Phuket Football 7s Tournament

The Phuket Soccer 7s tournament was a tremendous experience for our students, where they battled it out on the pitch against some of the top teams in Asia. From all the training, getting organised and getting to the pitch waiting for the referee’s whistle to start the game the students were a credit to themselves and the school.

The primary under 11 boys did incredibly well, qualifying top of their group and getting through to the cup. Well done Boys!

We had high hopes for the U13 boys going into the competition as we had been playing very well in the local ESAC matches and looked strong on the field. We narrowly won the first game 1-0. Unfortunately, in the second game we lost our captain and driving force of the team, Ben, to injury. This then needed some slight rearrangements in the formation and some of our players to step up and be counted. Fortunately, they all did exactly that and although we didn’t finish as high up in the group as expected, we couldn’t have asked for any more from the team. The Player’s player of the tournament was Victor Bastien/Alfie Stevens and the Coach’s player of the tournament was Arrin Monshouwer.

The U15s came together really well in Phuket and had some fabulous performances. Their grit and determination got them through their group in second place having lost one game. Their best game came in the first round of knockout matches where they really had to dig deep and battle hard to win the game. They ended up winning by a narrow 1-0. Unfortunately, they then came up against the BISP academy team and although they gave them a good run they ended up losing. The Player’s player of the tournament was Willem Gerkema and the Coach’s player of the tournament was Clayton Ruddick.

The Over 15 girls team that we took to Phuket seemed to have everything going against them from the word go. The weather denied them a number of practice matches and training before the event, a number of the senior girls were unable to play and to top it all off their goalkeeper Sam Bastien, twisted her ankle before stepping onto the pitch. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse Jasmine then damaged her ankle and was out for the last game. However, they seemed to take all this bad luck in their stride and ended up competing very well. They came through a tough group in 4th place thanks to a 2-0 victory over Regents and then went into the plate competition. The Player’s player of the tournament were Poy Stenberg, Eva Gerkema, Jasmine Raddon, Fun Williamson and the Coach’s player of the tournament was Jade Harcourt-Harrison.

We are all very proud of you for showing such resilience in a tough competition – Mr Standen #TeamGV