And here we are at the eve of our last tournament. We travelled to Beijing on the day before so we would be rested for the tournament starting on Thursday. Today was also a very special day since our German Panzer was turning 18. The whole team wore a shirt with her picture to celebrate the event and her mom prepared a real picnic at the boarding area at the airport. It was really cool. Congrats, Franziska!
The tournament, although hosted by BISS Beijing, it was played at Harrow International School. The school itself seemed brand new, recently open with great new buildings and most important, with a great turf to play football. What was not so good was the pollution levels. When we started our match we had 195 with 26 degrees of temperature. This was the first time THIS (Tsinghua International School) participates in ACAMIS. They were invited to fill the spot of the school from HK that never sent a girls team to play. We started the match with: Bella, Tehillah, Mikayla, Inês, Suh-Young, Sinead and Hailey as striker. The idea was to rotate every player and give everybody a feeling for the turf so all the players would be prepared for the tournament and also not “overwork” any specific player. To make matches even more challenging, there were some cotton-like thing flying around, which was rather annoying.
We played like we always, pressuring from the beginning. With 38 seconds Sinead had a shot in front of the box and another chance 20 seconds later. In nine minutes, we had shot already 5 times at their goal, including a ball that our “speedy” Irish shot at the crossbar. Took a while until we finally open the score. Hailey pressured a defender while she was inside her own box and stole the ball from her. Then she shot this ball high, not a very strong shot but it was close range to the goalie and she could not hold it. 1 x 0 SCIS and our first goal of this ACAMIS tournament at the 13th minute. I was starting to get a bit worried considering the matches are really short, with 40 minutes in total.
Hail Gribble was on fire in this match! Four minutes after her goal, Mikayla headed a ball to Hailey, she trapped, pushed a little further and shot on the left side of the goalie. 2 x 0.
We pretty much kept pressuring then the absurd happened. Let me tell a bit of the background of the situation first. Every ACAMIS, before the tournament starts, we have a coaches meeting to go through any questions or concerns. One of the issues brought up by the organizers were length of the match. She said that no extra (injury) time would be given to keep the tournament on schedule. I totally understood that but what happened here was absurd. So, with 20 minutes sharp, someone on a table close to the field blows a horn, letting the referee knows. In our match, we were attacking, with Alva passing to Alice, who passed back to Alva, who shot a beautiful ball and scored a great goal. 3 x 0. The referee got the ball and restared the match in the center of the field THEN blew the whistle announcing the end of first half. When we the players in the field were moving to the bench, someone from the table told me that the last goal did not count because it was after the horn. What?!? This is not a basketball match! That does not exist in football. I was rather annoyed by that. I totally understand the decision of limiting the time but in my decades playing football, I never saw the “table” overrule a referee’s decision. With that being said, I will count in out stats Alva’s goal with Alice’s assist. A truly Swedish goal!
For the second half I moved Alva to center midfield, substituted Inês by Phoebe, Hailey by Franziska, Mikayla by Kyra and our team kept playing the same intensity. I am amazed how our Amazon Warriors are levelled. No matter who is in the field, we keep pushing it forward like nothing changed. With three minutes, Phoebe, Alva and Franziska had already shot at their goal, with Franziska hitting the post, which happened again 2 minutes later.
On the 6th minute of the second half, our Wonder Alice started feeling dizzy. I don’t know if because of the pollution or the heat or both. Sinead got into the field. Two minutes later, Phoebe also asked to be substituted and Hailey got back in the right wing. With a brand new team on the field, THIS had their first corner. We were able to recover the ball and counter attack with Alva passing to Sinead, who passed back. Our Happy Viking shot, the defenders deflected and Franziska got the rebound and shot it, scoring our 4th goal. 4 x 0 SCIS.
With 11 minutes of the second half, THIS had the first shot at the goal which Bella easily defended. We attacked, Hailey passing to Franziska, that pushed the ball on the right wing while Hailey was moving to the middle. Franziska founded her there and Hailey to the shot. Hat trick for her and our 5th goal. 5 x 0 SCIS. Wait, there is more from our German Panzer. Franziska fought for a ball in the midfield, pushed forward as a torpedo and when she was face to face with the goalie, shot a missile on the right side. 6 x 0 SCIS.
We still had time for one more. With one minute to end the match, Hailey was fighting for a ball on the left side of our attacking field when she saw our Speedy “Irish”. Sinead did not think twice and shot towards the goal. I guess the goalie was expecting a cross or something and the ball died inside the net. Congrats Sinead! I know how dedicated you are to the team and I was extremely happy to see you scoring in an ACAMIS tournament. SCIS 7 x 0.
It was a great start for us, with a rather easy match and with everybody having time on the field so the anxiety of playing the first match would be over. There is nothing to adjust in this team for now, with all players doing exactly what they had been told. Unfortunately we could not test our defenders to Tehillah, Mikayla and Kyra had zero trouble for now. I am sure this will change against BISS Pudong but until then, let’s practice our attacking force.
Goals: Hailey (3), Alva, Franziska (2), Sinead
Assists: Alice, Franziska, Hailey
MVP of the match: Hailey