And the time had arrived. With some minor surprises, everything went as planned and here we are, playing our third consecutive ACAMIS Finals, all of them against BISS Pudong.We lost one, won the other. It’s time for the tie-breaker. Everybody was anxious about it, including myself. We still have some problems for finals; Marta and Franziska were still not in their best physical condition and Greta was in pain due to shin splints. On top of that, we had to play extra time in the semifinals and in the past I had a feeling we lost our two SISAC finals because we were tired.  The starting team was Bella, Kyra back as defender (it was her first position in the team), Inês and Katy, all defending, and Suh-Young, Louise and Hailey in the midfield. We played again the Hamburger formation and I had faith that since we practice it exactly against BISS Pudong in the previous morning, we would play it better.

Seems that I was right. With 1 minute, right after a corner kick, Suh-Young headed very close towards their goal. Still, both teams were not daring too much pushing forward and the game was slow. Slow but not boring. One minute later, we were again at their box, with another corner from Louise that crossed the whole box. For three minutes Pudong did not crossed the half line. Then they finally got close to our goal with their most lethal weapon; a side throw from their #7. She can throw this ball incredible distances! They had two throws but Kyra, Katy and Inês were rock solid defending. The problem was that BISS started “enjoying” the game and pushed forward and they had a good chance at the 6th minute where their #7 was in front of Bella but she shot out of bounds.

With 8 minutes it was time to change our formation from Hamburger to Frikadeller so our MartaMessi and German Panzer went to the field and drove BISS defensive players insane. And that’s what they did. Marta with her dribbles an holding the ball in the attack area while Franziska fighting for the ball on the right side of the field. Now we had the upper-hand in the game. For a while the fight was concentrated in the midfield but then Louise had a beautiful pass to Marta, who assisted Franziska that was alone facing the goal but unfortunately the ball was bouncing and the shot went off target.

No one had a clear chance after that but by the end of the first half BISS started putting some pressure on us but then the first half was over. In our talk in the halftime we were very focused. We are the current champions and they are respecting us so it’s time now to keep our game and push forward so either Marta or Franziska can score. Until the magic moment came: Side-throw from Inês to Marta who was pressured by a defender. Even though Marta could not sprint, she outran the defender, waited the goalie to come out of the goal and with a skill that we only see with the best players of this game, she gently pushed the ball through the right side of the goalie.  1 x 0 SCIS.

It was natural that BISS would push forward. After all, losing by 1 or losing by 10, makes no  difference. Still, we were rock solid defending. We still were pushing forward but most of the team were defending and since Marta could not sprint, was very hard to have a counter attack. Our goal was to keep the ball on their defensive side, with us if not shooting, at least holding the ball there. Marta still had a great chance around the 11th minute when she sprinted dribbling two of BISS players but the ball ran away from her and another chance when a ball was deflected in front of her with 5 minutes to end the match. At that moment in the match, we were actually putting pressure on them. For three minutes were us only attacking them.

On the other hand, last minute was the opposite. They were all in our defensive field, pressuring us non-stop but our system was flawless! They did not had any clear chance of goal and we were just waiting the match to be over. It was kind of ironic that this was the only match that the referee gave extra time so the match ended with extra 2 minutes. Still, this time we showed an amazing level of stamina. We were running if not more, at least the same that BISS was running. The inevitable final whistle came and there you go! Two consecutive ACAMIS championships. We may not be queens of the world, but for sure at least from Shanghai, for a year, we are. I am happy to say that I have a very small part in the goal. After all, I gave the ball to Inês before the side-throw so I kind of “assisted” her.

It’s hard to pick an MVP for this match because the team was brilliant! No mistakes. Yes, Marta scored the goal but the rest of the team was rock solid. So like last year, the MVP is the team in this case. The Triple Crown belongs to all of us.

BELLATORUM INVICTUM!

Goals: Marta
Assists:
MVP of the match: The twice-ACAMIS Champion Team

If I could choose an adversary for the semifinals, would not be Dulwich. They were the only team we tied. As a matter of a fact, they were the team we did not had scored a single goal in a match the whole season. I am not scared of them. I just wanted to face them in a regular 70 minutes match. Since to be champions we cannot choose our adversary, we got ready to face them. Their coach is very sympathetic and came to talk to me before the match saying it was a pleasure to play against us and was wishing already luck at the finals, even before our match against them. I told him that we need to wait for the match to be over but that showed me that all the pressure was on us. They were a JV team (with two or three players from their Varsity) and we were the current ACAMIS champions, undefeated until that point.

I decided to start with Bella, Inês and Katy defending, Kyra, Louise and Suh-Young midfield and Franziska as a striker. With three minutes Franziska dribbled two in the midfield and pushed forward but did not let her potent shot out so it was an easy save from their goalie. They had a free kick from their defensive side and when we recovered the ball, Louise pushed it forward, dribbled one in the midfield but passed too strong to Franziska. It would had been a great counter-attack. Even if we controlled more the ball, we were not shooting.

At the 12th minute an unique moment. Their player #15 tried a bicycle kick. The ball hit her shin so it was not a good one but still, it’s impressive to someone try this kind of move in such important match.

At the 13th minute, our best chance up to that moment. Kyra recovers the ball, held the pressure from #15 and passes beautifully to Franziska. Franziska sprinted, got the ball, calmly decided where to shoot but unfortunately hit the crossbar. So close! One minute later, our German Panzer once more got the ball, pushed forward and shot but this time, out. She was impossible! Our goal seemed to be on it’s way. After those to shots from Franziska, was time to have MartaMessi in the field. I moved Franziska to the wing to keep her momentum pressuring. We had 6 corners kicks in a row. On the last one, Louise shot towards the goal, a defender deflected on Marta’s feet and you guys know; ball in the box on Marta’s feet, goal. That was on the last minute of first half. After a whole half pressuring non-stop, we were finally rewarded! 1 x 0 SCIS.

I told the team at the break that we had one foot in the finals but we should score another goal to start rotating players so all could go fresh to the finals. We pressured non-stop the first half, I knew would be hard to do the same during the whole second half. And of course, the worst happened; Katy trapped a ball in our mid-defensive side. Their skilful #15 waited Katy make a decision. Instead of passing either to Kyra (on the left) or Inês (on the right), she tried to dribble. #15 got the ball, pushed to the side and crossed to the box. Bella was ready to get the ball but Inês tried to deflect it and by accident pushed inside our goal. This is to see that even the best, once in a lifetime makes mistakes. Inês and Katy are the best defenders we ever had in our team so who am I to be upset if they did one mistake? I told the whole team that nothing was lost. Shake it up, get the ball, it’s 0 x 0 again, let’s get our ticket to the finals!

Of course, this happening within the first minute of the second half, it was like a bucket of icy water thrown on our heads. We slowed our game down and they started pressuring but just a bit. Right after, Marta and Franziska had a good play and Franziska shot together with a Dulwich defender. I even thought that she may had hurt her ankle.

Then on the 27th minute, their #15 tried a bicycle kick again. This time close to our goal and it was a good one! Even the guys from our school were impressed. The ball went way over our cross bar but still, it was a beautiful shot.

With 10 minutes to end the match, I noticed Franziska extremely frustrated and I did not know why but she was not in her best mood. I subbed her and had a very important talk. She is a veteran in this team, playing with me and for SCIS for three years. She is one of the pillars and we need her strength, both physical and emotional. I told her I need her to take a deep breath, recompose herself and get back in the field because the team needed her. As an amazing athlete that she is, she took five minutes to be ready.

While my German Panzer was recovering, we kept pressuring and Inês showed all her might with an incredible slide tackle (fair one, on the ball) which connected to a brilliant counter-attack with Suh-Young and Marta. Suh-Young had everything to score but she took too long to trap the ball. I almost had a heart attack. She had the whole goal for herself but taking too long gave the goalie chance to recover.

They tried to counter-attack but our defence was solid and we still had some opportunities  with Kyra, Marta and now back in the field, Franziska.

Another heart-attack moment. On the last minute of the regular time, Dulwich shoots a ball all the way back on their defensive side. Their #15 sprints alone, Katy running by her side. Katy manages to touch the ball but fell, luckily the ball runs a little further than #15 could reach so gives time to Bella, as a black spider, to jump on her feet and avoid a possible goal. Wow! On the other hand, last 30 seconds, Franziska shoots from a distance and the ball goes over the crossbar. End of regular time and I see Dulwich players celebrating. They should. After all, our second tie in the season and both against them. But beware! We are not defeated.

My job in the quick talk we had after the match was to calm them down. I do something that they hate but I think it’s important, even for me to calm down; I count out loud very slowly until 10. I’ve told the team we were going to win. We needed only more 5 minutes for that (I did not know it would be two halves of 5 since during SISAC is only one). Worst case scenario, we practiced a lot penalty kicks. Our takers are (in this order) Inês, Katy and Kyra. Besides that, we have Bella and I was sure Bella would save the day.

Started the first half of the extra time and we were extremely calm and under control, which was great! We kept shooting but all shots were far from the goal. At least they did not have any shot at our goal during the first half and five minutes flew by! When we noticed, it was over already.

We had more five minutes to stamp our passport to the finals and oh my! I was getting worried. I trust my team but the pressure was tremendous! Marta was supposed to play only 20 minutes in total and she was playing already for 40 minutes. Some players I did not even subbed because I was worried of having someone coming in and in a moment of still adapting to the position, they come and score. I did not want to go for a “all or nothing” situation because I still believe we could win in the penalty kicks. We started passing well, finding our teammates in the right positions and our game started to flow normally. Still, they managed to have one shot against our goal but when you have Bella as a goalie, it’s nothing to worry about. Nothing was really happening until the magical moment arrived.

With two minutes to finish the extra time, we had a throw in. Inês, like always, was the one responsible for it. She tried to find Marta but a defender deflected it. Lucky as we are,  ball fell on the feet of our Danish Brain so Louise passed to the left, where Franziska and Kyra were. It was a great pass to Franziska but Kyra started shouting to Franziska “mine mine mine mine!”. The German Panzer instead of being selfish and shoot toward the goal, let the ball pass between her legs. Our Glass Head but with nerves of steel trapped the ball, tapped it a little forward and shot. OH MY GOD! GOAL! I never saw Kyra so happy in my life. As a matter of a fact, it was the biggest demonstration of how our team is united. EVERYBODY ran to hug Kyra, our heroine. I actually thought she was going to faint on the field.

After this unforgettable moment, we still had one more chance in a corner kick where the goalie fumbled and Franziska almost got a good header.

Oh my. I doubt that any other match would have such a level of adrenaline like this one. Now was time to the girls to rest as much as possible to face our rivals BISS Pudong at the finals.

Before closing this post, just some thoughts about a special player. My dear Glass Head, thank you very much for accepting my invitation to be part of this team! No concussion will ever take your skills and how you are loved by everybody in this team. “The Headband Girl” is here to stay and this match was the “cherry on the top” of all your brilliant performances throughout the season.

Goals: Marta, Kyra
Assists: Louise
MVP of the match: Kyra

What a horrible weather to play ball. Rained the whole night, it was cold and extremely wind and the field was muddy and soaked. On the other hand, if you are superstitious like me maybe it was an omen. Last year, last day of ACAMIS at Dalian was also very wet, dump and cold and we won the tournament. And believe me, I am VERY superstitious. This season during every match I was wearing my striped shirt (the only match I did not, we lost to SCIS Pudong at the Dragons Cup), I did not cut my hair the whole season and R2D2 still goes to the tournaments. As a matter of a fact, Inês almost sat on him freaked me out since in the past, for two times his leg was broken we ended up losing the finals.

BISS Beijing had lost all their matches up to our match and since the weather was terrible, it was a great excuse to give more time in the field to the players who hadn’t played that much and also rest the injured ones. So we started with Bella, Inês and Katy defending, Suh-Young, Louise and Kyra and Hailey as striker.

Due to the heavy and muddy field, we started in slow motion since the ball would always stops on the water puddles around the field, specially close to the center. Still, we pushed forward and stayed there until around the 8th minute when Louise lifted a ball towards the BISS Beijing goal and Hailey with a variant of the “navel thrust”, the “chest thrust”, score our goal. 1x 0 SCIS. If the game was slow before our goal, after it slowed even more and we started giving spaces to them. They had one player that was kind of a striker, staying in the middle and trying to sprint forward. Around the 16th minute, this player was finally able to pass through Katy and shot towards Bella that without much effort, held the ball. It’s very tricky for a goalie a shot in that weather conditions. The ball is extremely slippery but Bella is Bella and everything was ok. Louise was playing her best this match, holding the ball, passing perfectly and dictating the team’s rhythm.

Second half, I started with Greta and Katy, Phoebe on the right, Inês in the middle and Kyra on the left with Hailey as a striker. I wanted one more goal to relax and not suffer any surprise or stress. After all, we were only one point in front of BISS Pudong in the round robin.

We kept our pressure, shooting some balls from certain distance and always failing on the last pass or when trapping the ball. During the second half, started Greta’s show. With turf cleats, it was very hard for her to change directions quickly or to stop after sprinting so it was almost like “mud-skating”. Still, she was very combative in the midfield, trying to reduce the spaces for BISS Beijing. Around the 28th minute of the match, they had an incredible chance; Katy and Kyra went towards the same player, who passed to their #3 that was completely alone. Since Greta could not change directions fast, their #3 was able to shoot a high ball that hit our crossbar. A good goalie has to have luck too and Bella had this time. That’s why I always says 1 x 0 is an invitation to 1 x 1. We had to at least keep the ball in our offensive field.  By that time, Franziska was as a striker and she shot many balls at their goal but all a bit too high. Suh-Young and Sinead also had some good opportunities to score but with such a terrible weather, 1 x 0 seemed a good result. We saved energy and were ready for the semifinals, against Dulwich, the only team we tied in the whole season.

Goals: Hailey
Assists: Louise
MVP of the match: Louise

Last game of the day and we played against the guest team. Renaissance Hong Kong did not send a girls team so Dulwich was invited to send their JV team. Like I said in my previous post, this can be tricky. I was coaching JV volleyball team and we went to the finals so we must always respect those teams because they have nothing to lose.

We started playing Katy and Greta with Phoebe, Louise and Sinead as midfielders and Franziska as striker. Dulwich knowing we have a strong team, played all back, counting on a mistake from our team to counter attack. They are very physical and every time we got the ball, one player was on top of us forcing us to make a quick decision. Maybe we were tired, maybe accomodate after beating the great BISS Pudong but our game did not flow correctly. They did not shoot a single ball the first half but we also only shot one or two balls towards their goal. By the end of the first half Marta was in and they kept two defenders on her all the time.

For the second half, I had Inês as wing and kept Marta for the whole second half but for no effect. The ball never arrived perfectly to her. We pressured but we were always missing the last pass. To make things worst, they had a chance of one on one and they shot on our crossbar. This game was the first tie we had in the whole season. It’s a good lesson to a team that wants to be champions. We need to be calm when things does not work. Saturday will be a long and wet day, the last day of our season.

Goals:
Assists:
MVP of the match: Greta

Second match of the day now  versus BCIS. I decided to start with Greta defending with Katy and let Inês rest a bit. Also Franziska started as a striker so our team was Bella, Katy and Greta, Suh-Young right, Louise and Kyra left midfield and Franziska as a striker.

We pressured them non-stop. The ball simply never came in the direction of Bella the whole match. The problem was that BCIS stayed all back so it was really hard to score a goal. Franziska had some good chances but we did not shot towards the goal. They had a very physical player, their #10 that used her arms and body to protect the ball and this was enervating Louise a bit. We ended 1st half 0 x 0.

With a team that only defends, our job is to pass non-stop and have patience. They will make a mistake and we get into that space and score. I started the second half with the same team that finished the first; Bella, Katy and Greta, Suh-Young right, Louise center, Inês and Marta as a striker. After a lot of pressure, at the 5th minute of the second half Inês (that was playing as  right wing this time) passed beautifully to Marta who was inside the box and  had no trouble shooting at the left side of the goal. 1 x 0 SCIS.

Ahead in the score, we calmed down and started passing beautifully. Inês was impossible! Dribbling and passing marvellously. To give more playtime to Franziska so she got in on the right wing and Inês went back defending with Katy. At 14th minute of the second half, Franziska was fighting for a ball and shot really weak towards the goalie. The ball bounced really close to her hands making her fumble and let the ball go in. 2 x 0 SCIS. After that, we just let the time pass to end the match. Kyra still had time to miss an incredible goal after a succession of beautiful passes between Inês, Louise, Franziska, Marta. The ball bounced right before she shot and she did not get the precision she wanted.

Next match at 5 vs Dulwich College Shanghai. They were invited and it’s their JV team but still, we need to be 100% focused on winning. I have a story to tell about a JV boys volleyball team that was invited for an ACAMIS and ended up going to the finals. Have you ever heard this one?

Goals:  Marta, Franziska
Assists: Inês
MVP of the match: Inês

Today will be a tough day. Three matches in a row and the first one was against BISS Pudong. The sun is shining but it’s not that warm (14 degrees). I was happy to see that Franziska could walk and even play! Anyway she would not play against BISS because it will be a very physical match. I spent the whole night thinking on how we can play against the amazing team of BISS so I came up with a formation with two lines of three which the girls kindly baptised as the Hamburger formation. We would not have a fixed striker but one defensive line with Greta, Katy and Inês as a libero. On the left Kyra, Louise as center and Suh-Young as right wing. The idea of this formation is to recover the ball as fast as possible and rely upon Suh-young’s speed to push this ball forward.

When we were warming up, bad news. Kyra felt her knee and was not confident to sprint and asked to not start the match so Hailey started on the left wing.

The match started with much respect from both teams, analysing how each other plays. They have a player that can throw-in amazing distances! It’s incredible! Also, there was a HUGE crowd behind us cheering for them. We played all back giving all their defensive field to them to pass but very solid on our own defensive system. It was very risky from me to create a new formation but due to our injuries I felt it was necessary. My plan was to try like a Rocky Balboa tactic; let them keep trying to score, getting exhausted in the process and then when they are really tired, I would put Marta as a striker and try to get them off guard.

At the 11th minute, the shock. Their #8 got a ball from the side (Katy was on her), she quickly passed to their #7, who dribbled Greta and crossed as soon as Bella went out on her. Their tall #10 was super well positioned with Hailey being there trying to avoid and by accident pushed this ball inside . 0 x 1 BISS Pudong. If something could had be done, Inês should had kept following the play, to avoid #7 to cross but Bella tried to do this too so it’s hard to say.

What I love in this team is the spirit of never giving up. Get the ball, bring back to the center and let’s start a brand new match! I subbed Greta and put Marta as a striker. She cannot sprint too much so I asked her to dribble as much as possible to be in good position to shoot or being as a pivot and serve the others to shoot. We started pressuring now BISS Pudong on their half.

The change of formation caught BISS Pudong off guard and we kept the ball most of the time in their defensive field. I also think they have some injured players because they were substituted for the half of time. Until we were rewarded. At the last minute we were rewarded; Inês threw-in to Marta, who saw Louise moving to the middle and passed amazingly to her and Louise baaam! (like Inês would say). 1 x 1 and end of first match.

Second half we went back to Hamburger formation and at 2 minutes and a half of the second half, Suh-Young, our happy Korean, shot an incredible ball from the mid-offensive area an arc ball that almost went over the goalie and hit the crossbar. Hailey was a split second late otherwise she could had pushed that ball in. Suh-Young played an amazing match, always well positioned and she really deserved that goal.

After so much pressure, Inês took a side-throw, Suh-Young kicked and the ball bounced from a defender into our goal. 2 x 1 SCIS. BISS girls felted the goal and slowed down their plays. Also helping us holding back Greta was impeccable in the second half, holding the advances of BISS.

We were able to hold their pressure and five minutes to end, with Marta back in the field and Kyra being able to play with full confidence and strength, we were able even to bring some danger again to BISS goal. I did not want the girls to spend too much energy since we still have two more games today and three tomorrow so it was a great victory this match. It all depends on us to be first. Girls just had lunch now and went to watch the boys. Our next match is at 1:00PM vs Beijing City.

Goals:  Louise
Assists: Marta
MVP of the match: Suh-Young

The first day of our last tournament. Seven matches to end this unforgettable season and the anxiety that don’t  let me sleep. This tournament counts with six teams that plays against each other in a round robin. The top 4 teams goes to a semifinals and then we have the final match or the 3rd and 4th place.

We arrived at BISS Pudong around 11:30AM and at 1:00PM we had a modest open ceremony. The highlight of the ceremony was BISS Pudong HS Principal’s speech. It was funny how he made the point that our teams (from SCIS) were sitting on the first row. I hope it’s an omen!

Our first match was only at 3:00PM and was very cold and extremely windy. We started warming up 30 minutes before because in this tournament we will not have warmup time on the pitch, it will always be done before each match.

KAS is one of the three strongest teams in this tournament so we had to be really careful playing against them. The starting formation was Bella, Inês and Katy defending, Suh-Young, Louise and Kyra in the midfield and Franziska as a striker. Marta is still having problems with her hamstring so I decided to let her play 5 minutes at the end of each half.

The match itself was not problematic. As a matter of a fact, we played way below our normal standard. Passes were not flowing and we have lots of space in the defensive system. They never really shot a direct ball at Bella but they had many chances with players by themselves in front of our goalie. This against a stronger team will be fatal to us.

Luckily, we have our German Panzer! at 15 minutes of the first half, Franziska receives the ball from Suh-Young and, spun and shot a cannonball at KAS goal. The goalie tried more to protect herself than actually defend it. 1 x 0 SCIS.

Right after Franziska’s goal, I subbed her by Marta and told her to not force too much her leg. Just jog around our offensive field and dribble as much as she could, serving the other girls to shoot. But Marta is MartaMessi so the first ball she got, she dribble a defender and shot very softly on the left side of the goalie. I guess the goalie did not expect it and jumped a little late to catch. SCIS 2 x 0.

On the second half, we had a great chance with Inês starting a play, dribbling in the midfield, passing to Franziska who crossed to Phoebe, it was fairly close to the goal. Nothing much happened in the match with the exception a very saddening moment. At the beginning of the second half, Franzika twisted her ankle. Not like the one from Basketball ACAMIS but the other one. We started treating it right away but we don’t know if she will be able to play on Friday. I really hope is nothing serious. We really need her strength and power in the field.

Goals:  Marta, Franziska
Assists: Kyra, Suh-Young
MVP of the match: Franziska