Nothing better than start a week with a victory. But don’t fool yourselves, it was far from easy. Like always, the German school is a tough team to play against. They love the game and they play hard. Not unfair but they don’t hold back when they have to defend. Hardly ever you will see one on one against them. Whenever Hailey or Olivia got the ball, two or three players were around them. Our starting line up was; Cassie, Inês and Kyra, Franziska, Louise (Capitain) and Suh-Young and Hailey as the striker.

We had to adapt to their field. It’s shorter than ours and narrower so any punt from their goalie was already almost in our penalty box. They are also not afraid to shoot from anywhere. Their shots hit twice our post but we were not dead. One ball the goalie saved almost from inside the goal and other chance the ball hit both poles, running on the goal line. It was not a goal by centimeters. Our defenders were not in their best day but our goalie was brilliant, almost not offering any rebound. The first half ended 0 x 0 and was an open match, where any team could win.

During the second half our little Katy was a giant defending, not being intimidated by the German strength. Olivia, even though always surrounded by defenders, found a way to be face-to-face to the goalie and that’s mortal; after a precise pass from our captain, our cold blooded Swedish had the patience to wait the goalie decide what to do and shot on the other corner. A true Scandinavian goal.

The Germans felt the goal and reduce a bit their pressure. We did exactly the opposite. Pressuring again, this time our own German served Olivia to score our second goal. We still had time to one more, with Celine pressuring from the right, it was an open avenue from the left and our forwarder Hailey passed the ball to Olivia who carried it all the way from almost midfield to score the third goal. That’s what the British calls a hat trick (hat? Why is that? I need to find out). We in Brazil say is a “goleada”.

Next Thursday we play again the German school but this time at home. It will be a completely different match. They know how we play and we will have the pressure of playing to our crowd. I hope a lot of people will come and support us. It’s a great feeling and incentive to play for an audience that will support us no matter what.

Goals: Olivia (3)
Assists: Louise, Franziska, Hailey
MVP of the match: Olivia