Starting off the second day at Nationals as they did the first, the Lady Hawks played a match of Futsal at 8am — today, they faced the Nation's Cougars and won! The first half of the game was quite energetic; though the Cougars had the advantage of starting with the ball, the Lady Hawks showed much more dominance and determination. In the first three minutes, Laura Calixto (99) scored a beautiful goal from the touch-line across the court, and the Hawks were ahead. Anyone could see how motivated they were, sometimes even crossing the line of reason – they were losing opportunities to score by being rash, as they are much more used to playing soccer than futsal, and Coach Sandro spent a great deal of time shouting at them to calm down. Nine minutes into the game, the Cougars managed to score through a fallacy by the Lady Hawks, tying the game. There was no audience to cheer for our girls, and barely any bench players as Marcela Borlido could not be present; these minutes were very tense. In the time-out, Coach Sandro gave the girls an honest, serious talk because they were not playing according to the team's previous agreements, and the girls made their comeback. Fourteen minutes in, Mariana Lana (13) passed the ball to Laura Calixto, and she scored another goal, so quick that the Cougars nearly missed it. Coach Sandro relaxed his anxiety, and started to avidly compliment the girls' (in his words, excellent) performance. Approaching the end of the first half, Julia Barros (1) felt injured and contemplated abandoning the game; she decided to persist and stick up for the Lady Hawks, as her defenses were a key factor in our success. The first half was closed at 2x1, and the girls could not be more pleased.
In an attempt to recover a positive score, Nations went into the second half with a stronger offense. They tried more kicks directly at the goal, but Julia did not let any go through, even while in pain. In the first couple of minutes, Laura Calixto and Marina Cambraia (10) organized a play that granted the Lady Hawks their third goal of the game. Immediately after, Laura dominated the ball for a couple of minutes and almost scored two goals — if it weren't for the Cougars' well-trained goalkeeper, she would have. Shortly after, Gabriela Carvalho (9) sent the ball to Marina across the court, and she scored the perfect goal; our girls were winning 4x1. Threatened, the Cougars started physically attacking our Lady Hawks, their number 17 making two consecutive fouls; Laura Calixto was thrown down horrendously but fiercely got up and scored less than thirty seconds later. In seven minutes, our athletes had scored 3 goals and led the second half by 5x1. As the score disparity allowed the Lady Hawks to relax, the Cougars took advantage of their tranquility: their number 11, the best of their team, managed to score twice in 30 seconds, and the scoreboard became 5x3. Coach Sandro warned the EABH girls of their mistakes, and they rapidly bounced back into the game and focused. Julia Barros destroyed any goal intentions; Gabriela Carvalho dominated the ball like never before and almost scored twice; and Marina Cambraia owned the court with her gorgeous kicks. When five minutes remained, Laura Calixto scored her fifth goal of the match, EABH's sixth; thirty seconds later, she scored yet another one. With the scoreboard marking 7x3 and the timer calling 12 seconds, the Lady Hawks already had a beautiful victory guaranteed. Nonetheless, Marina Cambraia and her endless determination granted the team their eighth, most unexpected goal. It was a beautiful game to watch, with an extremely satisfying ending — the Lady Hawks undoubtedly deserved the medal that they are now bound to get.