Recently on the 2nd of April, the Overseas School U20 football team participated in an inter-international 6 a side futsal tournament which was held at Racecourse Grounds Colombo. The tournament was a full day event and the OSC U20 team as well as the U16 team were there ready at 8.00 AM to begin their first game.
(Credit: Event Photographer)
Our team was drawn into group C which consisted of St. Nicholas and Hajeez International with our first game scheduled to be against St Nicholas. Unofrtunately due to the curfew imposed and the fact that St. Nicholas was quite far away, they were unable to make it on time therefore providing us with a bye and meaning that regardless of the result against Hajeez, we would still be through to the next round. However we didn’t take this lightly and managed to do a professional job against Hajeez beating them 3-0 to finish top of the group.
Our next game in the quarter finals was against Jade international and unfortunately regardless of the fact that we dominated the entire game paired with some extremely questionable decisions from the referee, we were knocked out by the only chance that Jade international created losing 1-0. Following this loss we were placed in the plate quarter final against Royal Institute but yet again despite creating more chances than our opposition, we didn’t convert as well as them losing 2-1.
Regardless of the fact that we exited the tournament dissapointingly considering that we came into it with high hopes, it was still a good learning experience for us as a whole and the tournament didn’t prove to be an entire failure as we were given the oppurtunity to watch our U16 boys win their respective age group.
Learning Outcomes:
Identify your own strengths and develop areas for personal growth: Being used as a centre back and a striker in the same day gave me a new perspective on playing in different roles during futsal. It set me many challenges to play in unfamiliar situations and I had to identify my strengths to get over these.
Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively: Playing as a team is one thing which the OSC team was able to demonstrate regardless of the scoreline. Putting the effort in and working as a team instead of an individual is an extremely important component of football which we managed to do well.