Girl’s BIFS MS Soccer secure the TREBLE

This past weekend BIFS MS Soccer traveled to Jeju Island for the KISAC Red Tournament. The girls team, comprised of Captain – Eve Seeberg, Goal Keeper – Marnie Stutsel, Defensive Line – Ali Zakirova, Erika Manrique, Midfield – Grace Montiero, Zoe Shields, Cayetana Pendergast, SeNa Julsdorf, and Striker – Kira Seggerty faced tough competition, but came out victorious; claiming their third trophy this season and making a clean sweep of all KISAC and SKAC tournaments.

The Bears started the day against Branksome Hall with a quick goal from midfield by Monteiro, rousing the girl’s spirits to knock in five more goals (overall: Monteiro – 2, Seggerty – 2, Pendergast – 2) for a win of 6-0. Our strong defensive line allowed very few shots on goal.

The second game brought the Bears against North London Collegiate- Second Team. The girls maintained their style of football with quick passing, fast-paced attacks, and a solid defense that brought the girls their second victory of the day with a 2-0 win (overall: Seggerty – 1, Shields – 1). Shields made a superb shot wide of the goal, utilizing a newly learned technique of curving the ball in to score. This was followed by an excellent run up the field by Seggerty to secure our second goal.

Nerves ran high as the girls entered the semi-finals facing a hard-hitting ISK team. Both teams played to their highest level, giving the supporters a fantastic game of quality football to watch. Clean passes allowed both teams to make quick breaks and really challenged the defensive lines. After an early goal by ISK, Pendergast came in clutch to calm the nerves of everyone on and off the field with a smooth knock-in, tying the game right before half time. Going into the second half, the Bears tirelessly shot on goal and managed to rack up three more goals; one being a brilliant run from the defensive side by Zakirova (overall: Pendergast – 1, Seggerty – 2, Zakirova – 1). Thanks to unwavering goal keeping, Stutsel made countless quality saves, throwing her body on the line to keep the ISK team to only two goals for a Bears victory of 4 – 2 and a spot in the Championship game.

Preparing for the final game of the tournament and of the season, the girls yearned to defend the KISAC Red title BIFS had won last year and to become three peat winners for the 2015 MS Soccer Season. The Bears faced North London Collegiate – First Team in the Championship game. Previously defeating this team in a prior tournament, the girls were confident, despite exhaustion setting in. The game kept all supporters on the edge of their seats as the ball moved quickly between both teams, forcing the Bears to employ their strongest defending and smartest passing, yet. With outstanding touches and crisp passes, the Bears moved the ball down the field, allowing Shields to make a smart read of her teammates and move into position to complete an excellent shot, putting the Bears one goal closer to victory. With this goal, the energy on the field was renewed and the girls stepped up their game, putting the pressure on North London. The Bears fought ferociously for the title and employing techniques learned earlier in the year, made an excellent pass from midfield to draw the defenders to the side, which released Seggerty to make the final goal of the day, clenching the title for the Bears in a 2 – 1 win (overall: Shields – 1, Seggerty – 1).

The girl’s team showed excellence all season long on and off the field, playing hard, playing fair, and showing true sportsmanship at every event. They played with their hearts and souls in every game and truly deserved the winning trophy. Even more amazing was to see how this group came together from all corners of the globe and played as one team; every player being as valuable as the next, making strong plays on the field and being supportive and spirited off the field. Congratulations, Bears! We could not be more proud of you!

BOYS MS SOCCER

Both the Varsity and Junior Varsity Boys gave a great account of themselves at the KISAC Red Jeju tournament, putting together all they learnt throughout the season.

This past week the MS Soccer program again traveled to Handong International school and competed for the SKAC Futsal championships. Having enjoyed great success in the preliminaries in Daegu in September where the girls and boys Varisty both went undefeated and the boys JV only lost one game, the travelling team was in a confident mood. The day started well with all teams getting early wins and playing some excellent flowing football.

BIFS girls were early favourites having convincingly defeated all opposition scoring 11 and only conceding 1 in the group stages against a talented ISK team, thanks to superb saves from Marnie Stutsel and resolute defending from Captain Eve Seeberg as well as some potent goal scoring from Grace Monterio, Zoe Shields, Cayetana Pendergast and Kira Seggerty. The boys suffered a tough loss to HIS in the group stages going down 2-1, but there was plenty to be excited about with a spread of goals and some creative combination play resulting in goals from Danial Crichton, Marin Ikac and Theo Spjeld. Our JV boys dominated games with their intelligent passing football but could not quite find the cutting edge in front of goal to finish games off captained by the superb Jaylen Cuthbertson in goal making 2 world class saves which were applauded by the on looking crowd, goals from Kyle Park, Louis Van Der Wel and Sean Toms were well deserved and the boys move forward knowing they played good football and built upon the foundations which will ultimately bring them success.

The Varsity boys advanced to the semi final having won 2 – 0 in the quarter final. In the semi they met a big and strong BLICS team however the BLICS team was no match for the BIFS slick football and individual skill in the final third. The BIFS boys bombarded the BLICS goal with attack after attack, if it were not for a outstanding performance from the BLICS goalkeeper the BIFS boys would have advanced. Unfortunately a lucky goal saw the boys go down 1 – 0, in the words of Joint Captian Marin Ikac “Sometimes I am disappointed when I leave the field after a loss, today I know we did everything we possibly could have done to win.” The BIFS boys will travel to Jeju in confident mood.

The girls played a spirited GIFS teams in the semi final, a team they had beaten earlier in the day, however it was not to be as simple this time around the GIFS girls gave their travelling support a lot to cheer coming from 2 goals down to level the game 2-2 at half time. There was clearly some nerves in the BIFS camp but with second half goals from Monterio and Shields BIFS came out on top 4-2. The final was rightly billed as game of the day. The talented ISK team came out even more resolute than in the group game and pushed BIFS high up the field. BIFS scored with a goal from Seggerty which released a little tension on the BIFS bench, however the ISK girls came back even stronger. if it were not for great saves from Stutsel and the post Frida Slatmen of ISK would have had a hat-trick. In the second half the game had a more end to end outlook with few chances at either end due to incredibly strong defending. The first half goal from Seggerty proved the difference, with both teams cancelling each other out in the second half, the final score 1-0 in favour of BIFS. There were tears of joy at the final whistle as the BIFS MS Girls claimed their second trophy of the year and keep alive the dream of the treble as they travel to Jeju this weekend, not to forget defending their futsal title from 2014. The triumphant girls team were Marnie Stutsel, Eve Seeberg, Se Na Julsdorf, Erika Manrique Zoe Shields, Grace Monterion, Cayetana Pendergast, Kira Seggerty, Ali Zakirova

Great job to both teams and all the players.  A big thank you to the Rising Stars soccer Coaches who have tirelessly coached and travelled with the kids this season.

MS soccer has one last contest this coming weekend in Jeju Island for the KISAC Red Tournament and will have a great time travelling and competing with the KISAC schools from Seoul and Jeju Island.  Good luck to all!

Throughout the course of 2015 we will be providing a spotlight on different aspects of the game. This week we are focusing on Tricks! Tricks are fun and help players improve their concentration, poise and touch. Coaches have contributed their favourite tricks, not all are difficult and we would like you to try and replicate as well as innovate and send us some of your own tricks.

Day 1 – Coach Andy – ‘The Crostar’

Football Tricks Week – Coach Andy RSFA – ‘The Crostar’

Day 2 – Coach Marc – ‘The Marcabulous’

Tricks Week – Day 2. Coach Marc presents ‘The Marcabulous’

Day 3 – Coach Michelle – ‘The Dorothy’

Football Tricks Week – Day 3 2015 – Busan South Korea RSFA

Day 4 – Coach James – ‘The Poise’

Football Tricks Week – Coach James RSFA – ‘The Poise’

2014 was full of so many great memories for the coaches and players of RSFA, we played a lot of tournament football and futile and grew throughout learning how to become better players and better coaches. “Sometimes we have to lose, to learn how to win,” this was something we had to be aware of early in our adventures, coming up against older, bigger and physically stronger teams. We have now however developed the character to ignore the oppositions size and play our football. We work hard for each other, we play attractive passing football, we are clinical when necessary and we never give up. We can only hope that 2015 will lead us to as many exciting adventures as 2014 did and that we continue to grow as players, teams and coaches on those adventures.

I would like to thank every coach, player, parent and supporter who has been a part of this journey and we look forward to sharing more great memories with you in 2015.

Below are a list of the tournaments we attended in 2014 and any resulting silverware.

Sangju Cup U8, U10, U15 (U15 Division 2 Runners Up)

Norway Cup U14

Goeseong Cup U8 and U15 (U15 3rd Place)

Ulsan Cup U8, U10, U12 and U15 (Winners U8, U10, U12 and U15)

Ulsan League U12 & U15

Ulsan League Cup U15

Not to mention the tournaments we entered with BIFS

KISAC JEJU and Seoul Middle Boys and Girls Teams (MS Girls winners Jeju and Runners Up Seoul & Boys 3rd Place Jeju)

SKAC Pohang Middle School Futsal (MS Boys and MS Boys Winners)

SKAC Deagu Elementary Futsal (Elementary Boys Winners)