on saturday we (3K) took part in a football tournament at The Cage, organised by some RI SL group n their VWO. 3 teams from RI took part and the experience was great and painful.

we were in a grp of 5, 3 grps. top 3 of our grp qualify. the first match was scrappy but not overly physical. the opposition was getting chance after chance but fail to convert. we had perhaps one or two chances but dats about it. they were dominating as we didn'n noe wat to expect and we were still adapting to our roles. final score 1-1.

i wasn't playing very well as i haven't played defence b4, let alone centre def. i abandoned my post a few times and was got past easily. half the chances could hv been averted if i played better.

2nd match was a disaster. we started with tim n shouij on the bench as we wanted to keep them fresh for the 2nd half. but we conceded a goal 20 secs into the game 0_o. they outpassed us n outmoved us. hell they didn't even need to get physical.. i made a hell lot of mistakes, thus they had a lot of 1v1 chances with theo, who really was faultless throughout the tournament. i changed to left back with thomoh as centre def which was a mistake really. however we scoreed our first goal of the tournament when timo somehow weaseled his way pass the defence n keeper to score with a backheel. he realised n celebrated this goal an hour later. final score 5-1 to them.

our 3rd n possibly final match (one team in our grp pon thus a walkover). we had to win this our we were out. so we started with me in the centre, kieran n thom at flanks n tim upfront. we played well, got lots of chances n managed to convert one late through thom. final score 1-0 to us. qualified!

lunch was basically bananas n energy bars. our quarter final match was against the top team from alvan's team's group. they didn't qualify sadly after losing their playoff for 2nd spot. we started with the same lineup as the previous match. man, it was freaking physical. theo got kicked in the head, someone smacked me in the chest, it was freaking gay. we had lots of chances n i felt the whole team played well. i kept them at bay, with experience my defending became much better since the morning. our movement was improving and we played with lots of heart. alas, it was luck dat sent us out. they were a constant threat from long shots, being unable to really get pass me n theo (thank u, thank u). last 2 mins, they took along shot from their half. it looked like it was going out. but theo went towards the ball to cover anyway. until it hit their own striker in the back n deflected pass the wrong-footed theo. we tried our best but just cld not equalize. well, dats life. at least we went the furthest. still it was an excellent performance n experience that will serve us in good stead.