Published by: Favaron Kasparian and Danny Kasparian
THE EXPERIENCE OF THE H-INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM AT THE MEDITERRANEAN CUP
It has been almost two years since the school’s last appearance at the Mediterranean cup; because of covid the tournament has always been postponed and they never found an appropriate time where the organizers could run the event. Fortunately, the 25th of March, the physical health education teacher mr. Moll told the team that we would be leaving for Verona. After a few training sessions, necessary for building up some chemistry throughout the different players, the team was ready to play! At first there weren’t high expectations as the team was very young, and from past experience certain players knew that the teams present were full of strong physical players, which certainly wasn’t a characteristic we had. Still, everyone was motivated to give it’s best out on the pitch and obtain the best results after each match.
The tournament was organized to have two groups of seven teams, and the best four would pass on the elite league, while the other six teams would contend for the champions league. Our team went in group B, a tough group which consists of the international schools of: Milan, Turin, Rome, Monaco, Nice and Geneva.
On the first day we played 6 matches against all of the teams present in the group, the nerves from each student were big, but collaboration and collective effort were key for playing well in each single game. In the end, we managed to win two matches against Turin and Geneva, and draw against Nice. For sure the best game we had was against the American Overseas School of Rome, one of the toughest teams among the entire tournament valid for winning the title. Their players were all very developed physically and they also played unity because of the greater experience they had. This gassed our team and each one of us wanted to face this challenge, in fact we managed to play some fantastic football, both in offense and in defense. Unfortunately, after keeping the draw for the entire match, on the last action, after a free kick, one of their players scored with a great header and this ended the game in a defeat. Despite our great sorrow, we still did an outstanding performance which made all of us proud, and it gave us the grit to win the next matches.
Saturday, the day after, the team was feeling a little bit demotivated since we were not able to make the elite league but thanks to Mr Moll and Mr Basso we were able to pick up our heads in order to get ready for the next matches. Together with the team we had decided to set ourselves a goal and it was to win the champions league, at first we were expected to play against the other 5 teams. We started off the day with a great win against the second team of the international school of Nice, a tie against Turin and a win against Geneva for 3-0. After lunch we were going to play against the two strongest teams of our group but we were almost one step and a half into the 1st and 2nd place final, we tied 0-0 against the school of Mougins and then lost 0-1 against the team from Vilnius. We made it to the final thanks to the goal difference and we were very lucky; after losing against Vilnius the tournament organizers communicated to us that the Beavers were going to play for the Champions League title against Vilnius again. So after a good night's sleep, Sunday morning the team was up and ready to beat the Lithuanian team and that’s what happened! In the final there weren’t any chances, we won 3-1 and the International school of Treviso was crowned champions.
In conclusion, we wanted to share with the school our wonderful experience in Verona. We are very proud of our performance and the results we brought back to the school. The team is already talking about next year and can’t wait to get started to prepare for the next Mediterranean cup. We also wanted to thank Mr. Moll and Mr. Basso for being there when needed and always having our back. Go Beavers!