It was a very special match for me. It was the last time ever some of us were playing at home, on our own turf. After a gorgeous day yesterday when we played with temperatures of 22 degrees, today it was rainy and cold, with temperatures of 11 degrees. In my opinion, even heaven was sad to see us departure from our home after four years dedicated to this pitch. Of course, our match could not start without a drama. Well, our German Panzer simply twisted her ankle while running inside the building to pick up something in her locker. Her last match at home, with her parents there to watch and everything. I could see the frustration in her eyes. She said she wanted to play and I asked how was her ankle. She said it was hurting but not much so she was icing to see if she could play at all or not.

I’ve started with all my Seniors (Franziska was out) so it was Bella, Mikayla and Tehillah defending, Suh-Young on the right , inês center and Alva on the left with Hailey as striker. I was also insecure how Kyra’s leg was since she had been complaining for a while about it whenever she shoots.

We never played against SAS Puxi before. They have a large field so normally they play 11 aside instead of 7 aside. This year they decided to have a team playing 7 aside which is actually their JV team from the 11 aside. With 1 minute and a half, Alva get accidentally kicked on her ankle and I could see that it hurt a lot! She ALMOST even cursed. To check how she was, I’ve subbed Alva by Kyra with 3 minutes. Luckily was nothing serious and Alva would go back to the game right after. Well, right after Kyra got in, first ball she traps, she passes to Hailey and 1 x 0. I did not even saw the goal because I was talking to Alva! So fast! Well, not long after, at 8 minutes, a SAS defender deflected badly a ball, our Portuguese Brain calmly trapped the ball, pushed to her right foot and shot a ground ball, with no chance for the goalie. 2 x 0 SCIS.

Since they did not attack us, we kept pressuring until on a side throw from Inês, she found Hailey in the box. Hailey quickly shot and their goalie kind of helped us by letting the ball pass. 3 x 0 SCIS. After her goal and with Franziska guaranteeing me that she was 100% ok to play, it was time to give it a shot to our German Panzer. And with our German Panzer, we did a real blitzkrieg on their goalie, with Franziska shooting twice, Inês twice all at the same play. The ball almost did not leave their box. Then their goalie started to show how brave she was. We shot more 10 balls towards her and she deflected all. Ok, there was not a single “wow” shot but still, she saved. Nothing more relevant happened on the first half besides we pressuring with Sinead from the left, Alice from the right and Hailey as striker but unfortunately the ball did not go in. During the break I addressed that with the girls, asking them to pass more, slow down the game because they were not pressuring at all. They did not have a single player in our field. We kept 90% the time the ball on their defensive side of the field.

If you thought we had good opportunities during the first half, you must watch the video for the second half. It was INSANE. It started at 2 minutes of the second half when Franziska prepared a ball inside the small area/box, Suh-Young shot, the goalie miraculously defended and Kyra shot on the pole, being 3 steps from the goal line. Unbelievable! Right after that one of the most hilarious moment of the match; the ball comes slowly to Inês. She prepares herself so much to shoot that her support foot slides back and she almost falls on top of the ball. Sorry Inês but it was a bit funny. 🙂 

Still, the match was totally unbalanced. To have an idea, their goalie had 5 consecutive goal kicks. She would try one, we get the ball and shoot at the goal. Try again, one more shot from our team. SAS was not even touching the ball. Then after so much pressure, we finally scored again. Kyra passed to Suh-Young,  then she passed the ball back to Kyra on the left. Our Glass head found a shot between the pole and the goalie’s foot. 4 x 0 SCIS.

Then our quest to help Franziska begun. Kyra served an incredible ball to Franziska, leaving our German Panzer face to face with the goalie. I sincerely don’t know how the goalie saved that missile shot by Franziska. The problem was that our German Panzer, Franny Skywalker, was starting to get impatient with herself. She had another amazing chance where she fought for a ball that was almost out of bounds but she recovered, sprinted towards the goal, shot a powerful ball but the goalie defended. I decided to take her our for a few minutes so she could cool off and also to check her injured ankle. We were already 4 x 0 so no need to risk her there. Hailey went back in and kept the same intense pressure on SAS.

5 minutes to end the match, I decided to have all my Seniors in the field so Suh-Young and Franziska went back in and it paid off. Inês shot a high ball to the goalie, she did not hold and Franziska, as a perfect striker, was there to check it out and just gently pushed inside the goal. It was a Senior goal! 5 x 0 Franziska 100% (scoring in every single match of the season). After that, we kept pressuring but nothing really happened. Just some numbers of the matches:
Times Bella literally touched the ball: 7 times
SAS shots at our goal: 0
SCIS shots at SAS goal: 58 shots

If German school beats today BISS, they can be the only school that could take the title from us. For now, we are the only undefeated team in the league with two more matches to go. I can start to dream with the twice-champion of the SISAC League. It was a great way to say goodbye to our crowd. Thank you so much for all the support!

Goals: , Kyra, Inês, Hailey (2), Franziska,
Assists: Suh-Young, Inês, Kyra
MVP of the match: Hailey