Shanghai soccer APAC-The golden generation

The highlight of any sports season at AISG, the APAC tournament, occurred at Concordia International School of Shanghai for boys soccer last month. 6 schools including CISS and 5 other APAC schools from all around Asia were invited to participate in this fascinating and marvelous tournament. The schools that participated were AISG, HKIS, UNIS, TCIS, and SFS.

April 18, 2018

AISG was the first team to arrive at the Concordia International School. We were welcomed by the head of sports department of CISS. We then took a simple tour around the school to find out where the cafeteria, toilets and the changing rooms were located. While we waited for individual hosts to finish classes, we spent time on the school cafe both, enjoying the sensational variety of snacks.

APRIL 19,2018

In the morning, each team was welcomed by the CCIS highschool students and teachers at the opening ceremony. After each school had entered the gym, 3 students from each school were sent out to participate in the “human foosball”.  From AISG, three freshmen including, Dylan Wirjono, Raul Samtani, and Sean Park was forced to contribute to the “human foosball”. Mistakes occurred everywhere and a number of humorous accidents helped all the players feel more positive and comfortable than before.

After the entertaining opening ceremony, the AISG players went to watch the CCIS and SFS game until half-time. We then moved and got changed to prepare for our game against UNIS. Everyone’s face looked nervous and some of us were even terrified. At 10:40 AM, our game against UNIS began. For the first 5 minute of the game, our movement was very restricted and mistakes were made. However, Joshua Kim, our skillful-striker, scored a marvelous goal assisted by out steadfast captain Karan Vasdev. Thanks to the goal, our team’s morale became more positive and we started to show the other team what we could do. However, towards the end of the game, some of us showed lack of concentration, conceding a goal.

The second game was against our host school, Concordia International School. The game time was 2:20, the hottest time of the day. The team was let down since we ended the previous game as a draw when we could have easily won the game. The game started in a very positive manner, thanks to the sensational goal scored by Karan Vasdev near the half-way line.  Nevertheless, this was the beginning of the collapse. After the goal, every member showed the team-crumple greed to score. This led to conceding of two goals, and the score changed from 1-0 to 1-2 in a blink of an eye.  Luckily, we ended the game with a score of 2-2 thanks to the brilliant goal by Joshua Kim and a penalty save by the “unbeatable” Max Chen.

Although this was the best record for the 1st day of soccer APAC soccer, the team was very depressed because both games were supposed to be games won, not drawn.

April 20th, 2018

The first game was against the former APAC runner-up, Seoul Foreign School.  Due to the fact that AISG lost against SFS last APAC with a score of 0-5, we were mentally compacted and unorganized. However, AISG this year was completely a different team compared to last year. We were playing equally against SFS. Although we conceded first and a player was sent off, we soon equalized and played a very different game against the mighty SFS. Although we lost by conceding at the last minute, we showed the teams that we are not an easy team to beat.

The second game was against TCIS. It was a very important game as to make it to the 3rd and 4th place deciding game, we had to win by goal-difference of 4 goals. The game started swiftly by scoring two goals in the first 15minutes. For the next 20 minutes, AISG dominated the game but, no goals were scored. The two goals came out at the second-half and without any hazardous threat, the game ended 4-0 for AISG.

April 21st, 2018

Before our first game of the day against HKIS, due to UNIS’s loss against CISS, AISG had to win against the former APAC champion to make it to the 3rd and 4th place deciding game. Many in the team believed it as an “impossible mission” and nearly had no will to play against HKIS.

The game began and as expected, HKIS dominated the game. They had more than 80% of the possession of the ball and had chances which would have pulled AISG to the ground if it were not the exceptional saves by AISG’s goalkeeper Max Chen.  The first-half ended with the score  0-0.  Just like every other game against a solid team,  AISG “survived” the first half and conceded a goal as soon as the second half began. Nevertheless, the one thing different this time was that AISG was a much substantial team compared to the past years. 10 minutes after being conceded, AISG equaled the game. This became the catalyst for many players and we became more active and started to even perform many close moments where AISG’s fate could have changed. However, HKIS was a more solid team out of the two and won the game 2-1.

Not being able to play in the 3rd and 4th place was devastating for the whole team since for the first time in AISG’s soccer APAC history, we were very close to playing in the 3rd and 4th place deciding game.  Throughout the whole AISG soccer APAC history, during this tournament, we scored the most, we earned the most points and we conceded the least than ever before. Depressed, we decided to exert our anger to the TCIS game for the 5th and 6th place. Thank’s to Edwards’s unbelievable active by scoring against both AISG and TCIS goalkeeper, the game ended 5-1 for AISG.

Although we ended the tournament in 5th place, we performed the best AISG has ever performed in the soccer APAC tournament.