`It was a display of amazing goals and excellent defence'- Under 13 Girls' Soccer Team

For months we had prepared for this event! Ever since the beginning of the school year in fact! I am not a very sporty person but after all that FIFA fever and because of my own will, I started to play more and more soccer. Finally a girl’s team was formed, with all my friends included:

1. Maya- Captain and mid-defense

2. Keya- Striker

3. Koodrut – striker

4. Sahana- defense

5. Tanya- defense

6. Neeti- substitute

7. Roshni- substitute

8. Anusha-Substitute

9. Drithi- Goalkeeper

We worked hard, learning many new techniques and practicing continuously. Everyone on the team was bent on winning and put all their effort and energy into doing their best. In the Dassera holidays, most of the girls came and sacrificed three days of holidays for intense practice! We dribbled around cones, practiced heading the ball, passed the ball to our team mates while running, penalties and much more! Throughout practice we thoroughly enjoyed playing felt ready for any challenges.

On the day of the match everyone was filled with mixed feelings of nervousness and excitement. As I got off at Greenwood High, I could feel Goosebumps and uneasiness run inside me. Lucky for us, there weren’t too many girl teams and if we won at least one match, we would manage to reach the semi finals.

The first match was against Vidyashilp Academy and they looked scary, but one shouldn’t judge a person on how they look but how they play. We tried our best and that’s all that mattered. Unfortunately or efforts weren’t as good as they could have been and we lost the first match 2-nil. Everyone thought about it and we decided that it was our first match as a team and we could have done better. We felt even more nervous because we had to win this match or it would be our ticket out of the tournament. The next day we came back, even more determined to really fight it out. We practiced through the entire breakfast time doing some passing. As once again we came onto the field, the smell of the grass and confidence in the air, we played much harder and with all our might.

Keya got a throw in and with her position close to the opponent’s goal; she knew that this was our ultimate chance to score! Keya threw the ball with all her might to Sahana. With the opposite teams players approaching fast, Sahana passed to Roshni who quickly kicked the ball … and it was a GOAL! The opponents’ goalkeeper looked surprised and didn’t seem to have been guarding the goal when Roshni kicked the ball in. Everyone screamed in delight. For the rest of the match, we all moved back to defend. The other team, DPS east never made a goal and we made it to the semi-finals!!!

We played the semi-finals against Greenwood High, the host school who did prove very formidable, but nothing we couldn’t deal with. A kick from Sahana proved that we were going to make it to the finals after all, giving us the goal we needed! The other team though had some fast players though and their captain played very well. Everyone was really excited but we all felt very pressurized because the finals were the next day. On the finals everyone played truly with their hearts. We played against none other than Vidyashilp, the team that had beaten us earlier. Nothing would get away with our victory and all of us played very rough.

Some memorable moves throughout all the matches were:-

1. Maya’s hard and high kicks along with her ace defense

2. Tanya blocking all the hard corners and her well timed kicks

3. Sahana’s amazing goal and excellent defense

4. Koodrut’s quick dribbling and reflex

5. Keya’s rapid passing and well angled throw ins

6. Roshni’s stupefying goal and fast feet

7. Neeti’s great defense and helping to block the opponents from scoring

8. Drithi’s awesome saves and clearing of the ball

9. I enjoyed playing defense and I tried my hardest to block the strikers and goal kicks

The opponents had very good defense and they had a petite but agile player who proved very difficult for us. There were two girls we cleared the ball every time we approached their goal. We did manage a few times though, to almost score a goal but their goal keeper was very good and well-trained, proving quite difficult. We played the entire match, without either side managing the throttle a goal inside the net. The penalties were the deciding result of the entire match.

We lost the match 2-nil because of the penalties as the opponent goalkeeper blocked very well (we tried pretty hard though). Everybody was upset but we knew that it was not a bad match we had played and that there is no shame in losing at penalties. It proved how well we had played during the rest of the match! We also appreciated it when Vidyashilp clapped for us and cheered telling us that we had played very well.

The awards ceremony took a while and when everyone had received their small trophies with a golden boot and ball inside the cup, we cheered with joy! We also got a silver bowl trophy because we placed second placed in the girl’s tournament! Everyone held it, smiles lighting up the faces of all, happy they had contributed towards this! I would like to thank my fellow teammates and our coach, Freddy Sir for coaching us so well! Getting this far is quite an achievement to us and the best part is seeing that we added to the vast collection of trophies Inventure already has!

Anusha 7B with Keya and Dhrithi