Yesterday, Friday (May 17th), our Lions, consisting of teachers, staff and volunteers, successfully defended the trophy they won last year at the Chiang Mai International Schools City Champion Tournament.
Cheered on by a number of fans who had traveled with them to the Nice Place Sport Club sports ground in Chiang Mai, the tournament got off to the worst possible start for our CDSC Lions. The opening match in Group A was lost by a narrow margin of 0:1 against the team from CMIS. Despite numerous scoring chances and two hits against the post, the ball just wouldn’t find the back of the net. But this bumpy start was to be the starting signal for a successful tournament.
Game two against the team from the Varee School was won 2:1 and so it depended on the decisive final group game against NIS. This ended goalless and so in the end the direct comparison with Varee had to decide who would go through to the semi-finals, which our Lions had previously decided in their favor.
The semi-final was therefore against the group winners from Group B, Lanna International School. The Lions won the thrilling game 1:0 shortly before the end with a goal from our volunteer Timo, who had also scored both goals in the 2:1 win against Varee.
The final was a reunion with CMIS, against whom the first game had been lost. This final was also open for a long time and was on a knife-edge, but our goal scorer on this day, Timo, could be relied on. After a beautiful free-kick variation, he drilled the ball unstoppably into the opposing goal. The cheers on and off the pitch could be heard across all of Chiang Mai.
In the end, the Lions held on to their narrow lead and the dream of successfully defending their title came true on this Friday evening in May.
