This year’s TISSL Football was an interesting experience for me. It was very short, and didn’t have the happy ending we all had hoped for. Our team played its first game without me, due to production where I was needed for a rehearsal. The team played against Lyceum Wattala, who were a good team and beat us 3-1. The next day, I woke up pumped for our game against CIS Kandy and ready to play but the game was canceled due to heavy rain. I felt very impatient and wanted to play so badly. This left just one game for us to play, against Gateway Kandy. I woke up ready, and when I saw that there was no rain, I got very excited.
That afternoon my brother and I, who were ready to play our first game alongside each other, met up with the team and got on the bus. We traveled to a pitch in Colombo which took around 30 minutes, which were spent sharing jokes and having a good time bonding as a team. Once we arrived, it was time to get focused. We warmed up in silence, and I could sense the nerves among us. We needed to win to go through to the next round of the tournament, which made it a much more important game than the last one. We were nervous, but believed that we could win. Coach Turner gave us a final pep talk before my brother and I and the rest of the starting 11 got into position and prepared for a great football match.
The game started off brilliantly for us, and even I was impressed with the way we were playing together. Our communication, passing, and defending was all great for the first few minutes. We were dominating and I knew it was only a matter of time before we would score our first goal. After 10 minutes, Rizqi crossed the ball from a corner and although it didn’t go where it was supposed to go, Josh managed to squeeze it into the net from the near post. Just 5 minutes later Josh had the ball on the right and crossed it towards the goalkeeper. I knew that I had the pace to get there, and I managed to there quite comfortably and was able to get my foot to the ball cleanly and slot it into the net. We were playing great and I was enjoying myself after scoring a goal and being 2-0 up. We went into the halftime break very calm and confident.
The second half caught us by surprise, and was a very different story. The main reason for this was the rain that came as soon as the second half kicked off. We could no longer pass the ball around, and this made it easier for them to capitalize on our mistakes. We conceded two quick corners, and they scored twice quickly to make it 2-2. We tried to battle back but got too tired from attacking and couldn’t stop a last minute winner from the opposition. Despite the heartbreak, we got a lot out of the game. We learned that we shouldn’t become too calm and comfortable in a tough situation, and we learned that we needed to maintain the same intensity throughout the match, whatever happens. We knew that we were too calm in the second half and for next time, we need to be 100% focused throughout the game to get the results we need.
Photo Creds: Gecko Net