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other and use long passes, keep them in one-on-one situations, they'll have a hard time keeping up.”
    “Yeah, and when they start fouling us?” Henry Wilkes asked. The midfielder had come up to them in midconversation and now spoke up for the first time.
    “Do some acting, fall down and scream and grab your arm — draw the foul!” Renny said.
    Henry and Chuck looked at each other and grinned. “Hey, you know what? That's pretty cool,” Henry said.
    “And there are other things we can do,” Renny said, warming to his subject.
    “Like what?” Chuck asked, interested now.
    “Like, we can force them to play in their own end.”
    “Yeah?”
    “Sure — what if, first thing, we kicked the ball way down in their end, then put pressure on them, using our speed advantage? Every time we get the ball, just kick it as far as we can toward their goal, then rush the ball, try to rattle them?”
    “It's risky,” Henry pointed out. “We could get caught out of position.”
    “Let's just try it once, to start the game, okay?” Renny suggested.
    “Shouldn't we ask Coach McMaster?” Jordan wondered. Suddenly it was his plan, too, Renny noticed.
    “I'll run it by him,” Renny agreed. “But you guys — you've got to think positive, okay? Let's keep the Crush off balance from the opening whistle. Like you already said, we can't beat them playing our usual way — and we've got to beat them, one way or another!”
    Henry and Chuck looked at each other, then nodded. They bumped fists with Renny on it. Even Jordan Woo stuck his hand in.
    “And don't let me hear any more whipped-dog talk!” Renny said.
    “Okay, Captain,” Henry said with a grin. “Crush the Crush!”
    “Yeah!” Chuck said.
    “All right!” Renny said, and ran off to talk to the coach about his idea.
    Captain.
Henry had called him captain. Of course, he wasn't really team captain, Isaac Mendez was. But for the past two games, he'd been the team scoring leader, its spark plug, keeping them in the play-off hunt in spite of the real captain's injury. It was fine with Renny if they wanted to call him captain.
    Where was Coach McMaster, anyway? Renny looked around and spotted him at the other end of the field with some other players. Renny ran toward them.
    All of a sudden, a hulking red-haired figure stepped out from behind a tree by the side of the field. “Harding!”
    It was Turk Walters, the kid on the Orange Crush who had smacked into Chuck Mathes the last time the two teams played each other. Renny didn't like the look of this at all. What did Turk want with him?
    Renny decided to keep going “Hi, Turk,” he said as he went by “Can't talk now.”
    “Yo, Harding, I'm talking to you!” Turk yelled, grabbing Renny by the shoulder and spinning him around to face him.
    “Look, I'm in the middle of practice,” Renny said, trying not to panic. “What do you want?”
    “I only need a minute,” Turk said with a smile. “I just wanted to let you know — tomorrow, you're dead meat.” He held tightly on to Renny's shoulder, squeezing a little.
    Renny winced. “W-what do you mean?” he asked, his voice quivering a little.
    “I hear you're the new big man on the Blue Hornets. And it's my job to cut big men down to size, okay?”
    Renny winced again as Turk's grip grew even tighter.
    “You better be prepared to get slammed around,”
    Turk said. “Because if you come my way, I'm gonna stop you stone cold.”
    “Long as you play fair,” Renny said, trying in vain to pull away.
    “Fair?” lurk smiled, even laughed a little to himself. “Yeah, I heard of that. It rhymes with
square.
See you tomorrow, punk. You better be ready.” With a shove, Turk released Renny and moved off into the shadow of the trees.
    Renny watched him disappear. He was shaking with anger and fear. Should he tell Coach McMaster what Turk had just said? No, then the coach might pull Renny from center striker position just to avoid any possible trouble. Renny decided to