Oliver and Ocean completed their soccer seasons last week at the Central Asian Federation of Athletics (CAFA) championship in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Nadia and I flew up on Friday evening to watch the semifinals and finals on Saturday, November 4. It was quite emotional for us, especially as this was Oliver’s last high school soccer games. The varsity boys went undefeated on their way to winning the championship. Ocean’s team tied their consolation game to finish third.
Oliver’s team, the Tashkent International School Owls defeated the Tien Shan International School of Almaty, 4-1 in the semifinals. We were fortunate to see Oliver score a goal in the game. (video above)
In his final game against Haileybury Astana International School, his team won 3-2 and took home the trophy. Oliver played in the second half and it was the culmination of his scholastic sports career. Nadia was crying and I was proud of his accomplishments as a player. Oliver developed a passion for the game and it is one of the things we share.
Ocean’s team lost the semifinal game to the host school, QSI Almaty International School. This is Ocean’s first season of soccer and as a grade 10 student, surprisingly, she is one of the best players. She is learning the game but her athleticism(thanks, Nadia!) allows her to stand out. As she plays more, she will be a better player and I see her eventually playing striker and scoring a lot of goals.
In the consolation match, the girls scored a late goal to tie the game, 1-1. Ocean made her penalty kick (above). Because of a technical error by a referee, allowing a player to kick before blowing the whistle, officials called it a tie, and the TIS Owls finished third place.
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