TCS grade seven futbol team finished 7th at a sub-13 tournament near Barcelona, Spain, where multiple teams from different countries in Europe played. 

Thirteen seventh-grade students participated in The World School Games (WSG) during October 11th-18th. The tournament took place in the Futbol Salou fields near Barcelona. 

“This experience is splendid for the students in various aspects such as being able to compete with boys from other continents, for the bonding of teammates and the team, and in the way that they can gain more confidence by playing these matches,” Assistant Coach Pablo Calle said. 

In Group A, the team won one match out of five and then won the playoffs for 7th place against TASIS Portugal 4-0.

“The team’s performance was very good, it can be said that it went from low to high since the boys started out shy but then began to gain confidence and became a much more balanced team,” Calle said.

The tournament consisted of  13 teams divided into two groups. The format was round robin with each team playing  all of the teams in their table before reaching the playoffs. In the playoffs, each table’s highest-scoring team played against each other, then second place against second place, and so on to decide the final standings. 

“Competing with teams from other countries made them very afraid, but as soon as they saw that soccer was the same everywhere they started to move up in table A, and then they got to win the 7th playoff position,” Calle said.

Each team played with seven players on the field. The matches lasted 40 minutes, split into two 20-minutes halves. 

“The changes of each game length were adjusted for the time the tournament took since it was not possible to play all the games in a week and the idea is that the boys could play against all their opponents and show their level,” Boys Futbol Coach Urbano Mesa said. 

This is the first time a TCS team participated in a tournament in Europe. It was a new experience for our school since they played against other athletes from different countries like United Arab Emirates, Portugal, England, and Spain. 

“This was a good experience [for] students because we had the opportunity to improve as athletes. I learned new styles, skills, and got more confident about myself while playing.” Nicolas Gomez, Grade 7, said.

The team also had the chance to travel including a visit to the Spotify Camp Nou stadium of the Barcelona soccer team. 

“It was the best experience of my life since I got to go with my friends to Europe and not just to play but to do other things like going to the Camp Nou and La Sagrada Familia,” Tomás Gutierrez, Grade 7, said.