Football and Oliver! Musical had it’s tow on my sanity. Eline Zhang went with us to film our match and when we came back, I am sure I transferred to my computer the footage but now I cannot find and I deleted all footage in the camera to open space to film the musical. I always use the footage to help me remember play-by-play so this match review will be a bit broad and please forgive me for that.

Not being rude, our west league have two levels of teams, in my opinion; the ones fighting for the title and the ones there to have more experience in the competition. The French team is on the borderline of both, being the top one of the rest of the teams. Besides SCIS, YCIS and German school are the teams that have solid chances of winning the league.

Back to the match itself. Besides being in such special day (March 21st) I was really concerned; it was the eve of IB Mock exam of Math. Both Marta and Louise had told me they would not be able to play that match due to this circumstance. French school only had lost exactly to YCIS and German school so we could not lose any points against them so giving up the skills and experience of those two girls was keeping me awake at night. I started to devise incredible plans to have at least Louise there, like optimizing to the time so they would be the least amount of time away from the books. We need to understand that besides this situation, Kyra and Franziska still out and Inês worries me a bit with her knee, specially since we had another match right the day after. After a lot of consideration Louise said she would meet us there at French school and Marta would play one half of the game. We had matches without Marta but losing Louise is a delicate situation since Louise, our captain, is the brain of the team. She put her mind and soul in the game and keeps the team always pushing forward. Little by little during this season I am training other players to play in the center midfield so our team keep consistency when the inevitable comes and Louise graduates.

The coach from the French school was very clever. Knowing our offensive power, he played with three defenders so Marta, our striker, was always surrounded by at least three players. I used to do that a lot in the past when our team was still being shaped. The way to go through a tough defensive system is passing the ball and we did that. Once more we keep most of the ball possession in our offensive field but this time we were not able to score goal. Believe me, just Marta alone shot 6 balls during the first half and Inês other 4 shots. Bella did not have any trouble but I was getting anxious because I saw the time running out and since traditionally Marta is our strongest attacking option, I was concerned that if we did not score a goal in the first half and Marta left for the second half, we could had ended the match in a tie. With five minutes to end the first half, Marta finally had the first chance to trap the ball, turn facing the goal and boom! Score! It was actually funny because during the break before the second half, the girls started pressuring Marta to stay, saying that only one goal was not enough, that she had to stay. With everybody asking ( I did not ask but I guess that my face was clearly telling that would be a great birthday present if she did), she decided to stay. A wise decision indeed that I will explain soon enough.

Even though we kept pressuring them, the French school had a very skilled player that did not play against us the first match because she was injured. She knows how to dribble and pass very well. When we got distracted a couple of times, she almost threaten our goal but who has Katy, Greta and Maddi defending, does not have to fear that much. By that time, Inês was playing as left wing. I am testing Inês in this position as a surprise alternative during matches since she has a great ball control and a good pass and in case of emergency, I can always move her back to defend. A real jack of all trades.

So after pressuring so much and having a dozen of corner kicks, Louise, with her traditional corner kick skills she crossed the ball and a French defender scored an own goal. With 2 x 0 on the scoreboard, we relaxed a little and the French team got disappointed. They even subbed their goalie to a player that barely knew what a goalie should do. Well, since this is not Marta’s problem, she had a great shot and scored our third goal.

Out of curiosity I was checking when was the last time we lost an official match and it was exactly the final match of the SISAC tournament so after the French school we completed 13 consecutive official matches without losing. Amazing!

I would like to publicly thank Marta and Louise for their effort to help the team and be present for this match. The whole team acknowledge and appreciate it.

Goals: Marta (2)
Assists: Suh-Young
MVP of the match: Senior Girls (Louise and Marta)