“The Second Southwest Jiaotong University Staff Football Match” kicked off on April 9th at the North Stadium on Xipu campus. The first male football team organized by the Labor Union, and supported by the School’s administration, took part in 5 group matches.
The five football matches were held over a period of 10 days and were hard for all the players. For the honor of our school, however, they all showed their indomitable spirit and tenaciously completed their allotted 5 matches. Initially seen as rookies by other the teams before the match, it turned out that our team made their adversaries suffer. In three of the five matches, our team was the first to score goals. When competing with the School of Life Sciences though, our opponents scored first, but our team managed to overturn the deficit and win with a score of 2:1.
However, this was the first football team our School had ever put out, and they only had limited time and lacked practice, which ultimately meant that they failed to qualify. During the matches, the team only once played with a good tempo, as rushing into these battles without adequate fitness or preparation, as well as a lack of experience and practice, soon led to them dragging their feet.
Our team did manage to learn from their experiences and became even braver after each match. In the last game against the Department of Sports, our team was again seen as the underdog. Surprisingly, our players managed to demonstrate their confidence and play as one and work together to ward off the assaults and break up the attacks. Finally, our players unseated their adversaries with a final score of 3:1 and won to universal applause. Their exploits undoubtedly attracted the most attention on the football ground.
Our teachers benefitted a lot from this tournament in terms of morale and health. Through this, and similar activities, more teachers will be attracted to take part in nationwide fitness activities. Mens sana in corpore sano – healthy in body, healthy in mind. Through continuous learning and innovation, the School of Foreign Languages will see a bright future.
