Saturday, May 27th, The Rugby School U14 Invitational Tournament. We all met at 8 am in front of the School in Pattaya.
This will be the last Tournament for the 2023 Season and also the last Tournament for 3 of our Lionesses. Hannah, Vanessa, and Layla. At the same time, this is the first Tournament for our new players Anna and An-An!
The tournament promises to be difficult for the team, today we play without our brilliant goalkeeper Pinky, with a new team line-up and this is the first experience to play by FIFA rules 9×9!
We were as always fully motivated and supported by the ever enthusiastic Parents.
At the Arrival of our opponents, we saw that most Players were much taller than us, but we knew by playing our Lions Game we have a chance against anyone.
Learning by playing! New experience and new achievements
First Game against NIST and we dominated by winning 3:0, Great Goals by Aida, Iris, and Charlotte, while Vanessa jumped in as Goalkeeper to replace an unfortunate sick Pinky.
The second game was against Piing Academy, a professional Club from Pattaya. We played with a big heart and had a few chances. This time Iris went into the Goal. But lead to a 0:2. Loss. Never mind, as we played really well.
3rd Game was against the Host from Rugby, where we played our best Game. A very well-executed Attack by Hannah and Aida led the to only Goal in the Game. We won 1:0. YAY!
All eyes were on the last Game against Patana School from Bangkok. They have won all their group games and were the clear Tournament favorite. Some really good players in their Team and all Girls seem to be 14+.
Don’t forget that we have Girls ranging from 11-14 Years, actually only two 14s.
We faced Patana with a glimpse of hope to get some points, but they proved to be too strong for us and we lost 0:4, BUT we gained a lot of experience and self-respect. The result also meant that we now play for the 3rd Place Trophy against Rugby again.
OMG! Penalty in the finals!
3rd Place Final. We had beaten Rugby before very narrowly, so we knew that we had to play our best Game and Rugby wanted revenge. Iris stepped up to be the Goalkeeper again. There were plenty of chances on both sides and after 18min Game time, it was 0:0.
5 min of extra time was added with a Golden goal opportunity. Still 0:0, so it went to Penalty. Our 3rd Penalty shootout in a row in a Final Game. The Hero of this shootout was Iris as she saved 2 Penalties, while we missed only one. we got 3rd Place Champion and 12 happy smiling Lionesses received another Trophy for the collection.
After the Tournament we went for some good Food and relived some great moments with this amazing Team. Our Lions FC can’t wait for the next Season and to play Tournaments again.
