Amsterdam University College’s female football team just participated in a tournament in Paris! What is this team and how did they do? Well, this team consists of university students enthusiastic about football and spoiler alert: they won it, beating four other university teams.

From the 18th to the 20th of February, the Sciences Po, University of Paris, hosted their annual tournament at the US Metropolitan facilities. Male and female teams in football, basketball, volleyball and rugby play to prove their university is the best at their sport. The other universities that were invited to participate were the London School of Economics (LSE), the School of Oriental and African Studies of London (SOAS) and the European University Institute of Florence (EUI).

The female football competition consisted of a five teams group stage, from which the four bests would qualify for the semifinal. AUC won two matches, versus SOAS and the EUI, but lost the other two against the Sciences Po and the LSE. They qualified as thirds. In the semifinals, they won 4-2 on penalties after drawing 0-0 at the end of the match against local team Science Po. ‘The most thrilling match of the tournament’, according to the AUC women. Last, the big final resulted in a 1-0 win in favour of the Amsterdammers after an exciting match versus London’s delegates. AUC won the trophy, getting their revenge on the group stage match. At the end of every day, all participants of the different categories could do some activities around Paris prepared by the organization of the tournament. ‘They told us to go to this bar, we went there and it was full of people that were part of the tournament. They even rented a club for us’, shares an AUC player enthusiastically.

This tournament was the second official match the female team played this season. They are inscribed in the University College League, where they face other university teams, such as Utrecht, Leiden or Maastricht. However, they have played only one match so far because of the covid restrictions and the consequent difficulties to organise matches and trips. The team has been training since the second week of the academic year though. Luckily for the girls, with the fewer corona restrictions, it seems they will be able to celebrate the upcoming good weather playing football, with the next two tournaments that are coming. This April 30th they will play a 5-a-side tournament against other Dutch university colleges.

For all the girls interested in joining the team: there are two teams, a competitive and a recreational team, each currently consisting of 15 players. The try-outs were in the first week of this year, but you can still go to try out at the GeuzenMiddenmeer facilities. The girls in the team are all AUC students from different programmes, years and nationalities, so the only thing that is stopping you from joining the team is yourself!