SAISA football

The SAISA football tournament finally arrived, and I have to say our team COMPLETELY exceeded my expectations. We had won every one practice game against other schools in Sri Lana easily, and so we hadn't come up against much competition. This made me pretty nervous because I knew that the games at SAISA would be much tougher, but I didn't know how prepared we were.

The teams that came to the tournament were:
American Embassy School (AES) - New Delhi, India
American School of Bombay (ASB) - Mumbai, India
American International School of Dhaka (AISD) - Dhaka, Bangladesh
American International School of Chennai (AISC) - Chennai, India

Lahore American School (LAS) - Lahore, Pakistan
Lincoln School (LS) - Kathmandu, Nepal
International School of Islamabad (ISOI) and Murree Christian School (MCS) - Pakistan
Overseas School of Colombo (OSC) - Colombo, Sri Lanka!!

The weather for the tournament was terrible. It had rained for weeks beforehand so both of the fields were more like wetland marshes than football pitches. We played most of the matches on our field at school, as by the end of the three days the other field we had hired for the tournament was unplayable. As well as that, some of the matches on the third day had to be cancelled because it started pouring again. However, everyone persevered despite the difficult conditions to make the tournament a success!

Most people played the same positions that they had all training season, but we mixed things up a little in defense. Kavindra and I had mostly been centre defense and sweeper for the trainings, but for the SAISA games we put Saba as sweeper and Kavi and I shared the position of central defender. This actually worked really well, and both Kavi and I adjusted to the change and continued to give our all. Saba was far and away the best player on our team, so it felt very safe to have her on defense, and meant that I could play more adventurously than I normally would.

I think that this team was probably the most cohesive team I have ever played with. Over the tournament we really learned to read each other almost telepathically, we kept each other's spirits up and we worked together at every step of the way. I don't think anyone thought that they were being left out or were unimportant, because everyone was an integral part of the team.

Our games were:

1. AISC (Chennai) - won 5:0
2. ISOI and MCS (Pakistan) - won 3:1
3. AISD (Dhaka) - won 2:1
4. SEMI-FINALS: ASB (Mumbai) - won 2:1
5. FINALS: AES (New Delhi) - lost 0:3

So we ended up coming second - which is the best OSC has done in Girls' Football for a long time. It was disappointing not to win the final on our home ground, but AES outclassed us - they won the tournament without conceding a single goal. In the end, I was still very proud to come second.

As with basketball last year, I wrote quotes on my arm for each match, except I now can't remember what they were! However, my tournament quotes were:

"You said we're a team. One person struggles, we all struggle. One person triumphs, we all triumph"

I think our team really lived up to this as a whole. We had the least amount of infighting I've known on a girls' sports team, and we played our hearts out, together, every single match.

"Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire."

As an individual I followed this idea to the best of my ability. I gave 100% to every match. I may not have had a very complex role (defense is more straightforward than offense - just STOP THAT BALL!) but within that role, and within my team, I set myself on fire.

I also improved a lot over the season - I learned new skills such as positioning, jockeying (defensive move), how to pass directly and effectively and the beginnings of how to dribble. Having never really played football meant that everything I learned was new, but this gave me more opportunity for growth. I also learned that I really love playing football, and I hope to continue to play in the future.