Saturday, March 29, 2008
Finally, the prestigious Nike Cup begins. Winners of this competition gets to play the Man U Cup(If i am not wrong.) And get to play at Old Trafford if they reach the finals of the Man U cup. Last year, when i was part of the C-Div team, we did not make it through the 1st group stage when we lost all three games during that fateful day. Labels: Success
Today was the 1st group stage matches. My school sent two teams to compete at the U15 level. 1 B-Div team and 1 C-Div team. I was part of the B-Div team. The matches were held at St. Patricks Sec School. Our 1st match was at 8.30 in the morning. One game was 20 minutes long. 10 minutes per half and a 5 minute interval in between the two halves. Our group consists of teams from West Spring Sec, St. Patricks Sec and Clementi Town Sec. All were B-div teams except the team from Clementi Town.
Our match was the opening game against St. Patricks. I started the game at right-back. We were not performing during the game, only managing to get a draw. As usual, my knees were hurting, (and the pain is increasing everyday)but i am beginning to learn to endure the pain. Unfortunately, there was another problem, part of the skin at the front of my left toe was torn off while playing soccer during a PE lesson. It was painful enough to make me afraid of using my left foot to kick the ball for the vibrations that was produced during impact of my foot with the ball was enough to cause staggering pain.
BUT, during a game, my left foot was occasionally, if not constantly, to be called for action. For instance, like clearing the ball as soon as possible. After kicking the ball, I stayed rooted to the spot to let the pain recede a bit. The wound even causes pain when i run, but i was able to endure it as the pain was not as intense as kicking the ball. I thought i was only playing a half of each game, so i did not complain, but little did i know that i will be playing every minute of the three games.
Our performance in the second game against West spring was better. I was a little nervous as they had just destroyed Clementi Town 6-0. During the 2nd half, when i cleared the ball, one of my opponent stamped on my left foot and one of his boot's studs struck spot on of my wound. How i felt like hitting the ground rolling. But had to be called in for action the very next moment. I was needed to support the attack that cooked up when our striker controlled the ball i cleared. From then on, playing was like hell... The pain was friggin' intense. I managed to hold on though, but just barely. Final score, 0-0...
We needed a win with the margin of 7 goals apart in our final game against Clementi Town if we were to have any chance of qualifying as St. Patricks also beat Clementi Town 6-0. We headed into the game, full of spirit. The Clementi Town players were fooling around, for they knew that they had no chance of winning. They adopted a formation 9-1-0. They played around, wasting time and having the time of their lives while we were getting increasingly frustrated. I wanted to laugh along with them, but during that critical moment, i simply wanted to strangle them... We were so desperate for goals that during our corners, everyone of our players went into the opponents six-yard box except for the goalkeeper and me who stayed back in case the opponents wanted to change their tactics and attack. The 1st half ended with the score 4-0 to our favor.
The second half started with us attacking right from the start, nearly scoring another goal. We went all out attack during the second half, i even managed to assist one goal. I went for the over-lapped, ignoring the pain, bent on helping the team increase our goal tally. Our striker actually did not see me running up along the flank, only when our coach shouted at him my name that he spotted me sprinting down the line. He played to me the perfect through-ball which i controlled it towards the by-line. I initially wanted to cross the ball to the far post, but when i took a look, i saw no one. Instead, i crossed it to the near-post, aiming for the head of our striker. Unfortunately, he missed, but luckily, our left-wing, who already scored a hat-trick, was at the right position at the right time to tap the ball home.
I was elated to help out one of the goals. I trudged back to my position, and immediately received pressure by their striker, who suddenly felt like dribbling the whole opposition team. While i was trying to contain him, i suddenly felt oh-so sensitive to all the pain i had ignored. I figured that i would had to put a tackle in for if the opponent were to get pass me, i was as good as stranded. I tackled, but a little too slow than usual mainly cause of the pain. By the time my foot landed on where i wanted it to be, the striker had already read my intentions and dribbled past me and i had not the leverage of running back as the pain was too much and i stayed rooted to the spot. I instinctively grinned as it was quite amusing to see a small size kid like him get pass me even though i was in much pain. I was heavily reprimanded by our team striker who caught me grinning. The final score... 10-0. We had qualified for the next stage of the tournament!
After the game, i told our striker that i stopped running because of my injuries, he told me that he did not shout at me because i did not run back, he shouted at me cause i grinned =(. Right... But my spirit was soon lifted when my coach said to me, "Izzat, i want you to call Nishant(my soccer senior)." I asked why, he replied, "I want you to take both his jerseys and join the team at the 1st nationals game against Kranji Sec." How i felt like pumping my fist at the air in jubilation.
That was basically what happened today. I am very excited for Monday's game against Kranji Sec. It will be my first official B-Div match for the school! Yeah... Wished me luck yea... Thanks!
Thanks to all the blogs i referred to (countless) for html code help :) (esp. cyn' and sixseven)
Adobe Photoshop Elements for supernatural abilities
