SEASAC Girls Football Tournament
Last weekend the girls’ U18 football team took part in the prestigious SEASAC Football Tournament, hosted in Singapore. This international event consists of 16 boys and girls teams from across the region. 2022 marks the first year MCM has attended this event, playing with schools such as Stamford American International School, NIST from Bangkok and the hosts, Tanglin.
With a team selection made up of pupils from Shell to Upper Sixth, the first matches represented a strong start for players who had not previously played together as a team. Dominating the first match, they unfortunately came away nil-nil, terrible luck which continued into their second match against NIST.
This meant that going into their next match on Saturday, they would be facing a very strong Tanglin side (the eventual winners of the tournament) that had won both their previous games with comfortable 2-0 victories. Despite creating some good chances, the stronger team prevailed with a 3-0 scoreline and meant that after the group stage, MCM finished third in the group.
This set up a game against UWC East and once again after a strong start by halftime MCM were trailing 1-0, but dominating play. The team managed to draw level with a great free-kick from Lexi that deceived the keeper putting the score at 1-1. This meant the team had another 15 minutes of play into the period of golden goal before the dreaded penalties. The match was very much in the balance and with just 3 minutes of the golden goal period left, the East team produced a goal of great quality – to leave MCM battling for the 7 v 8th playoff the next day at the rather early kick-off time of 7.00am.
On Saturday evening, the team attended a brilliant gala dinner with the theme ‘cultural diversity’, fitting for such a tournament hosting so many teams from across Asia. After relaxing and enjoying their time, the MCM girls came back stronger than ever. With a change of formation, masterminded by Miss Lowe, the girls were ahead at half time owing to a supremely well taken penalty by Janette. With team spirits high, the girls’ team continued to hold a strong defensive line, earning them their deserved first and overdue victory of the tournament.
Sophie won the MCM MVP award for the tournament for her brilliant and often unsung role of CDM (Central Defensive Midfielder) and breaking up attacks from the opposition, but all of the squad contributed superbly throughout. The team spirit and attitude of all of our MCM players was just superb and epitomised the values of companionship, communication and courage throughout the weekend.
Written by Mr. Waterhouse, Coach
