the office this year and that made it a lot easier!!

10. What drove you mad? When Finland got robbed at Eurovision. When the Premier resigned during Grand Final week and I had to work my tits off instead of enjoying the week. When our car kept taking longer and longer to get delivered.

11. What made you celebrate? Seeing Collingwood win a Grand Final IN PERSON! The Matildas amazing run at the Women's World Cup!

12. What made you sad? Andre Braugher dying, the genocide in Gaza, the Yes referendum failing so fucking miserably, Rafa missing the entire year through injury.

13. How was your birthday this year and how old did you turn? It was a Wednesday so I worked from home and no one in my new team knew it was my birthday and I didn't say anything so it was very uneventful! Went and saw &Juliet that weekend which was fabulous! I turned 39.

14. What political issue stirred you the most this year? Probably the referendum. Best not to think about it.

15. What was the best meal you ate in 2023? The sandwiches from Sardinas are genuinely the best sandwiches I've ever eaten in my life.

16. What would you like to have in 2024 that you didn’t have this year? I would love to leave the country but if that's the only thing I can think of it seems very self-indulgent, especially in this economy!!!

17. What date(s) from 2023 will be etched in your memory and why? 5-8 May - went to Brisbane for MAGIC ROUND and it was truly a life-changing experience.

18. What song will remind you of 2023? Dance the Night - Dua Lipa.

19. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I think so! My resolution was to look after myself after forming some bad habits during the Lockdown Years™. I got back into pilates and have been pretty good with exercising and eating well and keeping on top of all my boring health responsibilities! I also wanted to do an insta post each month and to read more books and I achieved both of those! Next year I think I'm going to make a fun resolution. I want to take more photos or do something creative on the regular.

20. Did you suffer illness or injury? I developed eustachian tube dysfunction after an ear infection, which has not gone away and FUCKING SUCKS. Otherwise I think I've kept pretty well this year. And I've managed to avoid getting c*vid again which is a miracle.

21. Compared to this time last year, are you: i. happier or sadder? A bit happier, mainly because this time last year we had no car and we'd just been robbed hahahaha. ii. thinner or fatter? Thinner, although as every year that I fill this thing in goes by I feel like it's less about being thin and more about just being fit and healthy! iii. richer or poorer? Richer? Marginally?

22. How will you be spending Christmas? I have 10 days off over Christmas/New Year, which I was "strongly recommended" to take as I have "excess leave" lol. Christmas Day at the in-laws as per usual, then maybe a day at the cricket, maybe a beach trip or two, and hopefully some sleeping past 7am?!?!

23. What was your favourite movie? PAST LIVES. My god. As someone who often drifts off into nostalgia and 'what-ifs' and thinking about people I cared about in my younger years this movie floored me.

24. What was your favourite TV program? The final season of Succession DESTROYED me. I still think about it on an almost daily basis which is probably unhealthy 😂. Also loved The Last of Us, S2 of The Bear, the final season of Reservation Dogs, The Newsreader, Alone Australia, Beef until everyone in it got cancelled…and I just started Yellowjackets (late to the party) and I'm obsessed with it!!

25. What was the best book you read? Crossing the Line by Nick McKenzie. And I'm about halfway through Still Life by Sarah Winman which I am LOVING.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery? I feel like I flogged some old favourites this year (hello Chromeo as my top artist on Spotify Wrapped hahaha), rather than getting into anyone new...

27. What did you want and get? A holiday! THANK CHRIST! And for my period to stop after having a Mirena put in late last year 🥳🥳🥳

28. What did you want and not get? To recover properly from a traumatic experience that has left me sometimes crippled with anxiety. I suppose there's always next year hahahahah.

29. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2023? I genuinely tried not to spend too much on clothes this year but I had to step up my work outfit game for my new job which was sort of annoying? I don't really know what my 'concept' was though…trying not to get sucked in to 90s trends that I lived through the first time that didn't warrant a second go?

30. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Pedro Pascal and Bad Bunny together on SNL, Arian Moayed until he came out as an Isr*el apologist, several NRL footballers that I'm not inclined to admit to publicly…

31. Biggest achievement this year? Not killing myself when we had to wait 7 months for our car and had to walk and get the bus everywhere and it truly sucked my will to live.

32. Biggest disappointment this year? When our amazing lawnmowing man closed his business and we had to try and find a new person and it's been a fucking nightmare!!!!

33. What is the one thing that would have made you more satisfied? If Tim and Dale had got together on The Newsreader. I'm going to say that every year until I'm dead.

34. Best new person you met this year? The kookaburras that live in the park next to work don't really count but I'm putting them anyway. And Boyd Cordner.

35. A valuable life lesson you learnt this year? They say a change is as good as a holiday but actually a holiday is the only thing as good as a holiday.

#year in review #survey thingo

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rmfantasysetpieces1 · 1 year ago

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Womens World Cup 2023 Round of 16 Exits

Switzerland- went against team with one greater factor than them, in this case skill. Nice program all in all, can use a individual force.

South Africa- has youth who will grow in four years. A strong league in their confederation. It needs to get stronger, players who play abroad must choose difficult teams.

Norway- probably the end of Hegerberg in the world cup. Norway won the World Cup before so no excuse. Has talent, but may not have a talisman in four seasons.

United States of America- Pinoe is gone, and probably alex morgan /mewis/ertz/dunn/ohara so the next world cup with be the first world cup where everyone in the team can not remember a day when womens soccer wasn't fully installed in the usa. A turning point.

Denmark - like switzerland, has to figure out how to get some special players in four years. Good team but all teams need that unique talent to get to the top.

Morocco- good program, must develop in four years. Must also be patient, not as old a program as Nigeria or South Africa. Maybe a few bad results may come, but look to eight years just in case.

Nigeria- Onome Ebi last world cup, but the defense plus midfield is full of youth who will be mid to late 20s in four years. The attack is an issue, no attacker under 30 outside Gift Monday so that is interesting. Plumptree said Nigeria is a skill team and it shows but potentially absent so many strong attackers in four years, Nigeria will have a chance to show it.

Jamaica- Khadija Shaw is the captain but the majority of Jamaica will be nearest to 30 in four years. The team lacks youth so it will be interesting the development of the players who didn't come and how it plays out. I realize like Haiti, Jamaica may not feel a domestic league is a way to go but they need to finance a team somewhere to develop a core of players free from ulterior motives.

Group Stage Exists

In the beginning I heard a setpiece — Womens World Cup 2023 Group Stage Exits (tumblr.com)

#RMSoccer

#rmsoccer #r16 #womens #world #cup #exits #switzerland #south #africa #norway #usa #denmark #morocco #nigeria #jamaica

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gagmewitha-spork · 2 years ago

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Loss (Lucy Bronze x reader)

Warnings: v sad, you will cry

Description: moments of sadness and comfort following the 2019 wwc semi-final loss for the lionesses. Originally posted to wattpad but I’m transferring all my work over here and planning to start writing again after a few years. Send requests :)

I haven’t rechecked/proofread this so any mistakes or terrible writing is all on younger me.

Word count: 953

The whistle blew. We had lost.

The semi-final of the world cup in France. We had lost.

I can't really believe it. It doesn't feel real. The US players are all running and celebrating. I'm standing here, the same place I've been stood since the whistle, and none of it feels real. We're not good enough.

After a while I feel a pat on my back, causing me to look up just in time to see the face of Tobin Heath, an American player, as she says "good game", smiles a little and walks away. I don't think I said anything back to her, if I did I didn't hear it, and I doubt she did either.

I look around now, I see the faces of my team mates. Ellen White, walking down the side of the pitch, clear tears in her eyes, clapping to the crowds, thanking them for coming to support us. And apologising for not doing them proud. The further I looked, the more disappointment I saw, my teammates, hugging, comforting each other, watching as the US team celebrated making it to the final.

Where's Lucy? I thought to myself, we had both been at the last world cup together, we had been through this disappointment together before, we just didn't want to do it again. I see her, she's lying face down on the floor, no one has gone over to see her yet I don't think. Soon enough I'm sat on the floor by her head, my hand resting on the back of her neck, I can't do anything to comfort her really. I know exactly how she feels, and right now, there's nothing anyone could do to make me feel any better.

She grabs my hand and we sit there until Steph walks over to us.

"Come on girls, huddle time", she says, her voice weak with tears, her expression glum. She pulls me to my feet as Lucy rolls into her back, I reach my hand down to pull her up and no sooner is she standing, than she's in my arms, her face buried in my neck, and mine in hers.

It's at this point that I realise, I'm crying too, I must have been for a while, but in that position, I can't hold it any longer, and I let out a sob, as my teammate, best friend, and love of my life holds me the tightest I ever think she has.

We soon make our way over to everyone else, joining in the large circle, all joined together, holding eachother up, as Phil Neville reassures us that we played to the best of our ability, that we tried our hardest, that luck just wasn't with us today, and that no matter what, we are a team, and we are a family.

I'm still crying, as is Lucy, and most of the other girls. We are heartbroken, but we still have one more game, for 3rd place, and we will fight for it.

The huddle breaks and now more of the US players start coming over to comfort us. Ashlyn Harris hugs Lucy, saying something in her ear. As I'm watching them, Ali Krieger steps in front of me, placing her hand on my shoulders, she doesn't say anything, but we maintain eye contact for a few seconds, before I let out another sob, and she wraps her arms around me.

"I'm sorry", she says, and she repeats it as I sob into her shoulder, "you played so well", she's doing her best to comfort me, but she doesn't really know what it's like to be in this position, "I'm sorry", she's says again, and pulls away to look at me, wiping away some of the tears from my face, "whatevers going through your head right now, just know that you are one of the best players I've ever had the pleasure of playing against, and don't let one defeat make you think otherwise, you haven't disappointed anyone, you are amazing and you've done so much for your team, and for womens football as a whole, remember that", she said, pulling me in for another hug, "you're amazing, don't ever forget that", she pulled away again, and before she'd even properly let me go, I was engulfed into another hug, this time from Emily Sonnett.

I'd known her for years, we used to live together when I played for the Portland Thorns a few seasons ago, she was one of my best friends, to the point where fans thought we wear dating (we never did, I'm way too loved up for that), though I don't get to see her very often nowadays.

"Hey Waldo", she said, using her nickname for me. I'd got it simply from the fact I wore glasses usually and had once shown up to practice wearing a stripy hat. She hugged me tight, not saying anything else, she'd probably heard what Ali way saying to me, nothing else could top that really.

Soon enough we started heading back to the changing rooms, Sonny still had her arm around my shoulder, she was trying to cheer me up, cracking jokes as we walked off the pitch. As we neared the edge of the pitch I felt another arm wrap around me from the other side, causing Sonny to let go and head back to her own changing room and me to look and see Lucy next to me, tears still in her eyes. She smiled at me a little, though it didn't teach her eyes, she was heartbroken I could tell, she could probably tell the same on me.

We held each other up as we walked into the changing room.

#lucy bronze x reader #lucy bronze imagine #woso x reader #woso imagine

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outsideratheart · 3 years ago

Text

In Paris - Part 1 (Alexia Putellas x reader)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Tonight was the last night that you would be spending with Alexia before leaving to go to the World Cup. All you wanted was a night out with your girlfriend before you would be opponents but that didn’t happen.

“Alexia, wait!” You shout from the car as Alexia walks off into your apartment building.

When you get to your apartment you find Alexia pacing the living room.

“Why did you let her flirt with you?” She asks.

“What did you want me to do? I can’t say you see that women over there, she is my girlfriend”

“So this is my fault?” She responds as you takes a seat of the sofa.

You roll your eyes at Alexia’s response. This isn’t the first time you had this argument and you knew it wouldn’t be the last.

Something was going on with her, you knew that much. She has been distant for days with no reason.

“What’s going on?” You ask slightly concerned.

“Nothing” Alexia snaps.

“Why have you been so distant?”

You wanted to believe it wasn’t intentional but when you look into Alexia’s eyes you knew you were wrong, she looked like a child who had being caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

“We keep getting into fights” your girlfriend tries to defend herself.

“That is because you keep getting jealous. We wouldn’t argue if we didn’t have to keep us a secret”

“I’m not the only one keeping secrets” Alexia says accusingly

You were lost, you weren’t keeping anything from Alexia.

“I think we should take a break” Alexia says barely a whisper.

“What?” You say shocked.

“I need to focus on the world cup” Alexia tells you.

“and you can’t do that with me as your girlfriend?” You say hurt by her words.

“it would just be whilst we are in France” she says trying to lighten the blow caused by her words.

You sit there in shock.

“Y/N” Alexia pleas “say something”

“We can’t just put a pause on our relationship Ale, either you are all in or you’re not”

You watch her and you can tell she is thinking about it.

“If you have to think about it then we are clearly in different places” you get up from the sofa and head to the spare bedroom.

“Y/N” Alexia pauses clearly thinking about what she is going to say next “Can we keep this between us? It’s just that..”

You don’t hear the end of her sentence as you close the bedroom door.

The next morning you wake up before Alexia and decide that it would be best if you were gone before she woke up. You grab your suitcase and find an earlier flight to the states, no point in staying in Barcelona longer you needed too.

***************************

Pre world cup camp went by quicker than you wanted to and before you knew it you were flying to France. The rest of the team where none the wiser to your break up consider only two of them actually knew you were seeing Alexia in the first place.

The group stages went as well as you could have hoped, the US finishes top of the group and you were onto the quarter finals.

“Are you ok Y/N?” Christen asks being the observant person she was. In all honestly you expected her to figure it out before now.

“Yeah, I’m fine” you simply answer.

“You miss her?” She asks.

You did miss Alexia, more than you would admit. She was the love of your life and she broke your heart before the biggest national tournament.

You wanted to laugh a little bit as you thought about the situation. Alexia broke up with you because she wanted to focus on the cup but in doing so she was a constant distraction to you, she occupied every waking thought. Was this her tactic all along?

“I’m fine” you repeat. You knew you had to end the conversation before she saw your pain and questioned you further.

The quarterfinals come and go with the US beating France. It was the first game when you made a mistake, you missed a free kick that you would have scored any other time. When you stepped up the ball you thought of Alexia, how you two would prepare to take a free kick for Barcelona.

Your frustration was obvious as you headed into the changing room, take your shirt off and throwing it into your locker as it was a baseball and you were up to pitch.

You sink into your locker with your head in your hands.

“What’s up with her? We just won, we are through to you semis” Kelley asked Tobin.

You were closest with Tobin and Christen. You were close with the rest of the team but because you have played in Europe for the majority on your career you didn't have the bond that the other players had.

“She has been off the past few days. It hasn’t effected her playing but something is definitely wrong” Kelley continues.

“Do you miss a certain Spanish midfielder?” Sonnet teases you and she instantly regrets it.

You stand up making a be line for the defender.

“Say it again Emily, I dare you” you say emotionlessly.

“Whoah, whoah. Calm down Y/N” Tobin says gently pushing you away.

“I was only joking” Sonnet says trying to defend herself.

“So my rel….my personal life is a joke to you”

“Y/N” Christen says, a hand on your shoulder but you shake it off.

“I’ll find my own way back to the hotel” you say grabbing a jacket and leaving the locker room.

Tobin looks at Christen concerned. You have been away from Alexia before but you are more intense this time round.

“I’ll see what I can do” Christen says as you pulls her phone out sending a text to Jenni.

***************************

What you didn’t know is that Alexia was struggling just as much as you were.

“Ale. What is going on?” Jenni asks her best friend.

“Aren’t you going to watch the US game? You normally watch all of them and you haven’t watched any of Y/N’s matches” Mapi asks.

Alexia tries to think of a reason why she wouldn’t want to watch you play. Truth is seeing you hurts her, she knew that it was her own fault but that didn’t lessen the pain.

In the end the best answer is to watch the game.

“I can’t believe she missed that free kick. She can take ones like that in her sleep” Leila says.

“She misses you” Virginia nudges Alexia.

Alexia doesn’t respond. She agreed with Leila, you had both practiced free kicks like that for hours, you should have scored but you didn’t. Sure there could be a number of reasons why you missed but Alexia knows that it was because of her.

Thinking of you brings tears to Alexia’s eyes, she knew she made a mistake the moment she woke up in Barcelona and you were gone.

“Alexia, are you crying?” Virginia asks not believing what she is seeing.

“I don’t want to talk about it” Alexia says walking off to her room.

“Something is going on. Ale has been off since the moment we landed in France and by the looks of it Y/N is out of it too” Mapi says concerned for the both of you.

“Y/N will be fine, she isn’t our concern at the moment” Sandra says

“I know she is a our opponent this tournament but she is also our team mate” Mapi says looking at Jenni as if for permission.

“Christen says Y/N is struggling, she stormed out of the stadium alone after the game and snapped at one of her team mates” Jenni says as she reads Christen’s text.

“What are we going to do?” Leila asks.

“We are going to break the non fraternising rules” Jenni says with a smirk on her face.

#alexia putellas one shot #alexia putellas imagine #alexia putellas x reader #barcelona femeni x reader #barcelona femeni imagine #Barcelona femeni one shot #woso x reader #woso one shot #woso imagine

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unluckyhoneybee · 3 years ago

Text

Having Fun (Pierre Gasly)

Pierre's fuck boy era comes to an end when he meets you. Smut+fluff+angst.

Notes: REQUESTED (x) (x)

Warning: +18. Penetrative sex (p in v). Fingering.

His eyes had been on me the whole night. He hadn't doubt when he came to talk to me. He was Pierre Gasly, handsome, charismatic, rich and talented. He had everything. But he seemed to only want me that night.

There had been women hanging from his arm the whole time, all of them trying to get his attention. But no, his eyes were on me.

He was Charles' friend and I was Charlotte's friend. We had seen each other a few times. And we knew a couple of things about the other. I knew about his reputation. He had a long relationship, but that ended a few months ago. And from that moment to this, he had gone through this fuck boy era. Charlotte and I had talked about it a couple of times. About how Pierre seemed to have a girl with him each weekend and how more and more girls had their own stories with him. Bathrooms, the back of a yacht, a boat, his team hospitality, luxury hotel rooms... There had been plenty of scenarios for those stories.

"He is still looking at you?" Charlotte said.

"Mhm"

"You should give him a go"

I looked at my friend as if she had gone mad or something.

"Don't look at me like that. You already said you think he is hot. Go, fuck him and that's it. Have a good night, enjoy. If he is as good as those girls say..."

"Char!"

"What?! You should do it" She shrugged. "It's just sex."

"He is..." I drank from my cup. "I don't like his reputation"

"He is a nice guy, he is just not dealing properly with the break-up. You want to get laid and he obviously wants to give it to you. That's it. Tomorrow you say goodbye and leave."

That's how I ended up having the most mind-blowing sex of my life with Pierre.

"Fuck..." I said pushing my hair out of my face. I was exhausted and I had cum hard.

"You are a goddess, YN..." He said caressing my abdomen and sides. "If I had known this before..."

I sat on the bed and took a deep breath. It has been great. Awesome. But I was going to clean myself and leave.

"Where are you going, cherie?" He said sitting right behind me and kissing my shoulder.

"Home"

"Home? It's 2am."

"Yeah, Pierre. Home."

I would go home, he would stay here and we wouldn't see each other until Charles or Charlotte's birthday. He would keep fucking random people and I would leave and go on with my life with the memory of a fantastic night with him.

"Don't you want to stay?"

"Stay?" I tried not to laugh. "This is just sex. What do you want? To marry me?"

He didn't say anything but looked at me with a glare I wasn't able to read at that moment.

"I thought that we could grab some breakfast tomorrow..."

I laughed this time.

"Pierre, this is just sex, really. I want nothing serious right now" It was a lie. I had been looking for a partner for a while, but I didn't want one with his reputation. I didn't want to date the fuck boy as if I was the main character in some Netflix series.

I left like that, leaving him looking like a lost puppy in the king-size bed.

"Happy birthday!" I hugged Charlotte and kissed her cheek. "YOu are beautiful, Char. Look at you"

"Thank you, YN"

She looked behind me and then at me with an expectant look.

"Oh, Charlotte, he is Nick. Nick, she is Charlotte, the birthday girl"

"Nice to meet you, Charlotte"

"Nice to meet you too, Nick."

Nick was an escape from all the suffocating thoughts I had been having for the last weeks. He was an accountant in his father's business. He was my age and had started working right after uni. He liked to play tennis and he was probably the most ordinary guy in the world. There was nothing interesting in him. Nothing. He was plain. Charlotte had gotten a bit angry at me when I told her about him, saying that I shouldn't date him just to occupy my mind. But I needed to get Pierre out of it. I needed to forget about that night and how his fingers and lips felt on my skin.

"Come with me, guys"

The party was fun, but Nick had decided to keep me at the bar talking about something his father was buying and how big the inversion was.

I drank from the cocktail and looked around, trying to see if Charlotte was close so I could go and dance with her. But no. Instead of finding my friend, I found a pair of angry blue eyes looking at me. I gasped. He was there.

And the moment I notice him, he started walking toward me.

"Nice to see you here, YN" He said with that delicious accent of his.

I clenched my thighs. He looked even better than the last time.

"Yeah... Hi, Pierre."

"I'm Nick Goldman. YN's date. Soon to be boyfriend, right?"

Nick elbowed me and I felt a wave of nausea. Pierre's eyes were on me.

"Oh. I didn't know you were dating someone" Pierre said ignoring Nick's handshake. "I thought you said you wanted nothing serious. You know, when we fucked."

I felt my cheeks getting warmer with anger. Who the fuck did he think he was?

"When you what?" I heard Nick talking directly to me.

Pierre opened his mouth to speak, but I stopped them with a hand on his chest.

"Let's have a talk. In private" By the tone of my voice, both of them knew I wasn't happy.

I grabbed Pierre's arm and pulled him, hearing Nick call for me but completely ignoring him.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" I barked at Pierre when we finally got to the terrace.

"Me? What about you?! You said you want nothing serious and then you are dating some guy!"

"Well. I'm sorry for living my life as I want"

"So are so fucking hypocritical" He said walking closer to me.

I gasped. He had no right. Maybe it was true. But it was my life and he could not decide on it.

"How am I? Because I didn't want to stay and have breakfast with you?"

"No! Why did you say that you weren't interested in something serious if you were going to jump into that guy's arms?"

"That was months ago, Pierre!" I ran my hands through my hair and pulled at the roots.

Why the fuck did he care? It's not as if he hadn't been fucking girls all around the world after fucking me.

"And it's none of your business" I said lowering my voice. "You know what? I'm going home. Thank you for fucking up this party, Pierre"

I went back inside and looked for Charlotte.

"I'm leaving. Have a good night, okay? Have a lot of fun."

"What happened?"

"Pierre came and made a whole scene because I'm here with Nick" I sighed " I don't... I'm not comfortable anymore, Char"

"I understand. Do you want Charles to take you home?"

"I will be okay. Enjoy honey, you deserve it"

With a last hug and a knowing look from my friend, I left. Charlotte probably knew that I had these weird feelings about Pierre. She knew me well. But as I said, I didn't want to date Pierre. This feeling would end up fading and this would just be a sour memory.

"I'll take you home, don't go alone"

I turned around. There he was.

"No"

"I owe you that" He was so much calmer than before. "Please. Let me explain"

"There is nothing to explain" I said.

He took a deep breath and looked at me like that again. Like he did on his bed so many months ago. It made me weak on the knees. By then he had only been a wonderful fuck, but now... It was so much more now.

"Okay." I said with a sigh. If he had an explanation I wanted to hear it.

Sitting in his car and on our way to my flat, Pierre stayed silent.

"What did you have to explain?"

"I fell in love with you that night?"

My head turned to him way too fast. I had probably heard wrong. There was no possible way that he had actually said that. No. Not him.

"No"

"What do you mean no?" He said turning to look at me.

"You did not. You can't fall in love in one night. No. Not you"

He sharply pulled the car out of the road and parked on one side. Luckily there was no one around.

"Pierre, what the fuck are you..."

"What do you mean that not me?"

He was serious but not angry. There was a plain look on his face and his blue eyes looked at me with such an intensity that made me feel cold.

"I-I've heard stories."

"Stories?"

"Mhm. About other girls" I took a deep breath. "I don't want to be one more. Although I already am. I... No. I don't want to date you"

I looked away when I saw the pain in his eyes.

"What? You don't want me because I had sex with some other girls? I was just having fun. I was just a single man"

I didn't dare to look at him.

"What had you heard? That I fuck them and leave? That I didn't want strings attached?" He had that tone in his voice. He was angry. Angry at me for what I said. "The same thing you did? Didn't you leave me right behind fucking me?"

I looked at him then. He was right.

"Pierre..."

"Don't ask how or why don't even dare to deny it. But I fell in love with you"

Pierre took my hand. I couldn't stop looking at him. The reputation was still there, but there were also feelings.

"What scares you?"

"I-" I tried to breathe deeply, but only was able to take a shaky breath. "I'm scared of..."

"There wouldn't be anyone else if I had you. I may have slept with some girls, but I'm not that cruel. I'm not that bad. I can promise you that"

"I... I need air"

I opened the door and left the car, he following close. I was confused, I didn't know what to think. I wanted to let him in but I didn't know if I fully trusted him.

"YN?" One of his hands reached for my waist. He looked worried. "Are you okay?"

I looked at him.

"Do you really promise that there would be no one else?"

"Of course I do, YN" He said softly.

I didn't doubt it then, I kissed him. I could give him an opportunity. I could try and see if he was speaking the truth. Charlotte said he was a good guy managing a break-up poorly. And that was months ago. Something may have changed.

He grabbed my hips at the moment, pushing me against his hard body and deepening the kiss. I moaned on his mouth and ran my hands through his hair.

"I wanted to do this since that day" I whispered on his rosy plump lips.

"Me too, cherie. Me too"

We kissed again, more ferociously this time. We were devouring each other's lips with such a passion that took my breath away. Slowly, he manoeuvred me until my ass was against the car. I smiled on his lips feeling the warmth of his body and the cold of the metal hood in contrast. I really wanted this.

He left my lips and started his travel down my neck. It was all sloppy wet kisses on my skin and bites that would leave a mark.

"Mmm Fuck."

Months of waiting finally had their results.

"You taste delicious, baby"

I whimpered and pulled him back to my lips. Between slow kisses, I dragged my hand to his trousers.

"In a hurry, aren't we?" He said smirking over my mouth. "Can't believe you were saying you wanted nothing with me a few minutes ago"

I groaned and looked into his eyes.

"I haven't stopped thinking about you in these months Pierre." I kissed his lips and pulled them with my teeth

"Fuck, YN..." He cupped my face and made me look into his eyes. "Please, believe me when I say that I'm in love with you"

I nodded slowly and he kissed me again.

I took the lead, dragging my tongue between his lips and deepening the kiss. Meanwhile, I had slid my hand on his trousers, palming him over his underwear. He groaned and sucked my tongue.

"Why were you dating that guy? Was he better than me?"

Pierre turned my body around so I was now facing the hood of the car. He was jealous.

"Tell me, cherie. Did he make you feel as good as I did?"

He slowly pushed my skirt up and rubbed his hands over my ass. I was waiting for it, the slap. But it didn't come. He was waiting for my answer.

"I didn't sleep with him" I said turning my face to him. His eyes were darker and he was biting his lip. "I didn't because he wasn't you"

He grabbed my face and kissed me hard. I moaned on his mouth as he pressed his hard member against my ass. He was ready for me and I was more than happy to take him.

"Are we really going to fuck here?" I said over his lips when he pushed my underwear aside.

"Oh yes, we are. Look at how wet you are"

I bit my lip feeling his fingers over my lips.

"Suck them, baby."

I sucked his fingers in my mouth, running my tongue over them and wetting them.

"I love that mouth of yours" He said to my ear.

He pulled his fingers out and took them directly to my pussy, running them up and down before.

"Pierre..."I weakly moaned when he slid those fingers inside. "I need more, I need you to fuck me"

"Have to get you ready for me first"

I was desperate. That night had been the best night in my life and had left a print of me. It had been the fuel to the long nights I spent alone in my bed, thinking of how good Pierre felt and trying to remember every single thing he did to me.

His fingers felt like heaven inside of me, moving in the perfect rhythm and stretching my walls. But as soon as it started, it finished. I whimpered when he pulled them out.

"Desperate, cherie?"

"Mhm."

"Wait..."

I turned to look at him, my mouth watering at the picture. He was standing there, trousers and boxers hanging on his thighs and hands putting the condom on.

"Okay, you ready."

"I am"

Slowly, he dragged the tip over my slit and I stopped breathing as he carefully slid in.

"You feel so fucking good, princess."

I was gasping for air. The stretch felt delicious.

"So-So do you... Please, move..."

"As my princess wish"

Just like the last time, he started moving at a brutal pace, making me shake and unable to stand. Soon he had me pressed to the hood of the car, moaning and whimpering with each thrust.

"I missed this so much, I missed being inside you, baby"

One of his hands was in my waist keeping me in pace and the other was roaming my back.

"Fuck, Pierre" He felt good, so good. I felt stupid for trying to pretend that I didn't want this.

"I know, baby, I know" He was panting and groaning, his hips getting unsteady which every second that passed. "I'm not gonna last much"

With a hand around my neck and the other planted on the car, Pierre brought me to his chest and went harder, making me sob his name and grab into his arm. He was hitting the perfect spots and I could almost see white.

"Oh shit, Pierre..."

I whimpered when he started toying with my clit.

"Does it feel good, baby? Was this what you wanted?"

"Yes, yes. It feels so good Pierre."

It was delicious, the pleasure growing and growing and the knot in my lower belly tighter.

He moved his fingers faster and I grabbed into his hair. Moving my head to the side, I trapped his lips with mine, giving him a heated kiss.

His mouth tasted like glory. I never wanted to stop kissing those pink lips.

Soon, I was on the verge of cumming.

"Pierre..."

"Me too, princess, me too."

It took us a couple of more thrusts to cum, both panting and trying to support ourselves on the car.

"Give me an opportunity" He said kissing the back of my neck.

"Only one. No games"

"No games, I promise."

#pierre gasly #pg #smut #f1 fic #fic

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zephyrbang · 3 years ago

Text

Bubble Bombs || Jinx x Fem!reader

A/N: If you haven't already you should use the website that changes Y/n to your actual name :P In my next fic I'm going to make it so that your name isn't said. I feel like it flows better? Anyways here's some lesbian crime @punkrockmads

Jinx was the first to notice Y/n’s absence. In the beginning, Jinx assumed her schedule had become busier than usual. Perhaps she’d gone on a mission far from home or was doing an awful lot of bar hopping with Sevika and the others. After keeping a watchful eye out around the bars in the area and not catching a glimpse of Y/n inside a single one, Jinx began to worry herself with all the possibilities. Did she leave because of her? Did she get seriously injured in a fight and she’s stuck withering in pain somewhere? Or had she finally decided the outside world’s too far gone and becoming a hermit would be a much more convenient lifestyle? Jinx hoped that if that’s what Y/n had chosen, she would’ve at least received an invite.

It’s common knowledge that Jinx has a partner now. Most assume her new companion’s a partner in crime, not a girlfriend. The news had quickly spread into Piltover, no doubt due to Jinx deciding it’s her current favored district for wreaking havoc as of late. Instead of discussing the new delinquent over a cup of coffee or during a mid-afternoon stroll, most preferred to be hush hush on the topic and instead kept their voice down withhesitation. Upon Y/N’s arrival, rumors quickly formed. Some speculated that Y/n’s more erratic than Jinx, that maybe she’s the worst of the two. Many people felt overwhelmed with dread. The possibility that the women may destroy cities as a team is enough to fuel nightmares. Others thought maybe the new villain's a shimmer-filled beast taking the disguise of a human being, or that she’s a shimmer test subject sent out to assist her blue counterpart.

Silco approached Jinx at her desk one day. He stood behind her and tapped his pointy-toed shoe against the ground ‘til she paused her music and set down her can of blue spray paint. “Have you seen Y/n as of late?” he asked, eyeing her as if she had something to do with the disappearance. Jinx shook her head, making an “mm mm” noise at the back of her throat to indicate she had zero clue.

“Be truthful, Jinx. Have you any clue where she may be?” he pressed on. If Silco had no knowledge of Y/n's whereabouts, this may be more concerning than Jinx had initially thought.

“I don’t! If I did, she’d be helping me with this new project we started.” She opens her palms like an explosion at her words, the project being a new variant of her typical bombs. Silco shakes his head at her and purses his thin lips. He takes a moment to glance at her work before swiftly turning on his heels to leave. “I really have no clue where she is!” She watches him slowly saunter away,“I’m telling the truth!”She leaps off her seat, tearing off her goggles and flinging them over her shoulder. They crash into heaps of scraped metal, empty cans, and crumbled papers, knocking over god knows what.

“You don’t know where she is either?”. She squeezes herself between him and the wall, peering up at him with big blue eyes. He groans out a no, pinching the bridge of his nose in an annoyed manner. Just this morning he’d made arrangements for Y/ns aid in several operations. One was set for later that night as a lookout. Without her assistance, he holds little faith in the job being finished properly, instead, he fears the plan may quite literally go up in flames. Jinx finds his response bizarre. Y/n enjoys her work. She’s very proud of each job she completes and she even tells Jinx all of the many stories about the more dangerous treks she’s experienced.

This is the final straw. Y/n must be found.

After asking around for Y/n’s home address amongst Silcos other underlings such as Sevika and Finn, it turns out she’s not a fan of inviting guests over. Nobody has the slightest clue where she may live. Finn and Sevika assumed the girls live together, and while Jinx saw that idea to be a great one, it’s not true. Fine, Jinx thought, I’ll have to do this the hard way. She checked in alleyways and in abandoned hangout spots the two often frequent, even poked around in a few shops before deciding to do a quick sweep through bars like she’d done just days before.

Jinx began to panic once again. Perhaps Y/n really had left because Jinx is just too overwhelming. Had she finally grown sick of Jinx and made a run for it? Jinx gasps at the thought. “No, she wouldn’t do that. She’s not like.… her,” the last words drip into a growl, her attempt at reassuring herself seems to upset her even further. She grips her braids in clenched fists. “She loves me! I know she does! She’d never leave me behind because..” she digressed. She bends over in anguish, a standing shadow alone in an abandoned strip of the city where nobody can hear her short-lived outburst. Out of panic, her nails dig at her sensitive scalp, ripping and pulling blue strands out of her head. These tufts curl over the bends of her knuckles and wrists, decorating her pale hands with clumps of electric blue that are wisped away by an abrupt gust of wind. It doesn’t take Jinx long to regain her composure and continue on her search. She becomes increasingly more anxious with each step she takes while unaccompanied by her girlfriend.

There’s a dingy bar up ahead, one that’s dimly lit and seemingly empty at this time of night. From where she stands, Jinx can’t make out a single noise. It’s dead silent in all directions but that sign out front definitely reads OPEN. Jinx decides it’s not worth her timez That is until she hears the swirl of Yn’s trusty pocket knife against what sounded like a wooden table. She recognizes this sound immediately and with no hesitation, she sprints towards the bar. Her worn-down boots kick up dust in her wake until she’s right outside the swing doors. They’re high enough to block her line of sight from peering over the top. She pushes the doors harder than necessary. They groan and complain on their rusty hinges before clicking back into place behind her.

There sits Silco’s number three. She’s dressed in her usual attire albeit looks quite disheveled. Jinx assumes Y/n hasn’t had a change in clothes for at least a few nights.

Jinx heaves out a sigh of relief, “Trinket! There you are!” The cedar plank floors are uneven with screws loose. They stick up in hopes that some drunk sap will trip over them and nosedive directly into the serving bar. On both sides of the bar theres booths of various colors. There’s a lavish purple booth, one that’s a royal shade of Prussian blue, and a wine red booth with deep lacerations from the claws of a beast much larger than Y/n and Jinx combined. Y/n’s sat on the mangled red cushion stirring a gnawed-on straw in the melted ice of a long -finished drink, eyes on Jinx’s lean figure as she approaches. Jinx leaps onto the table like a predator, wobbling the lopsided table side to side. She adorns a beaming smile yet it doesn’t meet her eyes. Their eyes are locked on each other, searching for whatever feelings lay behind. Neither know what to say.

“You found me”. Y/n’s chin is propped in her palm, eyes gazing up at Jinx who’s still crouched on the table with her fingers bent around the curve to keep her steady. Jinx has a devious habit of hiding in the dark to observe in secret, meaning she regularly perches herself on small surfaces and fits herself into narrow, cramped spaces. Her ability to maneuver herself like an animal of prey will always add to the fact she’s a force to be reckoned with.

It’s obvious to Jinx that Y/n’s in low spirits. Her complexion’s drained of any glow. The skin below her eyes are weighed down with drooped gray bags. As Y/n’s girlfriend, a very important title Jinx holds with a lot of pride, she cannot allow Y/n to carry on in such a bad mood. She misses Y/ns smirks, her words of encouragement, and her nimble fingers as they separate locks of hair into sections for braiding. She can’t forget her gentle kisses and her chest rising and falling against Jinx’s back at night, or the warmth that radiates off her palms when they rest on Jinxs exposed skin.

Jinx is feared, described as a menace. Catching a glimpse of her is bad news. A bad omen. But to Y/n, she’s nothing like that.

“I missed you so much! I had been looking all over for you!” Jinx leans forward, dropping herself into the booth and sliding up next to Y/n’s side. She swings her arm around the girls shoulders and pressed a chapped kiss to Y/n’s cheek. “I checked everywhere!”. It’s quiet for a minute. Y/n rests her cheek against the top of Jinx’s head. She can feel the nervous jolts of Jinx fiddling with the fabric of her pants. “I’m sorry” Y/n says, grasping Jinx’s fidgety hand, rubbing her thumb over the back of Jinx’s pale palm.

“I thought you left me”. Guilt washes over Y/n. She can tell how sad the thought makes Jinx by how she’s slumped over with all her weight pressed up against Y/n's side. “I’d never. You’re too important. You know that. You’re the most important person in my life, Jinx”. Jinx being insecure and clingy isn’t new, hell she’s practically glued to Y/n’s hip. They both readjust themselves to face each other. “I wouldn’t leave you, Jinx, I just” Jinx’s looking at her with big puppy eyes, “life has been bleak”.

“You should’ve told me! I would’ve helped, no hesitation. Anything for you!”. Jinx lifts their intertwined hands up to her lips, kissing all of Y/n’s knuckles more than once each. The kisses are quick and frantic.

“It’s not your job to take care of me, blue”.

“Yes it is! You’re my girlfriend, silly!”. Jinx sat with her boots on the red booth cushion, feet together with her knees pointed towards the ceiling. She pulls Y/n closer so they’re nose to nose. “Please don’t hide from me again”. The two sit embraced, warm, Y/n’s cheek flattened against the inked skin on Jinx’s shoulder. Times like these were typically not done in public but with nobody around or even in the general area of such a shabby area, neither women fear somebody witnessing their weaknesses. Eachother.

“I brought something with me”. Jinx pulls back, grinning as she reaches down for a miniature version of her monkey bombs. “Are those the newer ones we’ve been working on? I thought we came up with a new design” Y/n looks at the weapon questionably. Jinx nods, flipping it over in her palm, “Just has the same outside. I swapped the insides. This means we could go test it out”. She’s biting her bottom lip in excitement, explosive still in her hand while she awaits an answer. Y/ns hand moves to rest ontop the bomb as well. “Let’s go”.

Standing on the roof of a townhouse, Jinx and Y/n gaze out at the many homes, shops, and tidy streets of the Piltover town. While Y/n doesn’t have as much hatred for Piltover compared to Jinx, she’s still not exactly fond of the city. Jinx’s hand trails from Y/n’s shoulder, down her back and to her waist, stopping there. “I’m so excited,” she says.

“Okay, okay, hand me one of those,” Y/n says, pointing at the grenades. Jinx shakes her head, “Uh-uh, I’ve got something else even more exciting��. She reveals a handgun-like weapon she had clipped to her belt. She waves it around with a sinister smile. “What’s that? What is it?” Y/n asks, eyes wide with curiosity. She quickly reaches for it, ready to cause an unknowable amount of damage with whatever this machine is. It’s a dark blue and looks a lot like a child’s bubble gun with pink paint smudges along its handle, likely from Jinx making a mess. Definitely from Jinx.

“You’ll figure that out once you pull the trigger”. Jinx’s eyes are full of adoration. She shuffles behind Y/n and places her hands across the girls hips, gripping them securely like she’d hold pow-pow. Her hot breath sends a wave down Y/n’s spine, “You’ve got this”. Y/n presses down on the trigger, expecting the ear-ringing sound of bullets, but instead it’s silent. Instead of bullets, bubbles pour out from the gun. They float in the wind slowly but surely. Some of the bubbles are hot pink, some are neon blue. Some are as large as the women’s heads, some the size of a small rock. “They’re.. bubbles?” “Not just any bubbles!”

The blobs drift away from each other, floating off in all directions. Some move down towards the ground, some float towards the many shops and buildings, a few upwards towards the sky. Jinx points with her polished nails to a bubble the size of a soccer ball. Her other hand grips Y/n’s jaw, making her look at the dark pink bubble as it collides with the side of a building.

BAM!

It explodes, sending paint everywhere. But the best part is when the wall caves in on itself with the noise of a volcanic eruption. It tumbles down and its windows shatter with high-pitched screams Jinx shivers with delight at. The stray bricks ricochet off of nearby structures, blasting through windows and chipping paint from any decoration unfortunate enough to be in the way. Several bubbles erupt at once off to the left. The townhouse jolts beneath the lovers feet, trembling with anxiety and lurching the women forward. They laugh with glee and hold each other chest to chest, pecking each other's lips twice while swaying side to side. Homes are falling apart, the glass from their broken windows litter the sidewalks like ice. Jinx bursts out with happy cheers, throwing her arms in the air. “Fuck yea!” she pulls Y/n closer, pressing her cheek against hers. She can see the bursts of paint in the corner of Y/n’s eyes, distracting her for a short while. The commotion has begun to wake people from their sleep, scaring them wide awake. “They’re waking up!” Y/n shouts, nudging Jinx in her side. “Should we keep going?” she shouts, lowering the gun. If they stayed any longer would they get caught? Thrown in jail finally? Jinx slides her hand over Y/n’s back, pressing herself against her back and sighing into her ear, “They’re so afraid”. Her breath is hot in contrast to the night air. It sends a shiver down Y/n’s spine.

The last of the bubble explosions rouses anyone still sleeping out of their beds. Several doors fly open and families pour out of their homes. Fathers pull their children out by the arm, mothers are shouting and wiping tears off their damp cheeks. Enforces come sprinting towards the scene, shouting orders to each other that can hardly be heard over all the screaming. Jinx and Y/n crouch behind a chimney, peeking over the top to observe the frantic enforcers. They’re sprinting down all streets, down all the alleys, and checking all corners. “We should leave now while we’ve got the chance. They don’t even know who exactly they’re looking for yet”. Jinx scoffs “I haven’t had the chance to blow any bubbles yet”. Y/n hands the gun over, being careful to make little noise so as not to alert the two officers lurking just below. They’re angrily debating with each other about whether or not this mess was made by the “crazy lady” AKA the exact person who did in fact cause the mess. “Besides”, Jinx points the bubble gun towards an alone enforcer, “they know exactly who did this”.

She pulls the trigger and small blue bubbles drift towards the man. Almost everybody’s been evacuated by now. The only ones left at the scene are enforcers and the two criminals. The colorful paint stains really add some pizzazz to the architecture, changing everything from gold and white to pink, blue, and occasional splotches of purple. The sidewalks are blue and the bushes are painted pink, nothing remains untouched by the bubble wrath. It takes a while for the army of bubbles to reach the man since they’re small and about as fast as a snowflake, or slower. Jinx was staring excitedly at him all while nodding her head and pressing her lips together in a thin line. She reaches out for the other girl's hand, holding it tightly so they can bolt away immediately afterwards. Blowing up an officer isn’t something to stick around for any longer than a second.

There’s silence... and then there’s a brutal, gut wrenching shout and a loose arm flying up towards the roof. His arm tore off. There’s a human arm just feet away. Jinx blew somebody's arm off.. again! Jinx doesn't seem nearly as disgusted by the scene compared to Y/n. “Oh my god,” Y/n covers her mouth. If the dead body count was zero before, it’s not now. “Oh my god!” Jinx laughs and claps a hand on Y/n’s shoulder, “okay now it’s time to go!”. As soon as they get on their feet there’s shouts of “there they are!” and “get them!”. “Faster, Jinx!” They race across the townhouse roof in plain sight, hand in hand. Jinx’s blue hair sticks out like a sore thumb, certainly not making the escape any easier.

Just to make matters worse, Jinx must have gripped the gun too tight. The home beneath them collapses in on itself and sends the girls jumping to another. “If the houses crash behind us, it’ll be harder for those pigs to keep up!” Jinx shouts, leaving a disastrous trail of bubbles behind her. “But what if we fall!?”

“You won’t fall, toots, you’ve got me!”.

It takes a good half an hour of roof hopping and some hiding, but eventually the enforcers called it quits. There was no way they’d reach both women when they’re jumping building to building all while destroying just about every single one in their wake.

Once again Jinx destroys something, including lives, and gets away with it. But this time the rumors spread around even quicker and they’re not entirely true. This time Jinx is said to be the sidekick and that the mysterious partner of hers stepped out of the shadows for the first time to show the world just how scary she is. They are lovers to be reckoned with.

#if you see any mistakes tell me #arcane #jinx x reader #jinx x fem reader #arcane x reader #jinx #jinx LoL #fanfic #x fem reader #x reader #im still a beginner be patient w me

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