Once again, it’s my favourite time of the year: football season. This is my 5th doing football and probably the year I am most excited for because we are hosts this year! OSC is hosting a football tournament after six years so this is very exciting for everyone.
For our first training practice, 23 girls showed up to tryout and that is the most we have had in a very long time. We kickstarted (literally) the session with a good warm up where the enthusiasm and energy from all the girls was great. Imalini and I are the only seniors playing football this year as for many, the decision to do a season three sport was hindered by just how close our final exams are. This however didn’t stop me because I am finally getting an opportunity to be a part of SAISA Football after 3 years. It’s my last SAISA, senior year AND we get home pitch advantage- it really doesn’t get more perfect than this.
The first big thing we have to train for is the TISSL tournament which we won two years a go and were runners up for last year. We really want to win it back this year. In preparation for this, we played some friendly games against CIS.
These games not only gave us play time, but also gave the coaches and us to experiment with positions and game plays. The kind of skills gained from game time is very valuable and gives us experience with pressure, situations and opposition which are all very important in football. This is key especially for the many younger girls playing this year.
The first game we played against CIS was on a Saturday morning and for many of us, it was a good way to get a sense of what playing a game is like. CIS put up a good fight but we won the game 3-2 after being given two penalties. We definitely got lucky a and we came out of that game knowing we had loads to work on.
Our second game was just three days later on the Tuesday and we tied this game 1-1. I already felt us getting better and we really had more control of the game play for this game. We defended well and kept the ball in their half. We also got a better sense of what players play best in which position. Many girls surprised me with their performances on the pitch and this was very encouraging knowing we were only in our second week of training.
Yet again, we ended up playing a third game against CIS which was right before we headed off to the TISSL tournament where our first game was also going to be against them. By now, we had plenty of experience playing against CIS. We won this game with ease with the final score being 4-1. We were ready for TISSL with some good game experience and a positive mindset.
TISSL starts Monday and we’ll be playing five round robin games. If we win at least 4/5 of these games, we will be in the finals which will be played on Thursday.
GOOOO LADY GECKOS!
Malaika's CAS Blog 