Soccer Tri-Cities 2019

This year, the boys’ and girls’ soccer team traveled to Shanghai on Friday, March 1 for Tri-cities. This tournament was hosted by SASPD (Shanghai American School of Pudong). Schools that participated include, SASPD (Shanghai American School of Pudong), SASPX (Shanghai American School of Puxi), WAB (Western Academy of Beijing). Players from these schools played in this exhausting yet something 2-day tournament.

Both our teams played against SASPX first. As this was the first game both teams, it was an opportunity to learn how to play together as a team. The boys lost 2 – 0, while the girls lost 5 – 0. It was a great learning experience for both teams, though the outcome was not the best. For boys, the goals were let in due to mistakes, not by the other team outplaying them. Their coach, coach Kissi, encouraged the team by saying that, “it is okay to make mistakes, as long as they can learn and improve from it.” The second and last game of day 1 was against SASPD. The games ended close, with both our teams losing 1-0. Captain and key player of the boys, Sameer S. also had to step aside as he got injured in the previous game, making this game especially harder and tougher for their team. Many of the boys had to switch from their original positions and play another due to Sameer’s injury. This allowed players to experience different positions and gave them an opportunity to try new things. It was very exhausting for the AISG teams since they had to meet at Ersha campus at 5 a.m. the day of, however, they played with their best efforts and did not give up.

Saturday morning, both AISG teams played against WAB. It was going to be a tough and exhausting game, but that did not stop them from giving their all to this game. Although they lost 4 – 0 to WAB, the boys knew that they all tried their best and at the end of the day, effort is what matters the most. The girls however, played well and won 3 – 1 against WAB. The first goal was a brilliant play; Megan H. gave a great pass to Ellie C, where the ball passed through defenders of the opposing team to get to Candy L. She took a shot and it went in far corner. This win put the girls to the finals, while the boys were playing in the 3rd and 4th place games.

The girls played against SASPX in the finals and they were ready. The outcome of the game wasn’t in favor of AISG, as the score was 7-0 to SASPX, but the girls were proud of how well they played. Unfortunately, the boys lost to SASPD 2-0, but as always, they played with their best efforts. It was an unlucky game, also. One of our starting players, Dylan W. and had to step aside due to his injury. Additionally, both of our captains were fighting through small ankle injuries.

Overall, the tournament was positive. This was the first official tournament for both girls and boys, as the season had just begun 3 weeks before. This tournament gave the teams an opportunity to play as a team and to see the level they must be at for APAC.

Captain of the boys team, Danny K. stated, “Tri-Cities was a great experience for us. I am really happy about the way the boys played. I wasn’t expecting much this tournament as we are a young and inexperienced team, but the boys really played well.” The boys had lost 13 people from last year’s team, while the girls had lost 6. Also, “the boys getting the opportunity to play more together is really important because building chemistry is a big factor in being a successful team.”