Over the years, as we have supported Grace in her soccer, I have had the opportunity to help coach here and there. It's been a wonderful way to engage in the community and get to know her friends, as well as spend time with our daughter. So, when I was asked if I wanted to be an assistant on the high school girl's soccer trip that would be going to Guam, I was surprised and excited. Our school, ICS, is part of a Christian School Conference in Asia. Each season, and for each sport, one of the schools hosts a conference that invites all of the schools to attend. There are schools from Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, Philippines, Guam and Hong Kong. This was the first year that Guam was hosting the girl's soccer tournament, and the first time ICS would be attending. Grace and her friends were very excited to go, as well. Never did I think that I would be visiting Guam!
We left on a Monday evening and took the red-eye. It is about a six hour flight from Hong Kong, but it is direct. We arrived at 5am, and because the hotel knew that we would be arriving that early, we were able to get in our rooms and sleep that morning. That first day was laid back and relaxing, getting over a little jet lag and exhaustion from a red eye, and enjoying our beautiful surroundings. That evening was the opening banquet, where all the teams came together over a meal. It was at the hotel we were staying, so it was nice that we didn't have to go anywhere. Especially since our first game the next day was at 8am, agains St. Paul's, the host team.
Our girls were the youngest team entered. We had one junior, two sophomores, two eighth graders and the rest were freshman. The other unfortunate problem was that our only goalie broke her arm the week before. She still came on the trip to play on the field, but that meant that other girls had to step up and fill in.
The teams were very even. The field was horrible…a red dust bowl…and I think we were disadvantaged by that since passing is our game and we weren't all that speedy in the backfield. They were obviously used to playing on their field, and they were very physical.
We were able to score in the first half to go up 1-0. But early in the second half, they got an equalizer to tie the game. Then the craziest thing happened. Our girls was running back to get a ball rolling toward our goal, a step ahead of St. Paul's attacker. Our defender tripped and fell, and then their attacker fell and a foul was called. Both girls were hurt so play had stalled. The ref did not signal, but both teams started walking towards the St Paul's goal, indicating that everyone thought the foul was on them. When the ref placed the ball down he pointed towards our goal, giving them the ball. Luckily for them, they had one girl standing there who did not hesitate. She had a one on one with our goalie and put the ball in the back of the net. Obviously our girls were shell-shocked and we as a coaching staff were livid. There was definitely some yelling involved, but to no avail…the referee didn't think he did anything wrong…making it even more frustrating. This also put our girls in a funk, and we let up another goal to lose the game 3-1. The next two opponents were weaker, and we were able to win those games 3-0 and 2-0 against Grace and Morrison. Then we played the perennial favorites from the Philippines, Faith Academy, and lost 3-0. This game was closer than it sounds…giving up a penalty shot and a banana from a corner kick, and a shot that looped over our goalie's head from 30 yards out. Even though that was not the result we wanted, we felt pretty good going into day 3 with a 2-2 record and in the hunt.
Day 3 games would decide our fate…where we would fall in the standings for the playoffs. Both teams had winning records and were stronger. We started with Dalat from Malaysia. It was a battle and our girls played so tough. We were able to get two goals, Grace scoring one of them, to win the game 2-0. I'm not sure we were the better team, but we came out on top. Then we played the team from South Korea who had tied Dalat earlier in the week. If we won that game, we would secure at least third place and playing for bronze. We didn't feel like they were as strong, but we could not put the ball in the goal. Eventually our lack of depth showed through and we were tired. We ended up losing 1-0 in a close game. And because Dalat upset Faith, they pushed us down to fifth, missing out on that bronze medal match. We ended up playing Morrison again, and this time we had no more gas in the tank. We ended up losing 4-1. It was a shame that we ended the tournament on a down turn, but overall we were thrilled with the girl's performance.
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