So what was expected finally arrived. For four years that I’ve been to ACAMIS, it always had been SCIS X BISS Pudong. No matter if it’s in Taiwan,Beijing or even in Shanghai. I have to confess that for a moment this final was overshadowed by other key moment; it would be the last match ever for many of us, including me and during the warm up that fact hit me hard. Besides the Seniors (Bella, Suh-Young, Inês and Franziska), Sinead and maybe Alva and Alice are not coming back this year so for sure the 2015 team will be different. I had to distance myself a bit so I could refocus on the match.
Before the match itself, after the semifinals, we decided to watch the video of the semifinals so we could understand better our adversary. Also, with Kyra back, we finally could do the formation that I wanted where Mikayla would shadow their #30 and we would still have defending Tehillah and Kyra. Franziska would move to the right wing with Suh-Young on the left and Inês as center midfield. The idea is to block BISS out and use our stamina and speed counter attacking. I was also extremely concerned with our dear Bella. The night before she was really in pain on her left foot and Bella is not the kind of athlete that would complain for nothing. Before the match, the coach from BCIS kindly taped Bella’s foot, which helped a lot. I am sure without Bella, we would not be where we were these two years.
In our conversation right before the match I told the girls that I was extremely proud of them, that our goal was achieved, which was reaching the finals. That we had been in every single possible final in the past four years and this would make any coach proud and above all, made them the best team I ever coached. For that, they should get in that pitch and have fun. Enjoy playing the beautiful game one more time with each other. I think the weather was extremely dry because my contacts started to bother me and made my eyes watery.
Anyway, the match itself. For the first ten minutes both teams were extremely focused and respecting each other. No clear opportunity of goal happening for either side and the game was truncated in the midfield. The good thing of having talented players defending like Tehillah, Mikayla and Kyra is the fact that they all know how to trap a ball and push forward. With three back defending, Kyra was always free to get this ball so Bella always had an alternative to punting the ball.
On the 15th minute, we changed formation, from hamburger to formation 1 with Tehillah (with a major bruise on her foot) coming out to Alice coming in on the right wing and Franziska moving to striker position. This helped us to spend more time attacking.
One thing that the whole team started to notice was the fact that their #30 (actually playing with the #16 on the jersey for this match), in every contact with other player from our team, would fall to the ground, either of exhaustion or frustration but hardly ever due to a serious injury. This started to worry me about leading the referee to make a bad call. In total in the match she fell 8 times. Well, the first half ended with no real shot at the goal from either side.
The second half started with the same formation of the end of 1st half. But then, things changed. The Gods of football were looking at us and decided that this season the Swedes would be key to our championship. Alice suffered a fault on the right side of BISS Pudong box. Inês took the shot and passed to Alva, inside the box. Our Happy Viking just took it away from the goalie with a swift touch and violá! 1 x 0 SCIS.
I was expecting that BISS would come full force to tie the match but it was the opposite. We kept pressuring them on their own field. Hailey, with her calmness in the field, was holding the ball forward together with Alva and Alice. Inês kept their #13 at bay at the same time pushing out team forward and Mikayla and Kyra were holding well the #30.
With 13 minutes in the second half, after a throw in deflected by BISS, Kyra passed to Inês who shot a beautiful ball toward their goal. The goalie deflected and Hailey fought for the ball, shooting twice, forcing the BISS Pudong goalie to do an incredible save with one hand. Two minutes later, another great save from their goalie in a corner kick where Franziska had a great shot.
BISS only had one solid chance on a free kick from our left defensive side but the ball went out. The last ball of the match was a counter attack with Alva shooting and their goalie defending it. We made it and with flying colours. We were never threatened during the match. We played clean and fair and above all, we played as a team. There is not a single player that I can pick to select as MVP of this match. We were solid because absolutely everybody did their job. Have you ever saw so many parents there supporting us? Remember, we were in another city, away from home. They went there for you, my Amazon Warriors. Because they knew that above all, you would give your best always and here is your reward. Follow up to this post, my open letter to you all.
Goals: Alva
Assists: Inês
MVP of the match: Amazon Warriors