On Wednesday the 11th of November, the Overseas school of Colombo girls football were invited to take part in the futsal competition organized by Colombo International School (CIS). The tournament was held at CR&FC. We all looked forward for this with excitement because it was an opportunity for us to compete with other schools and work together as a team to achieve our goals. The tournament comprised of 7 teams of which 3 teams were from CIS, 2 teams were from Elizabeth Moir and 1 team each from British School in Colombo and Overseas School of Colombo (OSC). Initially, we were grouped with Elizabeth Moir A team and CIS B team.
We were not used to the experience of indoor 5-a side game of Futsal much and we also did not have enough practice to play against the other teams. However, the 9 of us were confident enough and we decided to play to the best we can.
Our school, the Geckos started in a game against CIS which was quite challenging as some of the players in our team were not used to this level of competitive environment. However, we did not give up and made some good passes with strong defense that somewhat made it difficult for the other team. In fact, there were a few scoring chances that we could have succeeded in but unfortunately their defense and goal keeper could prevent them. The first game ended with 0-0, which clearly shows how well the two teams played and strongly defended.
The second game was played between the Geckos and Elizabeth Moir A team. However, some of the other team’s players were well-experienced and skillful resulting in a tough game where we lost 3-0. Moreover, this left us in the 2nd place with the CIS B team. Therefore, we had to conduct a penalty shootout to determine which group will proceed to the semi-finals. Three of our group members volunteered to take this challenge. They could successfully score twice and goal keeper effectively saved two from the opponents which resulted in a 2-1 that led the OSC Geckos into the semi-finals.
In the semi-finals, our game was against CIS A team which was quiet strong. As both teams were quite equally competitive, for the most part of the game there was a deadlock which was finally broken by the OSC Geckos by scoring 1-0.
In the finals, We were faced with the team that no one could beat in the tournament, Elizabeth Moir A team. Our team did a few positional changes, which made a big progress in the way we played making it difficult for the opponent’s defense. Again, there was a deadlock for some time which was broken later in the game by Elizabeth Moir with a goal scored by the best player in the tournament. This resulted in 1-0 to Elizabeth Moir.
Overall, I am very proud of my team which made it to the 2nd place and were appreciated as the 1st runners up despite of lack of practice and experience. The tournament ended with the award ceremony were the champions and the participants were awarded certificates.
