With the youngest team in the tournament, the AES JV boys had a particularly tough challenge at the MESAC soccer. Both the JV boys and girls gave their best and had a great time. The MESAC tournament was this year hosted by ACS Abu Dhabi. The visiting schools were DAA, ASD, ABA and AES. Both our teams fought hard and met strong opposition.
On the first day of the tournament, the boys played at NYU, which is a football stadium with two big natural grass fields. They won their first game by a solid 7-0, which was a great start to the tournament.
The girls played at ACS which had a slightly smaller field with artificial grass. The girls lost both their matches unluckily 0-1.
“I had a lot of fun in MESAC. My highlight was watching Annabelle on the airplane,” said Yujeong from the girls’ team.
JV boys lost their second game 0-10. In the first game, Hyunmin was given a red card for grabbing the ball outside the 16m box. This meant he was sent off the pitch and couldn’t play the next game. Therefore they had to use their other goalie who tried his best, despite being injured. He was substituted by an outfield player halftime.
The second day was the last couple games of the round robin. Round robin is when each team play each other once until they get sorted into seeds. The 1st seed plays against the 4th and 2nd against 3rd. The winner of the games go to the final while the losers play each other for the third place.
Girls unfortunately lost both games again. Boys had a solid 3-0 win against the hosts at their home field. Their second game was very tough and ended up a 2-5 loss against ASD.
With 2 wins and 2 losses the boys end up 3rd seed which means they will play semifinal against ACS. They lost 6-0, and went into the third place game. JV Girls came last seed and play for the third place which they unfortunately lost. They lost their second game too and ended last. In the boys’ last game they lost again and finished fourth.
Junghwan from JV boys said “MESAC was a great experience and had a lot of fun with my friends. I scored two goals and when I scored I felt happy and proud.”
Although AES didn’t receive any medals, both teams earned the sportsmanship award. They had fun and did their best which is what is the most important.
