Senior Year, Last SAISA, Favorite Sport, Home Pitch AND Third Place. This is more than I could have ever asked for and I’m really happy!
This was my 5th year on the team, but only my 2nd year actually being part of the SAISA tournament and the lady geckos managed to bring home the bronze. I couldn’t be any more proud of what we managed to achieve and I speak for the whole team. We played harder every game and walked off as a stronger team despite the result. Having played 6 games in total, we won 4 out of those 6.
This tournament was also extra special because for the first time in the history of SAISA Girls Football, it was a 10 team tournament. The 10 teams in the tournament were:
- American Community School (ACS)
- American International School of Chennai (AISC)
- American International School of Dhaka (AISD)
- American School of Bombay (ASB)
- Colombo International School (CIS)
- Karachi American School (KAS)
- Lahore American School (LAS)
- Lincoln School (LS)
- Overseas School of Colombo (OSC)
- The American International School of Muscat (TAISM)
We had worked hard for 3 months and days to show what we could do had finally arrived. Came the morning of SAISA Day 1, I woke up with adrenaline rushing through my body. I was definitely nervous but also super excited.
After the opening ceremony, as the hosting school we were to play the first game of the tournament against LAS. With some nail biting moments, tremendous support from everyone at school watching and a strong effort we came out with a 2-1 win. Many of us were nervous at the beginning of the game but we kept getting better and started to loosen up as the game went on. Even though we won our first game, we knew the next game against AISD was going to be a challenging one. With a short break in between, we were back on the pitch to play against AISD.
We started this game off strong with a solid defense. They did however have a very strong offense and as a team we hadn’t had a chance to play a team that dominates the possession of the ball in our own half. There was a moment when one of the players kicked the ball towards our goal from almost the halfway line and it just went over our goalkeepers head. The second goal was also scored within the next two minutes and this is how the score came to be 0-2 to them. After halftime, we kept our defense strong, didn’t let them score and had a few chances to ourselves. AISD was a good team with some good passing skills and we couldn’t quite keep them from scoring.
We were done for the day and tomorrow we would play our other two pool games against ASIC and LS. It was important to place well in these pool games because the top two teams from each pool would qualify for the semis.
Came the morning, we were going to play our first and only game on the second pitch which was turf and bigger in size. The first things we al noticed was how hot the surface of the pitch was. The ball also didn’t travel as much as it did on out own pitch. While warming up we got a sense of what it was actually like. I asked that each player’s focus for the game should be to make at least three successful passes with a purpose in mind instead of just kicking the ball away- this happened a lot yesterday. We went into the game passing a whole lot more and this was nice to see. The pitch was also bigger which gave players more time to pick out a pass. The score of this game was 2-1 to us and we came out as the dominating team.
Last game of the day was against LS and a very important game for both teams. We win this game and we’d make it to the semi finals and a tie or a loss meant that LS would go into the semis and we’d play the 5th/6th place game. Before the game, I spent a lot of time with my team just laughing around and having fun which was needed but just before the game, we had a team quick to get our heads in the game. This game was important to us and really we had nothing to lose. We win and we only get to place better. We all really wanted this but we knew LS wanted it too. I wanted my team to have to have fun playing this game because it would be a good one. It was the last game of the day and we had a huge home crowd supporting. The first 15 minutes of the game and we were already dominating with the ball in their half for the majority of the time. Our defense was strong and we didn’t let them take any chances to score. With another shot on target, one of their defenders put their head on it to defend it and instead it went into their own goal and the goalie couldn’t stop it. This was a goal for us and we ran back into our own half happy and celebrating. We were 1-0 up on the scoreboard and a step closer to making into the semis. The game however was not over and we still had a long way to go. We continued to defend well and take chances. With 6 minutes left in the game, lighting started so we were asked to come off the filed for safety reasons. With no sign of lighting stopping, the game was called to an end and the score remained. As a team we agreed that we wished we had gotten to play the last 6 minutes of the game and this isn’t exactly how we wanted to win but it was a win nevertheless.
We were through to the semis and this was an amazing achievement. Our team was exhilarated and excited for what was to come. Because we were second in our pool, we were going to play the first team in the other pool which was TAISM. TAISM is a good team with a couple of really good players so it was going to be a good game.
The next day was an important day and despite the result of our games, we were going to play two games.
We were in school early the next morning to play the first game.
More details about the tournament can be found here: osc.lk/saisa
Malaika's CAS Blog 