South Asian Inter-School Association commonly known as SAISA is an event in which eleven different schools in South Asia region compete against each other in different events. For this year I competed in the SAISA 2019 tournament which was held in Oman. It took place from the 7th – 9th Feb at The American International School of Muscat(TAISM) in Muscat. This was my first SAISA and also my first time in Oman, so I was very excited!
Before the games started, there was an opening ceremony which just made us feel special.
The tournament started at 8 am. but we did not have our first game until 9:30. Our first game was against AISC, and we were determined to win. Before every match, the two teams playing had fifteen minutes to warm up, and as it was my first game in SAISA, I was very nervous. It took some time for me to adjust to the game, but we underestimated the opponent and lost 3-1. I couldn’t believe it. My first SAISA game, a loss. We all knew that winning two group games in this stage would guarantee us a ticket to the semifinals, but we had lost an opportunity. Recovering back from the loss was a huge challenge, and everyone lost hope. I feel like this is exactly why we lost in our second game as well.
Our second game was against the defending champions Lincoln but we had a couple of hours before the game. We had some lunch and discussed what we did wrong, and how we could improve it. We realized that it wasn’t that we were not capable of defeating Chennai, but we were lacking confidence. We have a young team, and half of our squad this year had never been in a SAISA before, and I was one of them. Our biggest strength is the chemistry within our team, and everyone encouraged and supported each other even after our first loss. Because we have another goalkeeper in our team, he got an opportunity to play the second match. The second game against Lincoln was an important game, but unfortunately, it did not go our way. To be honest, whenever we had the ball, we were not communicating with each other, because of which we lost possession. Because of this the opponent team took advantage and scored two goals in quick succession which cost us the game. It was disappointing to have lost the first two games and everyone had lost the little hope we had.
That were the two games we played on the first day of SAISA. Our third game was against ACS on the second day, and we all came back to the field, full of confidence. This would be the deciding game and we had to win it in order to stay in the tournament.
The game was intense! But we managed to win! First win of the tournament, and to be honest it felt unreal. The game started with us taking a 2-0 lead in the first half, but as soon as the second half started, we conceded two goals. It was immense pressure but we tried our best to score. It didn’t work for us and we were hopeless. To be honest, at this point I knew we were going to lose. But then four minutes before the end of the game, we scored a goal. What a banger! It was from 15 – 20 yards away. I don’t know why but because of that one goal, I felt like we were still, in the game. It reminded me of something our coach had told us before the game. “Football is not just a physical sport. It’s all in the mind. Just one goal can make your heads go down. Now you decide whether you want to concede or score the goal.” It made such a big impact that we all started believing and wanted to score again. The pressure was still on. Three minutes into the game, and we scored again! The scores were tied up now. All we needed was one goal, with one minute left. Then it all happened in a flash. We had scored. I was standing back at our goal, and all I remember is a simple touch from our strikers, and the ball was in the net. Right after we scored, we heard the final whistle. We couldn’t believe it. No words can describe the emotions I felt, and I fell to the ground. It was a tough game and I was exhausted. Now, all we needed was to win our last game. But we didn’t. We didn’t play well at all, in fact, I felt like we didn’t want the ball. We didn’t feel the urge to score. They scored two goals and we had our heads down. We didn’t feel the need to win. This was the reason we lost the game. Everyone was disappointed after the game, but we didn’t put our heads down. It wasn’t the best feeling in the world, but after the game, our coaches told us that we had a much stronger team from last year. I know that with experienced players we will do much better next year and I hope to improve much more from this year.
