Sudden Death

Text 1: The Hips Said Left, by Kofi Ellery

An original short story extract.

Sudden death. If Sol did not save this one, it was over: the season, the cup, the bus ride home in silence. He stood on his line and bounced on his toes and slapped his gloves together, and the sound came back to him oddly flat, swallowed by the noise from the stand behind the goal.

The striker placed the ball on the spot. He was taller than Sol had expected, with a shaved head and a calm, almost sleepy face, and he did not look at the goal at all. He looked at Sol. Just for a second. Then he turned and walked back, one, two, three, four, five paces, and stopped, and waited, with his hands on his hips.

The goal had never seemed so wide. It stretched away from Sol on both sides, an enormous empty mouth, and he was a single tooth standing in the middle of it. The whistle went. The striker ran. Sol watched his hips, the way Coach had taught him, not his eyes, not his feet. Left. The hips said left. He threw himself left with everything he had, and the whole world tipped sideways, and something hit his fingertips, hard, and he heard, as if from far away, the clang of the ball against the post.

How does Kofi Ellery use language and structure to show the tension Sol feels as he faces the penalty?

You should use relevant subject terminology to support your answer.