A Kick in the Grass: Tri-Cities

Two weekends ago the varsity Rams boys and the Lady Rams went to Shanghai for Tri-Cities to compete against four other schools in Pudong. The girls had their first game on Friday against Puxi, the Shanghai American International girls’ varsity team. The girls have a strong team even though the new players are still learning to play with the players who have Tri-Cities experience. The Rams showed tons of effort and played amazing games.

The boys had their game right after the girls’ first game against The American International School of Shanghai. The Rams boys played their first game against Puxi  boys’ varsity team. The first goal was scored in the first 20 minutes of the game by Puxi and the equalizing goal was scored by Ibrahim then the second goal by Ardeshir.  The game ended 5 – 2 against AISG. In my opinion the AISG boys were not quite ready as a team. Our first game we didn’t know what to expect from the other teams. As a result during our first match against Pudong, they scored in the first 20 minutes because we didn’t know our potential as a team and were still trying to find out how we could play together effectively.

The last game for the Boys Rams was against Pudong which was the most competitive game for both the Pudong and AISG boys team. In fact, almost all the other teams came to watch the game because the game was intense and both teams put in their full efforts to win the game. Ardeshir Takaki scored the equalizing as a penalty after a foul play on Ibrahim in the 18 yards box by a Pudong defender. The game went on to penalty where we were unlucky and we missed the last two penalties that gave Pudong the win for third place.

When interviewed, Nino, an eleventh-grade student who played forward in Tri-Cities said, “We all put in 100% effort in the last game against Pudong. I never knew playing soccer can be this exciting.” He added that the team is working hard to get ready for APAC.

Now that we know which other teams we are most likely to compete with at APAC and how strong and fast they are, this helps us know how much effort and dedication we need to put into our practices. It will not be a total surprise when we go to APAC because we will be ready and know what to expect.

Being on the team during my first year at AISG has given me tons of experience and made me want to play soccer more. Going to Tri-Cities was a great experience, also, because I got to travel to Shanghai for the first time.