By Mahdi Abdulla MuradAUI-S Voice Staff Reporter
www.auisvoice.org
Last week the AUI-S women’s basketball team, men’s soccer team and women’s soccer team played away games in Koya and Duhok, losing all the matches.
The Blue & White played against the University of the Duhok’s women basketball team. AUI-S lost that game 46-16.
The AUI-S men’s soccer team lost 4-3 against Koya University, and the women’s soccer team lost 9-0.
Hadi Anwar, who is the couch of the Koya women soccer team, said the AUI-S women soccer team should be more energetic.
“The AUI-S women’s soccer team played well, but they need to be more energetic,” Anwar said in Kurdish. “They have to work with controlling the ball mostly because they are not good in that skill.”
Roza Mohammed, 21, one of the AUI-S women soccer players, from Sulaimani, said the Koya University team was more professional than an average college team.
Mohammed supported her coaches.
“I really believe in our coaches,” she said. “I believe that even if Koya University team played with men, it would win. So, there is nothing wrong with our coaches. We really trust in them.
One of the most important problems that we had during the games was that we got tired very easily. That is because we don’t run; we just practice. We don’t get tired [during the practice], so, if we had more time to run, and then practice, we would be much better.”
“Avin Muhammed, 21, a player from the University of Koya, said she enjoyed the game.
“Both teams played well,” Muhammed said in Kurdish. “Although the AUI-S women’s soccer team is a new team, they played well. They were not good in passing and controlling the ball, so they should work with that skills.”
Karwan Ali, 22, a player from the University of Koya, said the AUI-S men’s soccer team was a great team.
“The AUI-S soccer team is great,” he said in Kurdish. “The players are very good especially in passing and controlling the ball. The only thing is that they need to be a little bit more energetic.”
Nazm Jabar, the coach of the Koya men’s soccer team, said that he would love a rematch.
“The game was really enjoyable and good,” he said in Kurdish. “I hope it will not be the last time to play with each other.”
Suren Abbas, 22, an AUI-S soccer player from Halabja, said that it would not be acceptable to lose so many games in the future.
“We have a lot to work to do for the next semester,” he said. “It was possible to lose these so many games this semester because it was just starting, but it will not be acceptable to lose such numbers of games for the next semester.”
In other sports news, AUI-S will have a intramural ping- pong match at 4:30 Monday on campus.
Douglas Johnson, the AUI-S ping-pong coach, and Joshua Hill, the assistant couch, are running the team. The AUI-S ping-pong team is the only AUI-S sport team that is undefeated.
Johnson described it as “one of the best Iraqi ping-pong teams.”
“The AUI-S men’s ping-pong team beat the Karbala team,” he said. “And the Karbala team has some players that are the best players in Iraq. We have some very good players that are some of the best players in Iraq. We have the best team in Iraq. I don’t think that another team could beat us.”
Johnson added that he would welcome anyone who is interested in playing ping-pong.
“We practice every Monday from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m,” he said. “So, you have to come and show up in our practices to be on the team.” On May 10, the AUI-S coaches held a tournament for the eight best AUI-S ping-pong players.
The final game will be between Ako Esmail, 21, from Rania, and Muhammed “Mr. Big” Ahmed, 25, from Babylon.
Hill said AUI-S students, teachers and faculty members should absolutely come and watch the final game.
The final game “is going to be a good game,” he said. “It is going to be exciting. You should definitely come.”
