December was another month which was filled with extra-curricular activities and helped me achieve many of critical outcomes of the CAS program. The main highlight of this month was the SAISA boys football tournament of course for which we had all worked so hard.Other than than there was so the "OSC's got talent" show in which i performed twice.In regards to service, we had just held the biggest fundraiser of the year at school and so for now our goal was to gather all the funds and donate them to the hospital where the patients were.Other than that community service took the back seat for this month.
SAISA Boys U-19 Football tournament!
Finally the sporting event we had been looking forward to all year had finally arrived! it was a long journey to Dhaka but most of the team was used to it and was prepared to handle it this year having gone to the same destination for the tournament last year. There was one major setback the day before we left for the tournament and that was that our central defender who was key in our strategies got suspended from school and was unable to travel. There was a sense of dejavu from last year but we were determined to make things work so some players had to take up positions out of their comfort zones which they did willingly for the team The day we arrived in Dhaka we were dropped straight to the hosts houses so we could relax and prepare for the big day ahead.
The first day of the tournament was relatively easy for us in terms of number of matches as we had only one. We were very excited and ready to give it our all as we knew we had the rest of the day to relax and recuperate. The match was against the school from Lahore who were known to be championship material and this was evident as their team had many seniors. We went into the match confident but a little confused as to our individual roles in the team because there were many last minute changes. We played fairly well and worked collaboratively in the first half frustrating our opponents and keeping the score at 0-0. Karl our goalkeeper and captain was key in this half to maintaining the score line. The second half however was a completely different story, Lahore's pure quality and skill shined through and we lost the match 3-0. At the end of the match we were quite disheartened with our performance and were embarrassed of the position that we thought we would come in if we kept playing the way we played in that match. We knew many changes had to be made and luckily we had the rest of the day to work with our coaches and come up with a new strategy. Personally i was disappointed with myself for not having created many chances or scoring a goal but i knew that i had to stay committed to my goals and i would persevere. I worked together with the other attacking players trying to devise a strategy for our next game and developed my skills as a leader and a footballer.
On the second day we had our first match against ASB and we went into it distracted and still slightly disappointed from our previous performance which quickly led to us being beaten easily in defense twice and them having a 2-0 lead. This was the lowest point of our tournament and it was at this point that the whole team collectively decided that we were not going to sit back and be dominated in this way. We came out very strong in the second half and i scored a goal halfway through the second half.After my goal there was a resurgence in team spirit and we dominated the game completely giving ASB no chances. Unfortunately we could not get another goal but that did not matter as after the game team spirit was high. We had finally found our rhythm and were playing in the positions we were suited for. The next game was against Karachi and it was complete Gecko domination throughout with the final result as 3-1 and i scored 2 goals while assisting the other. It was a very good morale boosting game and very important in terms of keeping us in contention for the title.
The Third day we had to play AIS from Chennai in order to qualify for the semi-finals. Last year they had beaten us in the 5/6th place match and so we were determined to take revenge. The game was fairly evenly matched for majority of the first half but we decided to turn the tempo up which led to a goal from a free-kick taken by yariq and scored by me. After that it was attack after attack from OSC but eventually one counter attack from AISC was able to penetrate our defense and they equalised. At this point we pushed even harder and close to the end of the game i shot the ball towards goal and it came off the bar and landed at Maisoon's feet who managed to put the ball past the disorientated goalkeeper with ease. We held on to our lead quite comfortably and progressed to the semi-finals.We had to play Lahore once again in the semi-finals which was our greatest challenge so far. We had seen them demolish the other teams with ease. Our only hope was that we had managed to hold them relatively well in the first game for the first half and we believed that if we could do the same now then we had a chance of winning it. We went into the game believing that it was all or nothing and we played our hearts out. Karl was exceptional in this game as goalkeeper handling a barrage of shots but not letting anything past for the first half. Again at half time the score was 0-0. We were holding the tournament favorites and this gave us a lot of confidence.Sadly after an intense second half Lahore managed to outplay us once again and we were knocked out of the tournament. But we held our heads high because we knew that we had given the probably champions the toughest fight yet which turned out to be their lowest scoring game in the whole tournament including the final which they won 4-0. Now we had to face AIS Dhaka, the host team in the 3rd/4th place match. This was another intense match. Even though we dominated them for the first half and i scored one of my best individual goals of all time, the score at half time was only 1-0. They capitalized on our inability to finish all our chances and by halfway through the second half they led by 2 goals. I was determined not to have our team lose to Dhaka again like last year and so i ran myself into the ground working hard and trying to create chances. My hard work was awarded in that i scored the two goals that got us back to level terms with Dhaka a few minutes before time. I was very proud of myself for having persevered and not given up when all hope seemed lost. I also achieved one of my goals which was to score a hat-trick. The match finally went to penalties where sadly we lost because some of the players who had scored regularly during practice could not keep their nerves and luck was not on their side either. IT was disappointing to lose on the basis of penalties but we were proud of ourselves for having worked hard and achieved 4th place which is one of the best positions OSC has gotten in recent years.
All in all the tournament was a tremendous experience for me as i learnt a lot about myself, my skills and about working as a team and being calm under pressure. It is a tournament i will never forget as i developed new skills and improved old ones. The team was committed and worked collaboratively and undertook every challenge that came our way.
OSC's Got Talent!
OSC's got talent was a talent show organised by the SGA and it consisted of many different performances of dance and music. I did two performances in this show, one with Skylord which was a guitar instrumental medley and the other was an acoustic cover of the song "She will be loved" by Maroon 5 with Camie.
I showed perseverance and commitment to this activity because i had to spend a lot of my time rehearsing and practicing for the show. It also gave me a chance to further develop my guitar skills as i did both an instrumental with Skylord and improvisation with Camie. A new challenge for me was the guitar instrumental because i had never performed one before without any other instruments to support it. Me and Skylord worked collaboratively to decide the songs we would put together and how the medley would go. It was the first time it would be just me and him on stage with no one else supporting us so it was daunting but we managed to do quite well. For me and Camie this kind of performance has become like second nature because we have done it so many times in the past with other songs.We were aware of our strengths in this area and so we decided to stick to it to put up a good performance
The show went well and Skylord and I won second place overall and Camie and i won first place overall! It was very special for me having won the top two spots with both my performances
SAISA Boys U-19 Football tournament!
Finally the sporting event we had been looking forward to all year had finally arrived! it was a long journey to Dhaka but most of the team was used to it and was prepared to handle it this year having gone to the same destination for the tournament last year. There was one major setback the day before we left for the tournament and that was that our central defender who was key in our strategies got suspended from school and was unable to travel. There was a sense of dejavu from last year but we were determined to make things work so some players had to take up positions out of their comfort zones which they did willingly for the team The day we arrived in Dhaka we were dropped straight to the hosts houses so we could relax and prepare for the big day ahead.
The first day of the tournament was relatively easy for us in terms of number of matches as we had only one. We were very excited and ready to give it our all as we knew we had the rest of the day to relax and recuperate. The match was against the school from Lahore who were known to be championship material and this was evident as their team had many seniors. We went into the match confident but a little confused as to our individual roles in the team because there were many last minute changes. We played fairly well and worked collaboratively in the first half frustrating our opponents and keeping the score at 0-0. Karl our goalkeeper and captain was key in this half to maintaining the score line. The second half however was a completely different story, Lahore's pure quality and skill shined through and we lost the match 3-0. At the end of the match we were quite disheartened with our performance and were embarrassed of the position that we thought we would come in if we kept playing the way we played in that match. We knew many changes had to be made and luckily we had the rest of the day to work with our coaches and come up with a new strategy. Personally i was disappointed with myself for not having created many chances or scoring a goal but i knew that i had to stay committed to my goals and i would persevere. I worked together with the other attacking players trying to devise a strategy for our next game and developed my skills as a leader and a footballer.
On the second day we had our first match against ASB and we went into it distracted and still slightly disappointed from our previous performance which quickly led to us being beaten easily in defense twice and them having a 2-0 lead. This was the lowest point of our tournament and it was at this point that the whole team collectively decided that we were not going to sit back and be dominated in this way. We came out very strong in the second half and i scored a goal halfway through the second half.After my goal there was a resurgence in team spirit and we dominated the game completely giving ASB no chances. Unfortunately we could not get another goal but that did not matter as after the game team spirit was high. We had finally found our rhythm and were playing in the positions we were suited for. The next game was against Karachi and it was complete Gecko domination throughout with the final result as 3-1 and i scored 2 goals while assisting the other. It was a very good morale boosting game and very important in terms of keeping us in contention for the title.
The Third day we had to play AIS from Chennai in order to qualify for the semi-finals. Last year they had beaten us in the 5/6th place match and so we were determined to take revenge. The game was fairly evenly matched for majority of the first half but we decided to turn the tempo up which led to a goal from a free-kick taken by yariq and scored by me. After that it was attack after attack from OSC but eventually one counter attack from AISC was able to penetrate our defense and they equalised. At this point we pushed even harder and close to the end of the game i shot the ball towards goal and it came off the bar and landed at Maisoon's feet who managed to put the ball past the disorientated goalkeeper with ease. We held on to our lead quite comfortably and progressed to the semi-finals.We had to play Lahore once again in the semi-finals which was our greatest challenge so far. We had seen them demolish the other teams with ease. Our only hope was that we had managed to hold them relatively well in the first game for the first half and we believed that if we could do the same now then we had a chance of winning it. We went into the game believing that it was all or nothing and we played our hearts out. Karl was exceptional in this game as goalkeeper handling a barrage of shots but not letting anything past for the first half. Again at half time the score was 0-0. We were holding the tournament favorites and this gave us a lot of confidence.Sadly after an intense second half Lahore managed to outplay us once again and we were knocked out of the tournament. But we held our heads high because we knew that we had given the probably champions the toughest fight yet which turned out to be their lowest scoring game in the whole tournament including the final which they won 4-0. Now we had to face AIS Dhaka, the host team in the 3rd/4th place match. This was another intense match. Even though we dominated them for the first half and i scored one of my best individual goals of all time, the score at half time was only 1-0. They capitalized on our inability to finish all our chances and by halfway through the second half they led by 2 goals. I was determined not to have our team lose to Dhaka again like last year and so i ran myself into the ground working hard and trying to create chances. My hard work was awarded in that i scored the two goals that got us back to level terms with Dhaka a few minutes before time. I was very proud of myself for having persevered and not given up when all hope seemed lost. I also achieved one of my goals which was to score a hat-trick. The match finally went to penalties where sadly we lost because some of the players who had scored regularly during practice could not keep their nerves and luck was not on their side either. IT was disappointing to lose on the basis of penalties but we were proud of ourselves for having worked hard and achieved 4th place which is one of the best positions OSC has gotten in recent years.
All in all the tournament was a tremendous experience for me as i learnt a lot about myself, my skills and about working as a team and being calm under pressure. It is a tournament i will never forget as i developed new skills and improved old ones. The team was committed and worked collaboratively and undertook every challenge that came our way.
OSC's Got Talent!
OSC's got talent was a talent show organised by the SGA and it consisted of many different performances of dance and music. I did two performances in this show, one with Skylord which was a guitar instrumental medley and the other was an acoustic cover of the song "She will be loved" by Maroon 5 with Camie.
I showed perseverance and commitment to this activity because i had to spend a lot of my time rehearsing and practicing for the show. It also gave me a chance to further develop my guitar skills as i did both an instrumental with Skylord and improvisation with Camie. A new challenge for me was the guitar instrumental because i had never performed one before without any other instruments to support it. Me and Skylord worked collaboratively to decide the songs we would put together and how the medley would go. It was the first time it would be just me and him on stage with no one else supporting us so it was daunting but we managed to do quite well. For me and Camie this kind of performance has become like second nature because we have done it so many times in the past with other songs.We were aware of our strengths in this area and so we decided to stick to it to put up a good performance
The show went well and Skylord and I won second place overall and Camie and i won first place overall! It was very special for me having won the top two spots with both my performances
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