SCCS re-defeats AISB, but less easily
By David Boldt
The Jaguars might have expected a walk in the park in this championship game, since they had defeated the same American International School Bolivia team the previous afternoon 7-0, but this game was to be a much more tightly run affair. The Jaguars would win 3-1, but endure some anxious moments along the way.
The start of the game was slightly delayed because through a miscommunication both teams showed up wearing white uniforms.The Jaguars asserted their seniority based on having an undefeated record while the Cocahabamba team was 2-1, and the AISB players had to don lime green pinnies.
However, in the early stages of the game the Jaguars found that they were encountering a m,ore resilient foe than they had faced the previous day. While the Santa Cruz team was able to put pressure on AISB right froim the start, they didn't score until the game was well underway, and it required a highly artistic scissors kick by Joan Carlos Laguna to get that first goal.
The score stayed 1-0 until seconds before the half ended when Laguna struck again, this time in a more conventonal manner, to make it 2-0 at the half.
AISB, known as the Phoenix, cut that to 2-1 with a goal in the opening minutes of the second half on a breakaway by Pedro Sousa.
Try as they might, the Jaguars could not seem to get the goal that would have given them some breathing room, and they now knew that at any moment AISB was capable of evening the score..
The Jaguars controlled the action. From the middle of the second half, when it occurred to this reporter to start keeping count, the Jaguars forced the Phoenix goalie to make seven saves, before their own goalie, Eduardo Rivera, had to handle the ball, and that was to make a comparatively routine save on a Phoenix free kick.
In fact it would not be until the closing moments of the game that AISB finally got off a shot that forced Rivera to heroic measures, as he leapt high to punch the ball over the goal with one fist..
And by that time Josue Abuawad would finally have gotten the Jaguars their insurance goal that made the final score 3-1.
