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On April 12th the boys soccer teams departed Guangzhou for their APAC soccer tournament. The Rams traveled to Shanghai at Shanghai American School Puxi (SASPX).
Prior to APAC the team had a good season and made some major strides toward improvement. And one thing that the team could say, not just for APAC but for the whole season, is that they played together, hard, and with class.
The boys team had a few setbacks with some of their key players not being able to attend APAC due to injuries and personal situations. Due to this the Rams were not at full strength and had to call on the next player up to fill in. The team still played hard and fought admirably.
Despite the unfortunate circumstances the boys team came into APAC hoping and expecting to play well. Junior Karan Vasdev said that the team’s expectations were quite high after the way they performed in the Tri-Cities tournament earlier in the season. But the competition at this year’s Super-APAC was very tough, and while the boys were able to compete with almost any team there, they ended APAC with a record of 1-4-1—11th place. Vasdev also said, “We fought as hard as we could and many times we did get unlucky but in the end, we lost some crucial games that we expected to win, and that brought us down to 11th.”
Unfortunately for the team, the result was not quite what they were looking for, but there were still several positive things the Rams took away from their effort and performance over the tournament. Vasdev added, “I think that the chemistry in the team was better than in the past few years.” Also, they played very hard and displayed great sportsmanship, and hence were awarded the 2017 boys Super-APAC Sportsmanship Award. Of course, this was a significant achievement for the team, as sportsmanship is something AISG prides themselves on: the way the players conduct themselves on the field is the most important thing. A bright spot for the team is the experienced but young talent that they will have returning for another go at APAC next season. While the team does have a few key seniors who will be departing the majority of their team is returning and hopefully will be bigger, faster, stronger and more prepared for a strong showing during next season’s APAC.
APAC marked the end of the AISG soccer careers of the four senior players, co-captains Thomas Sepahi and Ibrahim Bah; as well as Nino Lee and Ayman Mekkaoui—congratulations to them on a season well-played. Ibrahim was given the All APAC Award, signifying that he was among the best players. Also, Thomas was called up as one of only six people in all of Super APAC (12 teams of 18 players each) to have participated as a varsity soccer player during all of his four high school years. When asked about the overall showing of the senior players at APAC, freshman player Kayzad Bharucha remarked, “Despite our team not being able to score many goals, all the seniors played outstandingly in terms of their distribution and defense.”
Congratulations to the team for the strong and impressive showing during the APAC Soccer tournament. Also congratulations to All-APAC player Ibrahim Bah. Take a look at some of the APAC photos in the gallery below.
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