Excerpt: Red Tales: Delilah's Dilemma

Coltan and Carlos continued to tango. Mirek had instructed Carlos to mark Coltan, primarily because of the language, plus he felt that Carlos could keep up with, if not outrun, his older fellow countryman.

Sally shuddered each time the two collided. “The kid’s going to get hurt. Mirek’s got to sub him out,” she muttered.
“With who?” Matt prodded. “Mirek pulled Jerzy off Coltan because of the risk of a red card.”
“What about Navarro?”
“He’s not a forward. We’re down now, remember.”
Sally grimaced.
Matt continued as he signaled Jose for a round of drinks for his ladies and him, “Remember Carlos was a goalkeeper before his accident. There is no other well balanced player on our roster right now who could manage the awful task of marking Coltan besides Jerzy.”
Ian struck. Save. Brendan Glazier had the next opportunity at goal. Off the crossbar, goal kick. Paul Novotny wanted to get the ball to Carlos, but the kid failed to outfox the old surfer. Novotny got trapped in the corner, but managed to force a corner kick. The Czech took his time lining up the kick, as Dan and Ian arranged their teammates in the box. There was a lot of shoving going on between the two Mexicans.
Sally bit her lip. Something horrible was about to happen. She could sense it. She dug her fingernails into Matt’s thigh.
He removed her claws. “It will be okay, Sal. It’s just a game.”
That was the last thing she wanted to hear at that moment.
Ian and Jerzy stepped in between the two warring Mexicans. Jerzy pulled Carlos aside, while Ian hurled a few choice words in Spanish at Coltan. Referee Dobbs started to come over. His approach calmed everyone for a few seconds.
Eighty-sixth minute, Novotny curled the ball toward the box. Coltan and Carlos leaped for the ball. Carlos, despite being shorter, won the jump. Coltan grabbed a handful of red jersey. As Carlos’ forehead connected with the ball, Coltan forcibly pulled him down in a heap. The ball sailed toward the far post. It was just wide. Carlos kneed Coltan in the groin as the two hit the battle scarred turf. The elder pushed the kid off and leaped up. He then looked down at Carlos and stomped his face. The assistant referee raised the flag to signal a foul. Dobbs blew the whistle. Jerzy flew at Coltan and threw a hard right at the pretty boy’s jaw. Coltan swung back, but the Pole blocked it. Ian saw to Carlos, who was bleeding from the forehead and right cheek from the culero’s cleats. Tomas grabbed Jerzy an dpulled him back from totally tearing apart the Mexican, hockey-style. Always ready for a fight himself, Nasty came up to back up his teammate. Dobbs managed to put his arms in between Coltan and Jerzy. First, he showed a yellow card to Coltan for the flagrant foul in the box. Then, he showed the red card to Jerzy. The young Pole struggled to free himself from Tomás’ fatherly grip. Doc Gina and her assistant jogged on the pitch to attend to Carlos. Jerzy spat on Coltan’s shoes before leaving the pitch. Coltan just laughed.
Anger ensconced the patrons of Sueños.