SIU Futsal

Having played football since the past 7 years, The SIU Futsal tournament immediately caught my interest, sounded both fun and exciting. Although I had been practising with the team for the last 2 years, this tournament presented a whole new challenge.

As the event approached, the guys had intensive practice sessions on the field. Various drills, workouts, and other procedures were established to ensure that there was no space for error during the matches. When we landed in Pune for the first time, we all had a positive attitude. The searing heat did not weary us out for our evening match. We walked about campus and watched other sports, such as basketball, which several of our batchmates were playing. While observing the other institutions’ games, we analyzed and methodically prepared our own. As we observed several situations on the pitch, we heard jokes and tales from the stands. The anxiety in the air increased as we got closer to our match. We kitted up. We began with a warm-up exercise guided by our captain, who then went for the toss.

We were up against SSCA (Symbiosis School of Culinary Arts), and we attempted to keep a cool head so that we wouldn’t make any mistakes under pressure. The opening few minutes of the first half were difficult since we had to adjust to the field. We eventually got acclimated to both the players and the field. The opponent scored a goal at the opening of the second half, which was caused by a silly  mistake on our part. We pushed hard but were unable to score an equalizer. It was a terrible finish, but our captain lifted our spirits after we lost our first match.

Overall, the event was an excellent experience, from training to playing practice matches. A lot of lessons were learned by both the team and individuals.