Ascend is a school filled with football fanatics and players who are dedicated to bringing trophies to the school’s name. The first weekend of March, Ascend’s U19 football team participated in a tournament hosted by Ecole, called Ecole Energise. The tournament had 7 total teams participating and each team played with determination and strength to win. The Ecole campus hosted the tournament on a large but rocky pitch which was not what the Ascend team had prepared for at all. After training on a small turf which can barely host a 4v4 match, playing on such a large ground was uncanny. The team exited the competition sooner than expected after only playing three games and not qualifying. Nonetheless, each and every sportsman who played learned valuable lessons from this exhilarating experience. 

We all arrived at around 8 AM and our first game of the day kicked off at 9. We played against Oberoi JVLR, which was one of the better teams in our group. To qualify for the next stage of the tournament, the team needed to come either second or first in their group which meant that every win mattered. The game started with a raging intensity from Ascend’s boys in the first half but remained goalless. Shockingly, the Oberoi team scored an unsavable goal in the top corner which put them ahead. This setback was scary, but the boys persevered and our team’s captain, Aarez Zaidi, managed to score a late equalizer. Despite this newfound pride in Ascend’s players, the opponents remained greedy as ever for the win and managed to score another goal in the final seconds of the game which was just as unsavable and perfectly placed as the last one. The whistle blew and the score settled at 2-1, a painful loss for the boys in blue. 

All the matches were delayed and there was a gap of about an hour between games, which meant the team had plenty of time to ponder on what could have been improved. We realized that it would take time to adjust to the irregularities of this pitch such as – the wide goals, the uneven ground and the scorching heat. Luckily, we faced the weakest team in the group in our second match, Edubridge. Nevertheless, the team played with utmost professionalism because if Ascend wanted to qualify they could not lose this match, which meant there was no room for overconfidence at all. The opponents may have been physically powerful but they were lacking in their technical ability, which allowed us in the first half to dominate and our striker Veer Gondal scored a composed yet well-placed finish to put us ahead. Despite the easy play we experienced, there was a close call in a counter led by one of Edubridge’s players who dribbled almost the entire length of the pitch. Luckily, his forced shot drifted wide and the match was secured in favor of Ascend who won by one goal. 

An hour later, the deciding game for Ascend commenced. This game was vital because it would determine whether or not we had a winning chance in the tournament. We played against Singapore Int. School, a team that implemented a rough but rewarding playstyle into every one of their games. Sadly, one of the key players caught a slight injury which resulted in him only playing the second half of the game. In the first half, our team struggled to get the ball ahead and manipulate the play. The opponents, SIS, scored a goal to put them ahead, however, the team expressed strength and resilience in their play and fought hard for the ball. In the second half of the game, the team clearly demonstrated an improved and developed play and had a lot more opportunities and chances to score. The students of SIS played very rough and almost unfair football which the referee failed to register. This only made the 1-0 loss at the end of the 30 minutes more painful and soul-crushing.

This tournament taught the team a lot about hard work and most importantly, adaptation. Playing back-to-back tournaments in Mumbai heat is a difficult task to cope with, but countless of the key players managed to compete and provide a beyond satisfactory performance on the pitch. Each of the players developed adaptation by playing on a field and in an environment which they were not used to. The conditions of play were quite unorthodox for a football tournament, nevertheless, the boys learned from each game and eventually played an impressive final game.