Nagano- The Final Tour
This weekend was our final trip to Nagano for the twice-yearly JET soccer tournament. This was quite an emotional trip, as I think that soccer has been the one theme dominating our lives here in Japan- and apparently the obsessing was worth it! This weekend saw Ishikawa with its best finish ever! It started out intense, with a 1-0 loss to Tochigi, despite serious Ishikawa dominance. We had a quick comeback, however, with a 3-0 victory of Saitama, followed by an extremely close game (and some dogdy reffing) against Yamanashi, maintaining a 3-2 lead for the victory. The day ended facing our new found rivals Tochigi, against losing a close 1-0 match. This is the first time that Ishikawa has managed to win two games in one day- and actually ended up in the top half of the rankings! The party was, as always, a challenge that Ishikawa was determined to meet. Saitama put up a good fight, but I think the victory remained ours. Sunday was only elimination games, and we were up against Shonai- the team that had eliminated us last June. Out for a taste of revenge, it was a very close game! Shonai had an early 2-0 lead when a handball in the box gave us a penalty and a goal!! But, with time running out, would it be enough? Yes! Zach came through to save the day and scored the equalizing goal!!! Game Over! It's time for penalty kicks. We missed our first one, and Shonai scored. But, we scored our next- and Shonai was up to the plate. The goalkeeper made an absolutely beautiful save-- only to have the ref call it back! We ended up losing on penalty kicks- but definitely won a moral victory! Plus, the curry rice was yummy.It is very sad that we won't be back to Nagano, but it was a great way to leave it! And, of course, the mountains were goregous!
Warming up for the first game!
The strike force.
The cheer squad. Perhaps most responsible for the great results.
The whole team.
posted by Zachary and Jane @ 3:12 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home