By Michelle Huang
From April 10th to April 14th, Shanghai American School’s APAC Girls soccer traveled to HKIS to participate in the annual regional soccer competition for international schools. Throughout the nine weeks of training, the team faced numerous challenges ranging from annoying cases of flu resulting from playing in less-than-ideal conditions to trips to the emergency room. Although the team ultimately placed last place out of the six attending schools, they rose up from their shared hardships to make one of the most eventful soccer seasons yet.
Pudong Press reached out to two of the freshmen players for comment.
On their initial concerns, striker/center player Charlotte Moh mentioned her doubts about how well they bonded. “I was skeptical on how close we would be as a ‘team’ team,” she said.
Soccer, being a team sport after all, required crucial understanding between each team member.
This was echoed by left defense player Julie Xie, who added that, amidst high tensions of games, “people were scared and nervous, and blaming happened.”
As they approached APAC, these concerns fell away one by one.
“We really bonded as we grew to know each other’s capabilities, which helped us know that person better,” says Moh. “Being there for each other, especially during the downfalls and the really [crappy] games the team has had,” as described by Moh, grew to replace the aforementioned nerves and destructive chemistry.
While other challenges, such as constant cases of flu and tough coaching persisted, what was coming up at APAC was about to test their teamwork like never before. The Hong Kong weather posed an immediate challenge. “It was not freezing cold, but because it was raining, it was obviously cold, but humid at the same time––it was everything,” shares Xie. Another issue was the poor game scheduling. “We would play two games in a row with no rest,” she added.
By the last day, spirits had reached a low point. The girls, however, vouched to place fifth by winning their last game. It wasn’t until the last five minutes of that game that they faced the biggest obstacle of the season––even after losing their final game by 4-0. In response to an advancing opponent, their goalie, Sofina Hibbeln, dove for a ball and suffered a severe shin injury.
“Her pain and her screams just made everyone start bawling––because we know that she’s not the type that cries, and she’s a tough person. We’ve never seen her react that way,” says Moh.
“I could see the tears in our teammates’ eyes [as] we all kneeled to show our respect as she wailed in pain,” adds Julie. She went on to describe the soccer tradition. “When a player gets injured, everyone on the soccer field, wherever they were playing, has to immediately get down on one knee to show respect to the person getting injured.”
Now, with seemingly all odds turned against them, the girls had to face the last five minutes of APAC without Hibbeln. “Instead of saying ‘Pudong on three,’ we said ‘Sofina on three,’” says Xie.
So was it all worth it? Though little dispute exists on how annoying grass-caked, mud-stained cleats, stuffy-noses with seemingly no expiration dates in sight, injured limbs, and last places affect the team morale, the two freshmen players share their rewards gained in other ways.
“One of the best memories on mine was when we had a banquet and the team all sat together, talking about different stories and whatnot,” says Moh. “During APAC, we also had a Goldfish throwing contest between the seniors and the freshmen––and it was hilarious and fun.”
“I felt like APAC definitely brought us together the most, despite our losses,” reflects Xie. “There were moments when we would as a team just watch other teams and it felt nice. I felt grateful to have people caring for each other, myself included.”