Here We Go Again – Starting My Final OSC Football Season😱

If you’ve been following my CAS journey for a while now, you’d know about my love for football, and the learning curves that come with it (for better or worse). I’m in DP2 now, my senior year, which is pretty exciting, but also really scary (what do you mean I’m going to have to live without my parents !?!?). Now, I’ve been playing football for OSC since 9th grade, which is 3 years now, and to know that this is not only my final year of playing football for OSC, but also my final SAISA, is crazy. Especially when thinking about when I started; back in 2018, flying to Amman, Jordan for SAISA Track & Field. Anyways, let’s get back on track (no pun intended). 

It’s my final season of football, final season of SAISA. Last year (see post link here) was pretty rough, even though we finished 4th/10 overall. This year, the team has a set goal of finishing in the top 3, playing in the finals (preferably). We’ve started the season with a sound number of players trying out. There were a lot of young players (12-13 years), who although young, are looking very promising with some amazing talent and football level. It has been an interesting start to the season with the Sri Lankan Monsoon weather really asserting its presence. You might think, a little bit of rain won’t kill you. And you’re right, it won’t kill me, but, I really want you to visualize what it means to play football whilst the whole sky is basically drowning you. Not only is it wet and muddy, but it is also cold! Yes, cold, in Sri Lanka! It has definitely been an experience, fun at times, and not so fun when coming home and seeing the look of disappointment on your mum’s face because “you are going to get sick when you play in the rain like this!”.  Nevertheless, the season looks pretty promising, because everybody is working hard and has goals of improving and wanting to place top 3 at SAISA. I don’t want to bore you with endless stories about how training is going and about how Sri Lankan weather patterns are both impressive and confusing; so, let’s get into the actual interesting things. 

Actual Interesting Things (Golds & Silvers) 

We got invited to an annual futsal (indoor football tournament) organized by CIS (Colombo International School). We did not participate last year, but I did participate in 2021 and 2022, in which we won the whole tournament. Futsal is so underrated because it is quite fun, but a lot more tiring than it looks. In our first game we weren’t really focused, and therefore drew 1:1. From then onwards it was only wins, up until the final against BSC (British School Colombo), which was also a 5:1 win, (I scored x2, Lily (shoutout) scored a hatrick!).  We were extremely happy to win and take the trophy home, however, there is still room for a lot of improvement and level of football. This was on a Friday, and in that same week, on a Sunday, we were part of a tournament; “Renown Football Festival”. 

Now, it had been non-stop raining for the past few weeks, and then suddenly, the sun starts blazing again when it is time for this outdoor tournament. Again, we started off our first game weakly, with a 0:0 draw. The games were only 12 minutes long, but when the sun is shining so hot and bright, it felt like 1 hour and 2 minutes. We played a total of 6 games that day, so you can only imagine how exhausted I was when I returned home. I wish I could’ve just showered and collapsed onto my bed that day, but no, IB duties called and after a long and hot day of football, I had to work when I returned home, yay! 

Anyways, here I am just writing on and on, whilst you are waiting for me to tell you how we actually did in the tournament. But before I do that, let me make some excuses for the coming sentences. In our group games, we played against Renown academy, who is the academy who organized this whole tournament. Now, I’m not saying we played our best, however, Renown was amazing and we lost 2:0. To be fair, since they are an academy, they play all year round. We had played against their senior team last year as well (18+), and had lost around 7:0. Anyways, although we lost this game, we still secured a spot in the finals, against Renown, again. Again, we could’ve played better, me especially, as I wasn’t too happy with my performance (clumsy and silly mistakes).  So, we lost 3:0. It had been 0:0 up until the 10th minute, but then in the last 5 minutes we conceded 3 goals. Not our best moment, but it definitely inspired me to continue working on my skill and football individually. We ended up coming 2nd in the whole tournament, which I was really happy with, but still, there is a lot of work to be done before we leave for SAISA (hosted in Kathmandu, Nepal this year). 

We continued to train as normal that week, and our coach had organized another game against Renown on Saturday. This time, it would be 25-minute halves, in the blazing hot sun at 8:30 in the morning (way too early). I’m not really in the mood to tell you the score, but just know we lost and did not score any goals. We didn’t actually play that bad, the defense was strong and we executed some nice playing patterns; however there was one thing missing, one very essential thing; goals. We had various chances, but the ball just didn’t end up in the back of the net. Unfortunate and frustrating, but if there’s anything I’ve learned about football in these past 3 years, it is just that.

Winter break is coming up (finally), and I have plans to work on my fitness (currently kind of non-existent), skills and ball control. As a central midfielder in a 7-a-side game, it isn’t exactly my main job to score goals, it is more to supply the assists and occasionally score. This means I need to be quick, agile and fast in scanning, anticipating, reading and understanding the game. Along with studying for my MOCK exams and taking a break from DP, my goal is to work on football as much as I can. Anyways, I think that’s enough from me and from football for now, so I wish you Happy Holidays and all the best for 2025. See you next year!