On 28th of April the Marymount Aces 7-a-side Soccer Team departed to Madrid for the Annual ISSA Soccer Tournament. In the months leading up to the tournament the team had trained incredibly hard and also had some pleasing results in their build up matches. The squad of 12 had a good mixture of youth and experience and expectations on improving the previous year’s results were high.
The first game of any tournament is important, as it sets the tone for the following two days. It just so happened we were playing against the host, The American School of Madrid who were ‘Hot Favourites’ to win the title in front of their home fans. With immense pressure on our defence and some unfortunate misses on goal, both teams drew which in a small way felt like a victory against such a fired up opponent.
Marymount dominated the second match against The International School of London. The team grew in confidence and began to play the attractive brand of football we are known for.
The third match was against last year’s champions ACS Egham. Although we scored first, a few lapses in concentration cost us the match 2 – 1. We knew however, that this wouldn’t be the last time we would play one another in the Tournament.
Now ranked second in our pool, we played St. Dominic’s for a place in the Semi-finals the following morning. This was by far the most stressful match for both players and coaches. Several times we would score only to have St. Dominic’s quickly regroup to score almost instantly. It wasn’t until an amazing free kick from almost half way that spun into the top right hand corner of the net, that victory was secured. Marymount was also victorious in the Semi-Finals, playing against The International School of London for the second time.
In the Final we faced ACS Egham who were considered favourites to take out the title. We had known all along that this team would be standing between us and the championship trophy. We dominated from the outset with several free kicks in dangerous areas. However, ACS Egham regrouped and although we managed to save several attempts on goal, couldn’t withstand the constant pressure. Yet the second place trophy was ours and we were so proud knowing how far we had come from the previous year.
The School is incredibly proud of the girls’ hard work and effort over the past few months which has shown in such an amazing results and experience. Congratulations girls, a fabulous Tournament!
