Annual Football Match 2014

Yesterday was the big game: the annual school football match played by Chitralada School and SatitChula, the Chulalongkorn (Chula) University preparatory school. The game is played in the Bangkok National Stadium at Chulalongkorn University.

Because of the game, we only had first and second periods yesterday. The students were so excited, that I didn't really bother to try and do any lessons. Instead, I had my M4 class explain some of the rules to me.

We had a very early lunch (10:30), then got on busses and vans to take us to the stadium. 

The first hour or so of the game was a cultural presentation by the students of the two schools. Some of the girls did a traditional Thai dance, then a group of students performed a Chinese-style lion dance. Each lion had two students inside, one working the eyes and mouth like a giant puppet.

We sat on one side of the bleachers and SatitChula took the other side. All our teachers wore blue; the SatitChula teachers wore pink. 

SatitChula won the coin toss, then one of the lions climbed the bleachers to the VIP seats. Our headmistress dropped the ball into its mouth, then the lion returned to the field to put the ball in play.

Chula (pink and blue) and Chitralada (blue and yellow) teams

I've mentioned how big of a deal the cheering is. Not only were the students in the stands all doing their synchronized cheers, but our school had a small group of elaborately-dressed cheerleaders who were dancing nearly the whole time.

I'm not even sure how much the students were even paying attention to the actual game, to be honest. There was too much other stuff going on. At the half they passed out juice to the students and boxed sushi lunches to the teachers, and both schools cheerleading squads put on their big shows.

In the end, SatitChula won 4-2. My Thai isn't great, but I think the announcers said that this is the 19th year they've played this game. I'm told we have won once. 

The students were amazingly good sports though. It was really interesting to watch. They didn't seem to care if they won or lost, and they were helping the other teams stretch out and giving high-fives on the field. It didn't seem really very competitive, just fun.

After the game, one girl from each school came forward to sing both school songs and do another Thai dance to the music. We stood for the royal anthem, bowed to the flag, and left. 

Seeing this game, I was really impressed with how differently sports competitions are approached here. I was also interested to see that students of all different grades seemed to actually be friends. The older students were organizing everything and seemed to be happily helping out the younger students. I don't know if it's a cultural thing, or if our school is just really close-knit. Maybe a little of both.