ISA took 2 x teams to the British Int’l School Phuket Tournament from 3-6 November. The games were played over 2 x days on Friday and Saturday. ISA Boys U13 and ISA Girls U15 joined the competition. The facilities, layout, fields and venue were amazing…a real treat. Schools & teams from across the region join the competition which has been running for several years.

Our ISA U13 boys team was a mix of our U12 and U14 players and as such a lot of them had not played together before the competition. Our U15 Girls knew each other well from our regular Saturday Girls training programme but have not played many ‘girls only’ competitions, so this was a first for them as well.

Our ISA U13 Boys grew stronger as the competition continued and started to play some good football on the field. They met one of the strongest teams in the semi-finals and came out on top. Our boys were geared up for the final and played some of their best football in the last two games. In the final we probably dominated possession and created half chances but struggled to create any clear cut opportunities eventually TTS broke through and scored. We created further chances and could have equalisers but it wasn’t to be. Our ISA boys fought like lions, played well and considering we had a very young and mixed up squad had a great tournament and a real blast…finishing as Runner Up.

Our ISA U15 Girls clearly dominated the U15 Girls division. We had a number of players that could have still played in the U13 but we were comfortable entering them into the U15 competition and they clearly showed us why. Our ISA Girls scored more than 25 goals and on the opposite end conceded 0. Our striker Alessandra who is only 11 years old was voted as the MVP by the tournament organiser. However a huge credit has to go to the midfield and defence – playing a whole tournament without conceding a single goal is a huge feat that very few teams can achieve this with the additional handicap of not having a designated goalkeeper – so each of our players ended up playing at least 1 half in goal – that is an amazing statistic and a huge credit to our ISA Girls and the ISA Girls training programme. In the end our Girls were crowned champion.

On Sunday we had time to relax and to play an ‘ISA Beach Football’ competition. A great day and game – the most amazing thing is that ALL PARENTS joined the competition – mums, dads, coaches and players a great social event and a true testament to the fantastic and supportive parents that ISA has amongst its members - thanks.