Post-Lao

So the tournament is officially over. I had high expectations and unfortunately they came short, but looking at the big picture I think it was a great start. 

As many may or may not know, the womens national team has been inactive for the last few years. The preparation for this tournament began in January; however a lot happened until that point. Teammates got injured and some got sick. The foreigners didn't come til les than a month before with three never even playing for the team. And some players had to take care of their daily life first I.e. Jobs so they couldn't participate. All those factors affected us though we still put a great fight and shocked many teams and their coaches. On top of that are disputes of whether the AFF purposely gave us the game tape of myanmar after the first goal they scored (which was conveniently offsides) and then enriching tape short for Malaysia (where their goal was also offsides). Those goals were game changers. Lastly, a handball in the box was not called. Though, I had a coach tell me once that of u are good enuf u make ur own luck. U never want to blame the refs. I think it is just frustrating that we could have even done better. Though with minimal support and our personal lives to attend to (most are still in school or have jobs) we did pretty darn good. We learned a lot from this tournament which will only help us in the future. And the most important part we grew as team and as a family. I am in awe of how close a team could be coming from different areas, backgrounds, ages. It is web more fulfilling to be on a team with people u love to be around and have fun with. There is much work to be done but all of it is tangiable. I cannot wait to see this team improve more and more. I think many will be surprised :)
Love,
Cookie