Going to Suzhou it’s always a pain in the neck, considering the almost two hours trip back and forth. It would be very frustrating to go there and come back with a defeat. Besides that, this match was kind of important to us considering that if we won, we would be champions of the West League two years in a row even with one match left in the season.

The day started with the bad news that Wonder Alice was sick so she would not be at school today. Five minutes before catching the bus, Greta tells me that she had to be at the strings’ concert. On top of that, Mr. Reimer told me that there was a problem with the busses. I just told him that we cannot lose a match because of that but he was on it and managed to solve the situation brilliantly. We had a very tiny bus but with a great driver. At least he knew how to arrive there and we arrived fairly early (3:30PM).

We started with Bella, Mikayla and Tehillah, Suh-Young (she was great on the practice the day before), Inês, Kyra and Franziska as striker. From Suzhou, the whole team was new and during the warm up, I could notice that their goalie was fairly good. Besides that, they had two tall and strong players, stronger than the French players we faced first match. Beautiful weather to play ball with a nice sun. I even said during my prematch speech that the football Gods were blessing our match with the beautiful weather so would be a great day to be champions.

But we are focused and we want to win. Unfortunately, we were so focused that we forgot to film the first five minutes of the match. Without our camerawoman Lily Briggs, we are nothing. Don’t fool yourselves, in those five minutes we missed a goal! Inês assisted our German Panzer and boom! 1 x 0 SCIS Hongqiao. What made me very happy on this goal was not only Franziska keeping her amazing mark of scoring a goal every match but Inês happiness to assist Franziska. She ran toward us saying “My assist! My assist!” that’s what every coach dreams about; a team that players are worried about doing well their jobs, not only scoring goals.

With 13 minutes, started down pouring. To coach under a weather like that, it’s … wet. I gave my jacket to protect the camera and I was soaking wet.

The kept the full control of the match, pushing forward. Their field is very unique. There is no small box and the goal box is huge. It’s short but very wide and with a very big and dangerous hole on one of the sides. With 22 minutes. Franziska fought for a ball on the right side of attack, passed to Inês who shot a ball full of curve and fooled the goalie. 2 x 0. Inês and Franziska were unstoppable this match! I guess it’s the fact IB Mock Exams were over, they were much lighter to play.

With 5 minutes to end the first half, Hailey (as a striker) shot a ball and the goalie deflected it but Inês was there and she got one of her crazy shots that the ball does a parabola out of the reach of the goalie. It’s her trademark considered she scored a goal like that 4 years ago during ACAMIS finals. So, 3 x 0 Hongqiao and end of the first half. We had one of our hands on the trophy already and all the Amazon Warriors had time on the pitch, showing how strong this team is.

The second half, when you could expect us to slow down and hold the score, Franziska was thinking differently. She kept pressuring and with 3 minutes already shot two or three balls at the goal. There were moments we were with four attackers against three. I was testing Phoebe as the right wing (her position last year) and Hailey as the left with Franziska as striker. While Phoebe was very comfortable on the right, Hailey was suffering to play on the left (it was her first time). Still she manage to get a volley shot that was super cool. But cool was the next goal. With 50 minutes into the match, Hailey deflected a ball, that ended up with Franziska on the center midfield. She passed to Inês and started sprinting to the right of the field. Our Portuguese brain, with one surgically precise pass, assisted Franziska face-to-face with the goalie. Our German Panzer instead of shooting a cannonball, softly touched out of reach, on the ground by the right side of the goalie. 4 x 0 SCIS. This dynamic duo was on fire! It’s the goal of the match. Exactly what we practiced the day before. I’ve watched this goal already 5 times here while writing this post. So proud!

After that, it was time to experiment many things, one of them was Mikayla as midfield and defending Emma and Tehillah. Poor Mikayla was completely lost. I am extremely amazed how solid Mikayla is as the first defender. She antecipates perfectly and is working very well with Tehillah.

If you think that the match was over, well, you forgot to tell our German Panzer. On the last minute, Tehillah deflect the ball from our own goalie box and Franziska got the ball alone on the center midfield. Alone, in the middle of three defenders, she shot, the ball ricocheted from one of them and … GOAL! Hat trick to our German Panzer, the leader of our blitzkrieg on Suzhou’s defensive system. 5 x 0 and end of the match.

So my Amazon Warriors, the Gods wanted you to have 10 days to celebrate our first title of the season. We still have two to conquer and we will have to fight even harder. This season we are even better than the last one, if that’s possible. Congratulations to us all! As for me, I decided to celebrate with a nice Haiku banquet, with enough rolls to feed me for a week!

BELLATORUM INVICTUM! Literally.

Goals:  Inês (2), Franziska (3)
Assists:  Inês (2), Franziska
MVP of the match: Franziska

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

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