What an exhausting day. Actually it started yesterday where I had to move all the tables of my class to prepare for the seminar of Mr. Hammond Peek, the Oscar winner Sound engineer from the trilogy Lord of the Rings. Then today, all day long I had the honour to chaperone him and his Oscar around campus so I had to literally run to to the field so my team could start warming up.

I am entering a very emotional phase with my team. It’s the “last” phases. Being my last season coaching those incredible girls, every little details and moment matters to me. Today was the last time I saw my team playing with the red uniform at home (SAS also wears red so we will play in white next week). Elaine took a picture of the team not only as a memory for me but also to send to ACAMIS.

For the first time in this season I had absolutely all the players available but still not all 100% . Franziska recovered from her ankle/knee injury and wanted to play. Kyra is healed from her 1002nd concussion but was having a hard time shooting with her left leg (something on her hamstring) and this would be Bella’s first official match after being a week off school to recover. The starting lineup was: Bella, Mikayla and Tehillah defending. Inês center, Alice right and Alva left with Hailey as striker.

YCIS, with a brand new uniform, was a completely different team. As a matter of a fact, I did not recognise any of their players. Not even their uniform is the same! They have a much younger and lighter team than last year. Before our match, they beat SSIS and tied with Suzhou so I was worried that they would come full pressure to try to steal points from us in the league. when I’ve noticed they only had two players on the bench, I did not expect them to actually to be super physical in the match.

It was a gorgeous day to play the beautiful game. 15 degrees, sunny and with the pollution at Shanghai levels of 170AQI. We started the same way we always did, pressuring. Hailey seemed that she did not want to waste the opportunity of starting as a striker. With four minutes she trapped a ball thrown in by Inês, spun it and shot on the right pole. Almost our first goal.It was ok because two minutes later, after a nice pass from Alva, Hail Gribble! Scored our first goal. 1 x 0

If you think this would be an easy match like against SSIS, don’t fool yourself. Two minutes later, our defensive system started to show a sequence of basic mistakes. First was an extremely bad positioning of Alice, Tehillah and Mikayla which ended up with YCIS # 3 face to face with Bella. Our Swedish black spider jumped and saved the day. Don’t worry, you will read more about her throughout this post.

Anyway, after that shot from YCIS, back to our normal game. Suh-Young (not subbing Alice) pressuring from the right and Alva from the left.  One of the funniest moments of the match was when Mikayla antecipated their striker, trapped the ball, was ready to shoot at YCIS goal and then….. she kicked her own left foot! The ball barely moved a cm.  I guess a little dizzy of this unique moment, Mikayla charged like a raging bull towards YCIS #3, who dribbled her very easy. Luckily Kyra was covering Mikayla but still, their #3 fought for the ball and was able to cross to another YCIS player free in the box. Luckily, she shot way out of bounds.

Kyra was very participative on the left wing. She exchanged some passes with Hailey and with a nice shot concluding it but unfortunately hit the right post. Since the ball was not out, we continued to pressure until a defender from YCIS shot it towards midfield. I guess Mikayla used all her frustration and shot an incredible ball from that spot. It was so strong and unpredictable that the goalie tried to grab but it died in the net. Goalies must be always be paying attention. SCIS 2 x 0. Way to go, Mikayla! Every time you have a open shot, take it. I am sure you will score more throughout this season.

After that, we slowed down and YCIS grew their gameplay. Phoebe and Tehillah were having a hard time to stop their #3 and #5. Once more #5 was alone in front of Bella, who jumped like a cat on her feet, avoiding the worst but not completely. It was a horror movie. Phoebe deflected softly to the edge of the box, an YCIS player got the ball, passed by Inês and once more #5 was ready to shoot but Tehillah tripped her. Penalty kick to YCIS. Unbelievable. We were doing basic mistakes, like a beginner’s team. We are the current champions of the league. We need to be more focused during the match. Then the star of the match shone once more. Our Swedish Black Spider, very calmly went to the center of the goal, relaxed and smiling, putting all the pressure on the penalty kick taker. Guess what? She shot out! Wait, do you think that’s was all that Bella did? There is more. We, once more were being kind and giving lots of space to YCIS and then with two players totally free in front of her, Bella dove on the feet of #3 which took a very powerful shot. Now our Swedish Black Spider has a tummy tattoo of a football. One more time, after this, again, YCIS alone in front of her and there was Bella to guarantee that SCIS does not concede any goal.

Second half we organised better our defensive system so YCIS did not offer that much of danger to Bella anymore and then their goalie started to shine. We shot so many times to their goal that was incredible. Until finally, after trying so much, Inês assisted Franziska with a medium high shot was able to score her goal in this match. Our German Panzer for now scored in every single match. Way to go, Franziska! 3 x 0 SCIS.

We still have time to score one more goal. Two minutes to end the match, Franziska passes to Hailey that shoots a high ball, surprising the goalie.

It was our worst match but history records only the score to I should be happy with 4 x 0. Well, I’m not. We will work A LOT on that defensive system. If we get a team that can pass, we are in big trouble.

Three matches to go and next week will be our last match at home. Let’s hope we play way better than what we did today.

Goals: Hailey (2), Franziska, Mikayla
Assists: Franziska, Inês, Alva
MVP of the match: Bella