SISAC Boys Football

With all of Year 6 in Malaysia a depleted year 5 only TX football squad travelled to The American International School to compete in the Boys SISAC Football Championships.

After the ISHCMC and FOBISIA competitions we had thought that swimming was over for this year. In their first two games of the tournament the TX team could have been forgiven for thinking they were swimming, not playing football. Saigon’s glorious rainy season has returned and it was ‘cats and dogs’ for the first 2 hours of Wednesdays tournament, making life very hard for all players. TX were drawn in group B alongside EIS and BVIS.

Our team battled on manfully and watching football in the ‘English’ weather made me feel very nostalgic. First up for TX on the lake/pitch was eventual champions EIS. Despite some really good play and an excellent second half performance, including a contender for goal of the tournament from Nathan (great volley direct from a corner) EIS were too strong and ran out 5-2 winners.

Next up was BVIS. The excellent 2^nd half performance inspired our young TX team to defend like lions in this game with William and Yegor looking particularly rock-like at the back. An early BVIS goal was quickly cancelled out by another Nathan goal to tie it up at 1-1. Numerous chances for both teams followed with PO making some valuable saves and Peter striking the post with a great effort after a solo run. Heartbreakingly with seconds left on the clock a corner was not cleared and resulted in a scramble in the TX box, and a BVIS player poking the ball home. Very unlucky and a tremendous effort by our Y5’s.

That result meant we finished 3^rd in group B and were drawn to play 3^rd place in Group A for the final game. The AP1 team had finished in that position. As there were a lot of familiar faces on both sides, and nothing much at stake, the final game was a friendly but competitive game. Some great football and work from both teams ended in 5^th place being shared after a 2-2 draw was played out.

A big well done to all involved especially the Y5 students with little experience, who stepped in to cover the missing Y6 players. You did not let anyone down.

Pupils Involved; Nathan Nguyen. PO Salapete, William Nguyen,  Yegor Lohvinov, Yong Jun Kim, Peter Lee, Wonik Cho, Kevin Tran

Ali Thom / TX PE Coordinator