FOOTBALL 2015

For ASA Block 3 I chose football U-19 as my major extracurricular activity. I intended to make the team and go on SAISA Girls' Soccer Championship in Dhaka.
We had trainings 4 times a week including Wednesday morning fitness sessions. Overall I would say it was a challenging experience for me as I had never actually played football before and, moreover, I had never been coached. All my background in football was the random games with guys in the schoolyard back in my home country. Therefore, during the first trainings I was sort of lost and did not play well. However, after a month of constant trainings I noticed how much I have improved. I learned different techniques and strategies such as offensive and defensive positions on the field, jockey, spreading out and many other specific things. I never knew that much about football. 
In addition, football had a huge influence on the fitness of my body. I did a lot of running during these 2.5 months of soccer and I actually still feel improvements in my stamina and physical training. The most remarkable improvements were when I played in the boys' team couple of times. I saw their tactics from the inside and I can say that their spacing on the field is very rational and smart, they feel each other, know where and when to run, how to get open and, what is the most important, they trust each other, working in the team. After I have been an insider of the boys' team I started to play much better. This was a very useful experience for me at the personal level.
During this season we did not actually have many games with other Sri Lankan teams. We only played once against the team from Colombo International School (CIS). It was nearly in the middle of the season and I think this game was a great opportunity for us as a team to estimate our abilities and our progress at that point. Even though we won that time, the difference in scored goals was only in one point taking into consideration that those girls were younger and much smaller than most of us were. 
However, during the last sessions before going on SAISA I could see a really good and fast progress at both individual and team levels within our girls' team. Many of the players have grown incredibly and, as a team, we became more united and collaborative. Ultimately, I would like to say being very proud at the moment that, on the 25th of April, OSC team took the second place in Girls' Soccer Championship after playing against the undefeated team of the tournament from Lincoln School (Nepal).
Unfortunately, I have to say that I could not go to Dhaka to take part in the tournament because of my temporary inability to travel. However, after I knew that I couldn't go being quite committed and dedicated to sports and especially team sports I couldn't just leave it. I continued attending the sessions and sometimes I was helping. For example, during the game sessions when the opposite team did not have enough  people to make a team, I joined them. 
In conclusion, I can easily say that I am happy with what I have gained from this experience as my personal skills and I enjoyed helping during the games. That was a tiny contribution I could do for our team to take the honorable second place. As far as I know, in last 5 years OSC team has never been that close to the victory in football. Moreover, I had grown as an athlete which makes me even happier.

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