This year’s long anticipated Songkhla Sevens Tournament on June 1st was a big success for the German All Stars. Despite the fact that the ultimate objective to finally win the tournament again was marginally missed, the whole trip was definitely one of the highlights of the season. Just a week after we celebrated the champion title in division 2 of the Bangkok Casuals League, a group of 12 GAS representatives traveled all the way to the South of Thailand to participate in the tournament for the 10th time in a row as the only team to never miss the tournament since its early beginnings.
The one-day event demanded a lot from all players: Not just because of the tournament schedule with a total of six games (partly with only a 5-minute break in between) but due to the fact that out of the 12 travellers, only 9 were able to actually play football. In The last two and a half games however, injuries prevented us from any further substitutions so that the team basically had to play half of the tournament without any exchange players. In the end, a very good 2nd place was achieved with only one loss in the whole tournament.
Despite all efforts to prepare professionally by ingesting plenty of fluids to prevent dehydration , the first game in the morning was lost to our friends of FC Farang from Koh Phangan. Not a good start into a tournament, but history was later again repeated when no further matches were lost and the performance improved from beer to game to game.
With two wins and a draw to follow in the first group stage, the German All Stars were qualified for the so-called Songkhla Cup where the three best teams play for the title in another group stage. Unfortunately, two draws weren’t enough and the German All Stars could only celebrate a very decent runner up position. Especially considering the limited amount of players, everybody soon agreed that the performances during the tournament gave no reason to complain, despite a very unlucky own goal in the last game. The great team spirit and amazing atmosphere throughout the whole trip made everybody agree that the weekend was a big success.
Despite the long tournament schedule, the team also had time to enjoy Songkhla and make use of the great additional activities organized by the hosts. The tournament BBQ and award ceremony with live rock music was just one of many highlights of the weekend. While some team members enjoyed the local delicacies (shrimp, fish and clams), other used the short time off to travel to the famous statue of a mermaid (evidence 1) or took a long swim in the Gulf of Thailand (evidence 2). Some took the time for cultural exploring and saw the Royal Pavillion Temple (easy to spot from far since it’s on a hilltop) or just enjoyed a cold beverage in the swimming pool.
All in all an awesome trip. many thanks to the organizers and coaches!
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