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The Jain International Residential School (JIRS) arrived at the Anantapur Sports Academy (ASA) to a warm welcome on the 4th July 2015, on a Saturday evening when most others would probably look to party and then slump into the coziness of their bed. “That, however, cannot be the case for a sports person” explain footballers from ASA and JIRS.
Unlike their Cricket and Hockey teams’ who came in with their senior teams last week, this time JIRS arrived with their football senior and junior teams, who played their hearts out on Sunday, over a couple of friendly games against each other, here at the ASA. The teams started proceedings early in the day at 6am with the ASA seniors facing off against their juniors.
The juniors put up a tough fight but they succumbed towards the end while the seniors made good use of their experience that they have gained over the years at the ASA. The JIRS senior boys, on the other hand, had a relatively easier game against their junior boys as they dominated the game throughout while maintaining maximum possession of the ball, which saw them win emphatically.
The boys took a little break to refresh themselves and regroup over breakfast, this time preparing to play a team from the opposing camp with the Junior ASA boys looked to take on the senior JIRS team while the ASA seniors were facing off against the JIRS juniors. The second set of games kicked off at 10:30 am.
The ASA juniors almost pulled off an upset against the JIRS seniors
The first game of this fixture proving to be a really thrilling David vs Goliath exchange, even though the ASA juniors seemed like an easy game put up against the JIRS seniors, in terms of their size comparatively against their opposition. The junior athletes fought tooth and nail before narrowly losing the game in the dying minutes with a score line of 1-2 to the JIRS seniors.
The JIRS juniors vs ASA seniors was a predictable match where the ASA seniors had it easy against their opposition. After this session the boys broke for lunch and came back for the final session at 4pm. Finally the junior teams and senior teams played against each other to complete the day’s events.
The first game of this session between the juniors of both sides saw the ASA athletes win convincingly over the JIRS Juniors with 6 goals to none. Then it was the turn of the seniors, which went down to the wire. They faced off in a heated contest where the teams were evenly matched.
The JIRS seniors drew first blood scoring late in the first half after a very evenly contested half. The ASA boys wouldn’t go down so easily as they came back in the second half to score an equalizer via a penalty to then take the game to a thrilling penalty shootout.
The penalty shootout was a real battle of the nerves as both teams were tied 5-5 after the initial round. The Clash of the Titans ended when the shot of an ASA midfielder was a tad wide to allow JIRS to win the encounter 6-5 on penalties.
