Day 1
Before I start, I would like to thank everyone who decided to sponsor me on this amazing trip. This was my first time on a plane so it was kind of scary but once we were in the air it felt natural and it was like I had done it a million times. I loved it as it was so high up and cool. As soon as we landed, we were treated like professionals and were treated with kindness and respect! We were in a private van to our hotel, so I fell asleep and relaxed. When we got to the hotel, we had to put our stuff in a safe then head to the opening ceremony of the tournament. After the tournament opening ceremony, we found our rooms and made ourselves at home.
Day 2
We started the tournament at 2 pm. We got off to a decent start as we finished the first game with a draw; however, we lost most of the games after because we did not have a proper goalkeeper in goal – it was an outfield player. In the last game of this day, we fielded a different formation and won the game 2-0. We all celebrated our victory as we did not finish last in our group despite being the only non-academy in the competition, so this was a huge accomplishment.
Day 3
This was the last day of the tournament, and we made it into the “Europa League” of the tournament. We lost almost every single game even though we tried harder than any other team; it was more of a struggle for us as we were not an academy but we won a few and we drew once as well. We also collected our medals.
Last day/return day
For the last day, we went to the park and then the beach where we got pizza and relaxed again. We had more than 10 pizzas as the waiter was extra kind! After we had eaten our food, we had a long 2-hour drive then we got back on another plane back to home. And so that was my trip!