On the weekend of September 25th-26th, 2015, the vampires won a dramatic penalty shootout, en route to winning the Berlin Friendly Tournament. The first obstacle in front of our team was BBIS (Berlin Brandenburg International School). The vampires hit the ground running, as kenan B was taken down illegally in the box, right in the rst minute. Despite the obvious fault, the referee didn’t call anything. After luckily surviving a barrage of chances from the connected wing play in our opponents’ half, kenan capitalized on a defensive error with a nish which was smooth as silk.

Our team started the second half at full speed. We had a couple of favorable situations to score, including a one-on-one. Sadly, our players weren’t cold-blooded enough and failed to convert the golden opportunities into numbers on the board. A mix of defensive miscommunication with a speculative cross led to our opponents levelling the score at 1-1. After a Sisyphus- like e ort, we ended up drawing, hence going to the lottery of penalties. 
 

Some say that penalties are luck, some say that it’s only a mental game, but we proved that it’s neither: concentration and focus paved our way towards a dramatic win. Our rst penalty taker was Basil C, who scored his rst penalty ever in a game. He was followed by David A, kenan B, Matei L, and Andrei S. All of our players succeeded in their own way when stepping up to the 11m spot. Basil calmly placed the ball in the bottom left corner. David safely hit the back of the net, while kenan kicked the ball with sniper-like precision. Matei executed the goalie with a cheeky fake, while Andrei assured us the victory in a ruthless manner. Our great achievement would have not been possible, without the top save of our goalkeeper, Vlad M. 


We lined up in the nal against Berlin International School (BIS). Once again, we got o to a solid start. Despite the tide of the game being against them, BIS found the back of the net, after a ashy fast break. That is when our champion mentality kicked in, as our team achieved its goals of stronger partnerships, and the progress was visible. After just a couple of minutes, the score was leveled out, after Andrei S hit the back of the net with surgical precision. Using our superior strength and skill, we took hold of the possession and transferred this onto the scoreboard, through another world class finish by Kenan B.

We kept on dominating the game, yet the curse of the one-on-one chance, struck again. Some golden opportunities missed didn’t balance the score in our favor as hoped. After having a goal ruled out as o side, BIS took charge of the game. They managed to create some great chances to score, however it was not enough to get past the back four lead by the physically imposing Antonio S. and Robert P., supported on the wings by vlad C. and Alex P. who joined the game with fresh eyes on the situation. As the nal whistle was blown, the  level of happiness suddenly reached its peak: the AISB vampires achieved a 2-1 victory.

Vampires Berlin Squad:

Grade 12: kenan B, Robert P, Alex P, vlad C, Antonio S, vlad M, Matei L, Basil C
Grade 11: Andrei S, David A, Andre C Grade 10: Max z, Rafael H
Grade 9: Jonda C, Alejandro GM, vlad D Coaches: emanuel Munteanu and Jon Rees 
 

Vlad Dima, writer

Vlad Dima is a Romanian student at AISB and he is currently in Grade 9. He joined our school in 6th grade, back in 2012. In the future, vlad plans to study Law in Bucharest, and build a career as a business lawyer in Romania. In parallel to that, he wants to keep sports and journalism as a priority and practice being a sports journalist and sports commentator, as football is a huge hobby and passion of his. 
 

Vlad Coraci, editor

Vlad Coraci is a Romanian student at AISB and he is currently a senior. He joined us back in 2010, as a 7th grader. He plans to be a primary school teacher at an international level in the future. Formula 1 and Football are his favorite sports, both to write about and practice. vlad thinks that he has already met future champions in both of these sports and will certainly write about them when their success comes. 



Read the entire WORLD Magazine Winter 2016 edition here.