Tournament Day 2:

The next day was another very exciting day for us and we left the stadium in high spirits. Our first match of the knockouts was a round of 32 match against a team called Bees. We won this match 3-1. Some fantastic goals were scored by us in this match. After some time, we played another match against Parappur FC, who we tied 0-0 in the match. Sadly, we lost 3-2 in the penalties. As we got knocked out, we had lunch at a nearby restaurant and then came back to the stadium. We then watched some of the remaining matches, namely the semi finals and the finals. The finals was won by Kodagu Academy also incidentally in the penalties. We got the Most Disciplined Team award in the prize distribution ceremony. After that we came back to our hotel and washed up quickly. Next, we quickly left for the airport at 6 and reached Pune at 10.

This trip was in many ways one of the greatest trips I’ve ever had. It was lots of fun and I also learnt a lot of team dynamics like teamwork and sharing.

Tournament Day 1

Today, I woke up with a thought, a thought about a stadium, a thought about Bangalore, a thought that took me about 8 months back.

It was the 9^th of September, and for the first time, I was feeling energetic on a Friday afternoon. After a meal and a quick wash-up, I left for my coach’s house. We were about to take part in the All India U-15 football tournament in Bangalore at the Kantirava stadium. At our coach’s house, we had a short photography session and then left for Pune airport in two cars. After reaching, we all got a banana, a samosa and an appy. After entering the airport, we were introduced to our coach’s old student: Akshay, who now worked as a ‘groundsman’ at the airport. After some introduction’s, we went through security check and waited for our flight at gate no.8. At around 6:45 pm, we left Pune and reached Bangalore at around 9. We then travelled to our hotel, ‘Hotel Geo’ in a private bus. After reaching, we had a short meal and then dozed off.

Next morning, I woke up knowing it was an exciting day for all of us. We woke up, washed up, had breakfast and left for the stadium. That day’s scores were:

UPSA (A) V Boka Juniors B [1-1]

UPSA (A) V K.V Goa [3-0]

UPSA (A) V Jinki Maria [10-0]

UPSA (B) V E.K. Sports [0-3]

UPSA (B) V Trio [1-3]

UPSA (B) V Kovalam FC Blue [1-4]

UPSA A qualified for the knockouts. We walked back to Hotel Geo and washed up. Following that, we had dinner and went to sleep at around 9:30.