Two hours in a bus to go, two hours in a bus to come back. This is the kind of match we don’t want to lose just for the stress to go there and come back. To add more “flavor” to this, Marta had just arrived from London and even though she was dying to play, she had to rest and Hailey got sick so both were out. Our squad have 9 players ready to give it all for another victory.

Like always, we started a bit slow. Our formation was our traditional 2x3x1 with Bella as goalie, Inês and Katy, right wing Suh-Young, Louise center and Phoebe occupying the left area of the field. Kyra was our striker. Even being slow, we kept the ball always at Suzhou’s half of the field. They were extremely defensive and the game became almost attack Vs defence.

So the inevitable happened around five minutes into the match. With our extreme pressure, Phoebe got a rebound inside the box and just had to push it inside the net. Phoebe’s first goal of the season and the first goal as an SCIS athlete!

Feeling the weight of our pressure, Suzhou girls started to give us more space and if you give space in the midfield, our captain will take advantage of it. Louise shot from a long distance and the goalie deflected to her own net. As a matter of a fact, Louise shot the astounding number of 13 shots throughout the whole match. Incredible!

The third goal is the controversial one. From the left, all by herself, Sinead, our beloved Freshman, received a great pass from Inês, and without trapping the ball had a nice shot on the right corner of the goal, no chance for the goalie. The problem is that Suzhou does not have net on the sides of the goal so the ball went through. To make things worse, the referee whistled the goal and the end of first half together and he forgot to take note of it. I’ve edited a short video with all the goals to appeal for it. Don’t worry Sinead! I am fighting for it!

With 3 x 0 on the scoreboard, I decided to be a bit daring. I moved Inês to be right wing. With that, Greta played almost the whole second half together with Katy and they dominated our defensive side. Katy is a GIANT defending and Greta did a good job on the left defensive side. After a little while as right wing, I moved Inês to center midfield to give a time out to Louise and Phoebe took the right wing. Inês was brilliant! She gave (once more) a perfect pass to Kyra. She had all the time in the world to trap and just with a soft push, score on the right side of the goal.

8 minutes after, Inês once more. After a little chaos inside Suzhou’s box, penalty kick! Inês get the ball and as Cristiano Ronaldo would do, shot a power ball on the ground, left side of the goalie. Viva Portugal!

Wait, there is more Inês! In a counter-attack, Inês pushed the ball and passed to Phoebe, who dribbled one defender and shot to score her second goal in the match and our 6th goal. Real Madrid has Ronaldo, we have Inês.

Bella touched the ball no more than 4 times throughout the whole match. Still she has to be tested against a team that constantly pressure us but even though this did not happen yet, the whole team feels that we still have a strong goalie there protecting us.

Two matches, two wins but a long road to be champions. Seems that we have the desire and the will to win, now we need to improve our skills and most of all, our stamina considering our numbers are limited. Girls, take care of yourselves and keep in shape! Season is just started. Two matches down, ten to go.

Special thanks to Natasha, who helped me today by warming up with Bella while the rest of the team was warming up. I hope she can help us during more practices and become the assistant coach. It all depends on her will to go to Dragons Cup! No pressure. 🙂

Goals: Phoebe (2), Inês, Kyra, Louise, Sinead
Assists: Inês (3)
MVP of the match: Inês