Strand to represent Hounslow at London Youth Games

Last Friday Strand played against 40 other teams in the mixed borough football tournament at Gunnersbury Park, a tournament that the children and the PE team had been looking forward to it and training for it since September.

Due to the level of skill and high number of children wanting to be in the team (over 50% of children in years 5/6 chose football as one of the top two sports they wanted to represent in) we pushed to enter multiple teams and were the only school to take 3 teams. We were also, once again, one of only a few schools to bring teams with girls.

All 3 teams did fantastically - Strand C were the first team to kick things off with a great first game against Victoria. Although they didn’t win their group stage matches, goals from Ibrahim and Halel meant that the scores were super close! Aleksa was congratulated by coaches at the tournament for his goalkeeping abilities.

For Strand Bs it was a frustrating mix of defeats and draws against some tough opponents in their group stage matches. An early goal from Maggie against The Orchard Primary put us in a great position but unfortunately wasn’t enough to see the Bs make it to the last 16. Shout out to Maggie, Hattie and Yasmina who went in for and won some amazing tackles against boys much bigger than them!

It was Strand A’s outstanding performance that took us to the finals and now means that Strand will represent Hounslow and West London in the London Youth Games later in the year!! Stand A scored an incredible 27 goals on their way to the finals (including 8-0, 7-0 and 6-0 matches!), conceding only 1 in the semi-finals. It was a 3-1 defeat in the finals against Oak Hill Academy that made us the runners up. Alongside the talent in the team, Mr Bentley’s great coaching on the sideline was definitely a contributing factor to the team’s success.

Jake was spotted by coaches at the tournament for his unbelievable goalkeeping, as well as Ranveer and Oliver H for their overall performance. Huge well done to Zubeyr, Ranveer, Oliver H, Charlie H, Jake, Supo, James S, Sebastian, Louis, Karter, Hattie, Gabriel, Yasmina, David C, Luca, Maggie, Iustin, Raimundo, Emir, Lorenzo, Aleksa, Ibrahim, Oskar, Marlowe, Halel and Eddie.