Before i start on this entry, let me tell you first im not going to talk about the world cup. Yes, i know, this year is full of surprises. France vs Italy in the FINAL?! it is suppose to be Argentina vs Brazil instead! haha. its ok then. Im now rooting for both teams. I support Italy because they are techincally good and France becaus of Zidane. I don't know why suddenly im inspired by him. He made football look so beautiful to play.
Well, what i want to say is that, last saturday, i had my first ever debut playing in a futsal tournament. Yeah! And it was a memorable debut indeed.
To start off, my team consist of 8 players; 5 of them in which from SP, 2 from ACJC and 1 from PJC( u all know who lah).
Let me describe for u all my team members ok.. here goes.
SP teammates
M.Khairul (wearing manutd jersey) - my ex-cckss good friend. So no problem communicating with him in the futsal court.
Nizam(middle) - Ex Dazhong Pri Captain. Skillful and tricky guy.
Shahril Bahri(bottom right hand corner) - Classmate with M.Khairul in SP. Hardworking lad who tirelessly chasing for every ball.
Sohiful(left top, looking elsewhere) - Im not sure how to spell it. Aniway, i preferred calling him Saiful. A 1.8m guy who defend brilliantly. Use his height advantage efficiently.
Imran( at the left, second from bottom) - Another solid defender. Look decent but deadly because he can dribble and score too.
ACJC teammates
Mirza (middle at the top with his arms raised) - A quiet guy but plays his goalkeeping role well. His reflexes are good too.
Hazmi (bottom left hand corner) - Ex-Rugby National player. Play striker alongside with me most of the time throughout the tournament. Top scorer in the tournament with 3 goals.
Our Performance - *PAIX peace in German
We named ourselves PAIX. Nizam and Shahril came up with it. Nice right? haha.
We played in the Under-21 Category and come to think of it, we are one of the youngest team. Only Saiful is 18 this yr. The rest are all 17. Our opponents are all much more taller and big-sized.
We are the ONLY team who played the most games in the tournament. You know why? Because intially 1st round all teams are in the WINNER POOL, playing a double-knockout system. We won our first game 2-0 but lost our 2nd match 0-1. So, we were relegated to the LOSER'S POOL. This time, we can't afford to lose another match or we're out.
However, throughout the LOSER'S POOL's tournament, we played using our new-found strategy and tactics, by partnering me and Azmi as the first attacking partner, and the 2nd half of the game introducing Nizam and Shahril as the next attacking partner.
This strategy was effective because Azmi and Nizam are natural finishers, whereas me and Shahril are naturally supporting strikers.
We checked the soccer table and it shows ONLY the CHAMPION team from the LOSER'S POOL will play in the semi-final of the WINNER'S POOL. And to our much delight, we won 3 matches to reach the FINAL and finally won 3-1 in that match, in which the 2nd goal i scored. haha.
we entered the SEMI-FINALS in the WINNER'S POOL and we met the FAVOURITE team to win the competition. They called themselves 'Thumberland' , but their jersey look exactly like BRAZIL, played like BRAZIL.. almost everything like BRAZIL lah. To add more to our fears, they are the JOGA BONITO champion this year! Now you see, we are clearly the UNDERDOGS.
And you know what?! WE WON 1-0! woohoo! i think that's the best moment of the entire tournament!
And you know who scored?!
ME!! Last minute somemore! haha.. so relief and excited man. I was celebrating like tak ingat dunia seh. haha.
THE FINAL
We lost finally though. haha. 0-1. It was a tight match. 50-50 possession for both sides. But they took their chances. That made the difference. We tried to equalise but they played their dirty tricks by wasting time. haiz. that's football. No choice as we lost eventually.
Reflecting on our overall performances, i think we did exceedingly well. I didn't put much hope intially, especially when we relegated to the LOSER'S POOL. Furthermore, we are playing in the Under-21 category. It was a really a difficult tournament but we stick together and persevered till the end. Our sweats ( 'Eeeww' u might say) and time spent ( we wasted alot of time.. from 7am to 6pm u know) were worthwhile afterall.
This is what i called...
A TRUE UNDERDOG STORY =)
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