Last match of the season. We already champions of the league so why was I so nervous and anxious for that match? We are coming back from the break. We had only one official practice before this match. I was scared our team would be a bit rusty and besides that, if you had me as a coach for years, you know how I always create insane little goals to achieve in the season. I create these goals because it’s a way that we can always keep ourselves motivated. We are athletes, we already achieved a certain success with this football team. So why do we keep trying? What does keep our team always trying hard? We want to be the best always. We want to be able to look back and see that no matter what were the odds, we were always trying our hard to play the beautiful game in away that we will be proud of.
Our last match of the league meant nothing in terms of position. We were already champions since we “won” against BISS Puxi, second place on the west league. That gave me the real chance of trying out a possible team for next year. With that, the only Senior to start the match was Bella. Our defenders were Mikayla and Tehillah, center midfield Kyra, Sinead on the left with Alice on the right and Hailey as a striker. It’s important to say that we never played like this before so it was indeed risky. I will not be here next year so it’s completely up to the future coach to decide the best team but I want the girls to have a least a taste of possible positions. The only one that I am quite sure was mispositioned would be Mikayla. She is an awesome goalie so I guess it will be inevitable to see her inheriting the gloves from Bella next year. Another highlight of this match was the massive support of our parents. It was the first time I saw so many parents coming to support us in an away match. It was awesome. Specially for the fresh oranges for the players during the break. PERFECT!
Let’s get to the match per se. The first half we failed miserably to play our regular jogo bonito. Ball was always in the air and sometimes seemed to be a pinball game with both teams kicking the ball wherever the nose pointed, not passing and distributing the game. Took us almost five minutes to actually start passing the ball Hongqiao style. Kyra passed the ball to the left and our pseudo-Irish Sinead took a good shot but the German goalie defended. The German field is VERY small. It’s almost a perfect square but with a small area so almost every ball reached Bella and the German goalie fairly frequent. Other problem was that almost every punt from Bella ended up in the German goal box which made the match boring to watch and hard to play. We had another good chance only around the eighth minute with Hailey shooting a ball that the German goalie defended. Our Wonder Alice, one minute later, beautifully dribbled nicely a German player but her shot was too weak and their goalie got it.
After many substitutions, the game became extremely boring. To have an idea, Bella and the German goalie exchanged three balls in a row, without any other player touching it. And we had comical moments when for example Franziska tried to trap the ball and ended up sitting on top of it (23rd minute). With our Happy Swedish (Alva) in the field, we started to have more cadence in your gameplay. Still, we were not shooting at goal.
Nothing was happening at the match until we did something that always drives me insane; it’s what we call in Portuguese ” Let me leave the ball for you to leave it” (deixa que eu deixo) where a player stops expecting the other player to get the ball and at the end none of them got it. Well, Inês and Mikayla did that in the midfield and I had to release a guttural, primal scream to see if the team would wake up. It seemed to work because when everything was pointing out to finish the first half with a 0 x 0 on the scoreboard, our Portuguese Brain founded Franziska in the box but she tripped, lucky for us our Happy Swedish was there. The funny aspect of this was that Alva shot the ball and…. Franziska deflected it with her butt! Not happy with this, Alva took another shot , this time on the extreme right of the goal and scored our first goal of the match! My question now is; should we consider Franziska butt-pass as an assist? Anyway, that seemed to waken up our Amazon Warriors. Right after, Alva once more fought for a ball on the corner and passed to Inês. With a power drive shot on the ground, the goalie deflected and Franziska shot on the crossbar. Our Happy Swedish was able to calm the team and make the ball run on the “grass”, instead of having it flying around non-stop.
Second half I’ve started with Greta defending with Mikayla, so we had a lefty there to help passing specially to the other lefty of the team, Kyra whenever both were in the field. Anyway, the second half started as boring as the first half. At least until the 10th minute of the 2nd half, when Franziska, as a real German Panzer, fought for a ball and passed to Inês, who meticulously shot a ball away from the reach of the goalie. 2 x 0 SCIS.
Then at the 27th minute the unthinkable happened. The clouds darkened, the time moved slower, the voice ran way from my throat. Penalty for the German school. A throw in from our left side into our goal box caused havoc and Tehillah and Suh-Young, trying to deflect the ball, ended up hitting Suh-Young’s left arm. We had a penalty against us if I am not mistaken against SAS Puxi but their player shot out. We had in our favor our amazing Swedish Black Spider but the gods of football decided that our Amazon Warriors could not have it all. Goal from German school. 2 x 1. It was the first goal we conceded in the whole season, counting friendlies and official matches. This is way more than the dream season of 2013 where we conceded 8 goals until SISAC tournament. After that goal, you could see our girls all with head down and Bella looking at me as saying: “I am sorry, I couldn’t had done anything”. Suh-Young was the portrait of frustration. What we cannot forget is that we are Amazon Warriors. We are natural fighters. We may take a blow but we will stand up and fight back.
Five minutes after the “unmentionable-moment”, our German Panzer, right after substituting Hailey, got a precious pass from our Portuguese Brain. You should know by now, if you let our German Panzer traps the ball on her right foot, she kills. No chance for their goalie. 3 x 1 SCIS. 100% Franziska, scoring in every single match (official and friendly) in the league. First athlete to achieve this incredible mark.
We still had time to one more amazing play. Phoebe, almost like proving to me that she still the Disciplined Midfielder from last year, passed a ball to Franziska that I should use in every single football lecture about passing. It was a sugary ball that Franziska could not do anything else but to score another goal. If I were Franziska, I would give 70% of this goal to Phoebe. What a pass! 4 x 1.
League is already over. It’s already in the past. Now we have 10 more matches to go in two incredibly tough competitions. We will be the target. We will be the team to be defeated. After four years, we had built a reputation. Our jersey is feared. Our jersey is respected. Our 14 Amazon Warriors bear it with pride and must be ready for every match, every battle.
Bella pointed out that lately I am shouting less and less from the sidelines and I was pondering why this is happening. I came to the conclusion that there are two basic reasons for that. One is that the team is more and more playing the way I want so I don’t actually need to shout every single play. the other, more philosophical one is the fact that more and more the end of a cycle is a reality for me. Part of me wants to simply enjoy seeing my Amazon Warriors playing and not just shouting instructions. I want to see the great evolution from the players that are with me for years. I want to enjoy the quality of the freshmen that just joined the team. It IS a team. We PLAY as team and we are WINNING as a team. 10 more matches. That’s all I ask. Let’s give it all in those 10 more challenges.
Goals: Alva, Inês, Franziska (2)
Assists: Inês, Franziska
MVP of the match: Alva
[UPDATE] I cannot forget to comment on the fact of our illustrious guest, the Defensive Rock Katy Ni, helping with the filming and bringing happiness to the team. It’s awesome to have our former stars showing up. We had Louise some weeks ago, now Katy and soon Marta.The fact we have our former athletes coming back to play with us fills my heart with joy because shows that they love the game and they love the team. Once an Amazon Warrior, always an Amazon Warrior!
BELLATORUM INVICTUM!