April 12, 2012. I will never forget this date. This was the day we lost SISAC league championship to YCIS playing at home by an embarrassing 5 x 2. For years YCIS was our nemesis on this side of the river and without any doubt together with the German school a true contender to the League Champion.

We played today with our possible full force. Maddi was dressed up to play for the first time. Well, kind of, she forgot her socks and cleats. Unfortunately after a little warm up, she started feeling her ankle. It was also amazing to see Franziska walking normally without crutches or even limping. In maybe three weeks we can have Franny back!

Thanks to Mrs. Nour (we love you!) we could have Marta and Louise since the beginning of the match and what a difference that made but more on thus you can read later in this post. Before the match we had an annoying issue. One of YCIS’ best player, their #10 was with a cast on her arm. I understand she wrapped a towel around it but it’s still very dangerous to other players. Imagine if accidentally she hits Kyra on the head with a cast? By rule you cannot play with anything that can put other players safety in risk. I thought it was a bit ironic that their #8 came to tell me to ask our team to go easy on her. I had to call Mr. Martin to talk to YCIS Athletic Director to address this situation. You can imagine how much now YCIS players hate me but the safety of my girls above all. #10 will have a chance to play against us March 28th anyway.

If YCIS needed a stimuli to beat us, I gave one on a silver platter. I told this to our girls and  we decide to play it as a championship final match. We started with Bella, Inês and Katy defending, Suh-Young on the right, Louise center and Kyra left. Marta was our striker. Right away we started putting as much pressure as possible on them. YCIS field is an awkward field. It’s wide and very short so a goalie punt can go all the way to the other box. On top of that, the goals are with a weird proportion. They are shorter and wider. Luckily my assistant coach Natasha was here and helped Bella warming up for that.

The game started very even, with both sides having good ball control. Even though we shot more at goal, the first 10 minutes both teams were showing why traditionally they are always on the top of the league. Everything changed at 11 minutes in the match when MartaMessi showed all her skills; she dribbled a defender and shot with no chance to the YCIS goalie. 1 x 0. Wait, have I said 11 minutes? To be precise, it was 11:02 minutes. This is important because at 11:57 minutes in the match, Marta recovered a ball in the middle, pushed to the right wing, shot a weak shot at the goal but the goalie did not hold. Guess what? Kyra was there just to push this ball in. 2 x 0.

At 13 minutes, a sad moment for sportsmanship. Number #2 of YCIS deflected a ball and it almost hit my head. #8 passed in front of me and said to #2 “You have to aim better”. It’s sad because when YCIS beat us 5 x 2 in our own field, none of our girls ever wished something bad to them. Anyway, must had been hard to her see her team losing 2 x 0 with 11 minutes.

Back to the match, something unprecedented happened. Due to the high level of pollution, we had to have a small break of 3 minutes after 15 minutes. In Brazil we sometimes have that due to the heat but I never had in one of my matches a “pollution break”. Back to the game, YCIS had their first shot at 21 minutes in the match and at 24, MartaMessi passed a ball that I would call a “please score” pass to Kyra. It was brilliant! And polite like Kyra is, she could not say no; SCIS 3 x 0. It was Kyra’s gift for me as a Teacher’s Appreciation gift. I loved it, Kyra!!!

At 25 minutes, bad things started to happen. Sinead go hit really hard on her face by a ball. It was unintentional but still, very painful. With her warrior spirit, she wanted to still play but her glasses were broken so she had to sit out for the rest of the match. At the 30 minute mark, their goalie got a ball, punted it almost our box and I don’t know why Inês stopped and their #8 only had the trouble to put the ball on the left side of Bella. First goal we suffered in the league. 3 x 1. And first half ended like this.

In the second half, did not take to long to SCIS to show why we are a good candidate to be one of the strongest teams in the league. Marta stole a ball from an YCIS player, spun on her left leg and with all her power shot a ball that was impossible to their goalie to defend. It was so powerful that Marta even lost her balance and fell. How she can put so much power in one shot? Insane! SCIS 4 x 1.

Don’t you guys think that our team is only Marta and Kyra. Hailey got in and drove YCIS defense crazy! Louise at 4 minutes shot an incredible “falling”shot that hit the cross bar and Hailey shot the bar again at the rebound. Besides that, Katy and Inês are solid defenders!

But you see, when we have a player like MartaMessi, it’s inevitable to speak her name frequently. At 8 minutes into the second half, Marta dribbled two and passed an incredible ball to Kyra score one more goal by just pushing the ball in the net. SCIS 5 x 1. Right after this goal, Greta pushed the ball to their field but unfortunately her pass was intercepted by YCIS who stroke a deadly counter attack. #8 sprinted with Inês (with was not 100% due to some knee pain) and she is extremely dangerous; shot the ball on the left side of Bella’s goal. SCIS 5 x 2. Seems that Greta was not having a good day after all since at the 13th minute she was hit really hard at the face by a ball and had to come out. Luckily I had with me an specialist in concussion so Kyra’s mother really monitored and helped as much as possible Greta. Thank you very much, Joan!

One thing that we need to be clear, YCIS’ goalie is really good! Don’t let be fooled by the scoreboard. We shot the incredible number of 69 balls towards her goal. Marta alone shot 33! Other player that shot a lot at goal was Kyra, with 11 shots, one of those, a beautiful high shot from the mid-offensive field, with no chance for the goalie. SCIS 6 x 2. On the 27th minute of the second half, Suh-Young lost an incredible goal. She was not in her best day, I guess she was distracted by something… Or better saying, by someone, isn’t that so, Suh-Young? 🙂

Wait, there is time for one more goal. At the 29th minute of the second half, Marta saved a ball that was going out of bounds and passed perfectly to Kyra. Once more, our #9 showed why traditionally this number is the top scorer and scored her fifth goal in this match. If I were Kyra, every time I would see Marta at school I would say “Thank You”.

It’s an amazing team. Not only Marta and Kyra but as a whole team it’s a winning team. Just see our team page to see how everybody participates. There is no starters and we would not win without a solid defence and without our Danish brain in the midfield. We are a top contender to the title. We may lose, it’s true but heck! Even Barcelona loses sometimes but when we play like today, it’s a show. Congrats girls! More to come, this Thursday!

Goals: Kyra (5), Marta (2)
Assists: Suh-Young, Kyra and Marta (3)
MVP of the match: Marta