Warriors found in Singapore !

I brought my boys to participate in the ANZA International Football tournament last week and it turn out to be one of the best tourney I have been to. Although my boys did not win the championship, but they show character, passion and a never say die attitude.

On the 1st day of the tournament, we did not really play well. Hard to fault the boys as it is a big difference between playing 7 aside football and 11 aside football. In Shanghai, our league matches are on a 7 aside basis. Game play is always on short passing and since its half field, movement on the pitch is little. When we play in the 11 aside tournament in Singapore, our style of play makes it a little bit difficult to penetrate the opponents defense. In these 11 aside game, short passing is ok but there must be movement all around including off the ball movement which we are not used to.

We manage to scrap two 1-0 victory against the host teams and in the meaningless final group game, we lost 4-1. In the cup competition, we lost the 1st game 2-0 against CUKI from Thailand and drew 1-1 against Arsenal Football School. Although there are improvement in our play, but it is still not enough and I decided to do some changes on the next day. What I need now is a midfielder that can spray long balls for our forward to chase on.

On the 2nd day, we are up against another host team. We beat them 2-0 and played some great football. The test came when we are up against International Soccer Academy. Strongest team in the tournament and eventually they are the champions. We made a bad mistake in the early minutes and are down 1-0. But wow..my boys reaction is absolutely spot on. My boys fought back like losing is not an option. We manage to create some chances and eventually we concede in the last minute as we are pushing for the equalizer but I'll have to say although we lost 2-0, this is the best game my boys played during the tournament.

On our last Cup game, we lost 2-1 to Putra FC. Ar finalist in the tournament tat played ISA. We are 1-0 up but due to inexperience, we concede 2 goals in the last 5 minutes. A good lesson for the boys to learn on not to rush the play while you are leading with 5 minutes to go.

Now hopefully the boys understand why some teams are slow in throw ins, some coach makes last minute substitution, why some players suddenly drop down injured...these are all steps to cool down the opponents when they are all over you and trying to get the goal.

I'll have to say I'm pretty proud of my boys achievement on coming in 5th place in the tourney. The heat and getting used to 11 aside football is no easy task...but my boys fought hard..really hard. And I'm sure they did not fight hard for me or for themselves...they fought hard for their parents. On the 2nd day, before the our 1st match I told the boys you are not playing for yourself or for the team anymore, YOU ARE PLAYING FOR YOUR PARENTS...FOR THE SACRIFICE THAT THEY HAVE MADE TO BRING YOU HERE. I think that quote manage to raise the boy's game. I have never seen them work so hard in Shanghai and for parents of these boys..I thank them for allowing them to become a WARRIOR in my U12 team.

" Now win it for your parents eh !! "

On my personal view, ANZA tournament brought my boys closer together. They fought hard for each other. Also is brings the parents closer together as well and for me, there is a bond between me and the boys now. A strong bond...I'm all motivated to win something with these boys..and I know I will.

Charlie, Sebastian, Joe, Oliver, Toby, Lance, Max, Coach Wan

Kieran, Ola, Nicholas, Jacob, Spencer, David Gu