The girls leave wait for the ferry to Surat Thani at the port of Ko Samui.
Land in sight...
A quick check-in to the new hotel before departure through the streets of Surat Thani to the province Stadium
Coach Weiler in a good mood on the way into the Stadium.
The Surat Thani Province Governor is presented with the Concordia scarf by the captain's.
The teams run out with their National Flags as a heavy rain shower blows over.
Halftime: Surat Thani FC 3 Concordia 1
Fulltime: Surat Thani FC 3 Concordia 2
The girls put in a great effort and fought back to 3-2 but Surat Thani held on to win this international challenge match infront a large local crowd. Watch the video of Concordia's second goal below!
Thai and American players mix for the post match reception at a local hotel, as do the staff.
Concordia triumph in the post match Karaoke!
After a team song the girls leave the stage in style...
Coach Weiler thanks the dignitaries from the Surat Thani Sport Association on behalf of Concordia College.
The Concordia girls showed a great willingness to mix with the Thai players and staff after the game and made it a great night for our Thai hosts - well done girls!
What the girls had to say????
Greetings from Surat Thani!
Yesterday was our first day of soccer! We started the day off still in Koh Samui and took a boat to the main land. Our tour guide, Lop, made balloon animals the entire boat ride. We took a bus (two-decker bus that is! Woo hoo!) to TESCO, a random Wal-Mart type place and had lunch. After, we headed to our hotel which was much different than the hotel in Koh Samui. The employees dressed in very tradition Thai clothing. The hotel is gorgeous. It is right along the beach and has an awesome pool. We had 30 minutes to get dressed and ready for our game. While we were in our room, Kelsey was searching through her bag for her game gear when a COCKROACH crawled out of her clothes!! Needless to say she screamed bloody murder and the entire team came and was trying to get it out. All of us were deathly afraid of this cockroach and wouldn’t touch it. An 80 pound 4’10 maid came and casually killed the cockroach like it was no big deal! Then we headed to our field. It rained during warm ups and the start of the game. There were standing puddles all over the field. Originally this game was supposed to be played on concrete but the team moved the game into their stadium which was nice, minus the puddles. Our first half we struggled to connect to each other. We were all pretty nervous to play, especially against an international team. There were tons of fans at the game! Everyone thought it was cool that an American team was there to play. The scoreboard read SURAT vs. USA. It was 3-1 at the half. Our second half was much better. We connected passes and completely shut down their offense. They had barely any chances and none were dangerous. We scored a second goal and ended the game 3-2. Although we lost, we got a good gage on the work that we need to do as a team and got our nerves out. After the game the Surat team invited us for a reception at a hotel. We showed up and there was a FEAST of food! The girls were so excited to see us. Even though we couldn’t really communicate with them, we got very good at hand gestures to talk to them! We sang karaoke together and danced. We learned a new dance from the other team and we plan on bringing it back to the states. It was really fun to eat with these girls. They were so friendly and they welcomed us back to Surat Thani anytime we want. Overall, today was a lot of fun. From cockroaches to raining cats and dogs to crazy dancing, Thailand is all that we hoped it would be and much more.
-Kelsey and Nikole
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