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"More Than Just the Scoreboard: Lessons From ACSC Soccer" by Adriaan Hueting

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Prior to arriving in Korea, we felt rather confident in our abilities, winning a majority of our local domestic matches and learning from our defeats. The team was growing, and it was very evident through our repeated will to improve during every practice.

We took the first day off in Seoul to sightsee and to prepare ourselves for a long week of nonstop football that would prove to be somewhat disappointing. 

The tournament was underway after an exciting display of martial arts from university students. We ended up losing our very first game 4-0, leading to a deep decline in our sanity, and it proved to be ultimately disappointing. Our hunger to win rapidly grew, but for some reason over the course of 4 games, we just could not win despite our determination.

After several deep talks filled with various emotions, honesty, and bitterness, we decided to not see this tournament as a loss, but as a learning opportunity. We ended up growing as a team, but more importantly as people. Players were told to define ACSC in one word, and the one that stood out was "Finding victory in defeat," said by Phillip Devries (12); it embodied the entirety of the tournament to a tee.

We reflected, bonded, and expressed our true emotions with each other and decided to not let anger weigh us down. As the final game approached, we were crippled, exhausted, and missing a lot of players. Fortunately, through our determination and will to win, we ended up winning the game, celebrating with immense passion and love, solidifying our unity as a team just a tad bit too late.

On paper it looks bad, but honestly, this tournament proved to be a wake-up call to work even harder. Through our team talks and bonding, we were all able to take away something from the tournament even though it didn't turn out the way we wanted it to. That final win was the embodiment of what we had worked for through the season, followed by an immense desire to win. We didn't get first, but we came out of the tournament with several lessons learned.

This season was great even though we didn't win ACSC, and I am so grateful for the mistakes we made because through these mistakes we were able to grow together and deepen our bond as a team

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