The night before the semifinal was fun. My Amazon Warriors were playing charades with the boys and all of us were having tons of fun. On the sadder note, Bella was in pain. Her left foot was hurting a lot. She was worried about it but when I asked if she could play, with a big smile she replied: “Of course!”. But she was limping so I was really worried.
Next morning, two good news. Kyra was feeling muuuuuuuch better and Hailey was ready for battle. Hailey sprinted, trapped the ball and shot without any problems. The other semifinal was KAS Vs BISS Pudong. There was a good chance of having Finals us Vs with BISS Pudong. Tricky would be to not think about BISS Pudong but focus first on our semifinal. I was also very worried about Bella’s foot. I was actually hoping that BISS Beijing kept the same philosophy of not attacking, at least this would “protect” Bella more.
So back to our semifinal. Since it rained the night before, the pollution levels were much lower than before and temperature was ok (24 degrees). Everything set for what would be the perfect match. If I told my team we had to score a goal quickly so we could rest, not even the most optimistic person could count on a goal on the first 30 seconds. Not even Victor Feng, our cameraman. He was gabbing the chair when Inês shot from a certain distance and score the first goal. This changed the whole dynamic of the match, no question about it. 1 x 0 SCIS.
From this moment on, I’ve felt I was watching Barcelona playing. The ball did not leave their defensive field. With four minutes, we had shot already 10 times to their goal. With less than five minutes, our Wonder Alice got a goal kick from BISS Beijing, pushed forward and scored her second goal in ACAMIS and the second in the match. 2 x 0. As a matter of a fact, the goal kicks from BISS Beijing were always falling on our feet. with six minutes, Franziska also got a goal kick, pushed forward and scored a goal. 3 x 0.
With such a good score with only 6 minutes, time to rotate everybody, specially Inês. She is probably together with Bella and Mikayla the player with more time in the field so I had to think more about the finals. With 10 minutes in the match, the team was Bella, Mikayla and Kyra, Alva center midfield, Phoebe on the right, Sinead on the left, Hailey as a striker. Mikayla and Kyra were so solid defending and anticipating the attacks from BISS Beijing that they were actually playing on the offensive field. To have an idea how foward Mikayla was in the field, she shot at BISS goal seven times!
On the 16th minute, on another goal kick, this time Hailey gets the ball, dribble a player and boom! Score our 4th goal. It was great to see Hail Gribble scoring a goal after being out for three matches. 4 x 0 SCIS and we kept pressuring until the end of the first half. Mikayla and Alva were passing wonderfully well, no question about it and our Happy Viking was destroying as center midfield passing the ball, taking her time and dribbling the BISS players.
Already in the second half, with one minute. Alva, who had already dribbled a BISS Beijing player between her legs, passed to Phoebe inside the box. Our right wing took a great shot at the goalie, who deflected on Hailey’s feet. Big mistake, Hailey quickly pushed that ball to the net. SCIS 5 x 0. Two minutes later, Sinead had an amazing chance but hit the crossbar. With 23 minutes in total in the match, BISS Beijing only crossed to our side of the field twice, just so you understand how dominating we were. Tehillah and Mikayla were rock solid defending.
On the 5th minute of the second half, our Happy Viking, dominating the midfield, shot from our mid-offensive field an score a goal with the ball passing between the legs of BISS Beijing goalie. That was AWESOME. A good reward for a perfect match for Alva. After her goal, I took Hailey out (I was still worried about her ankle) and had Alice as striker and the pressure continued. Mikayla from a free kick forced their goalie to do a great save. For the last 5 minutes of the match, I’ve rested Mikayla and had Franziska to play as a defender and believe me, as a defender, Franziska found Hailey inside the box with a gorgeous pass. Hail Gribble trapped the ball, turn and scored our last goal on the last minute of the match. 7 x 0 SCIS.
It was the most perfect match I ever saw the Amazon Warriors playing. Bella did not touc the ball a single time, not even in a goal kick. We applied an absurd pressure on BISS Beijing, with all our 11 players. It was so beautiful to watch. I was extremely happy that Bella did not have to work, specially considering her foot. On the sad note, Tehillah injured her foot, a bruise on her right foot when she crashed with a player from BISS Beijing. I hope she can play the finals.
Goals: Hailey (3), Inês, Alice, Franziska, Alva
Assists: Franziska
MVP of the match: Alva