Marianas Variety learned yesterday that they played against Chinese Taipei last Sunday and that from the get-go they were a strong team by just looking at their physique. These players were well conditioned and appeared to be all 15 years old in contrast to our team where only three players were 15 years old. “Our first game was unexpected because the players were bigger, stronger and faster. All the players here are 14 and above except us and they are very skillful, but they don’t have true fans like us.” Team captain Michael “Bo” Barry said. About eight parents from Saipan came to watch the opening match, and stayed throughout to support the boys and give encouragement.
We played against Chinese Taipei and lost 14-0. 1:40 into the game, Chinese Taipei scored their first goal. The next goal was scored at 5:10 into the match. The NMI players held their ground for about 21 minutes with Chinese Taipei not scoring, but then our defense couldn’t hold the constant attack from Chines Taipei and the score at the half time was 7-0.
The second half started with Chinese Taipei again scoring in less than 2:00 minutes into the match. Fatiqued got to our boys and Chinese Taipei scored 7 goals in the second half. We did mange to have some good defense and not many offense opportunities.
