The 2nd half of the 1st semester is when SAISA Boys Football would be on and running. Every year this would be the sport I get most excited for. Football has always been a huge part of my life as soon as I watched my first football game of Spurs on the television. I’m fortunate enough to have been introduced to the ‘beautiful game’ at an early age and be surrounded by a football environment that embraces the sport like no other. I would be finding this atmosphere once again in Sri Lanka, Colombo at my first IB school; The Overseas School of Colombo.
This year, SAISA Boys Football has been set for Muscat, Oman. This would be my first time visiting this ‘Middle Eastern Paradise’ and I’m guaranteed a great time with its beautiful landscapes, family friends, and rocky mountains. For our preparation to succeed in the tournament, the team trained every Mondays and Wednesdays for one and a half hours with Saturday for 2. I really enjoyed training especially since I had been voted for a vice-captain role hence, I will be able to lead by example and teach our relatively young team through my 2 years of experience playing for OSC.
This year since we had a young team and with a lot of players gone either to university or to a new country we had to be creative with the players we still had meaning, some players had to move into different positions that they have never played before. That included myself as I for the last 2 years been playing on the left-hand side of the field however, this year I would change into a more central role. My main role as a midfield player was to receive passes and give passes, basically to keep the ball moving. This required a lot of running which was a challenge at first but eventually got used to.
Our preparation school games included Elizabeth Moir, Gateway College, British School of Colombo, and Colombo International School. We would throughout the season have lost only one game against Gateway College at the start of the season but managed to match up to them as the season progressed. After the slow start, we were able to win or draw against all our next games. A big change this year to last year was the ease we had with goal scoring. This year we were able to net in double the number of goals from the last couple of years with me being able to take part in too. I’m very pleased to say that this year the boys have been working really hard to build our game plan and focus towards a winning team. I’m confident that in Muscat we will have a great time scoring goals and having an enjoyable time as a team. GECKOS AAUUUSSHHHH!!
