They ran across the soccer field as the chills of after sunset creeps into the air of October; the racing players were in jerseys. The blue jerseys are fighting for the possession of the ball against the white jerseys on October 22, at a sports center in Pudong, Shanghai. 

The former belongs to the women’s varsity soccer team of Shanghai International Studies University and the latter that of East China Normal University. The game is part of an intercollegiate tournament hosted by Veritas Global, an international professional sports service company and the official partner of the Real Madrid Foundation in China. Unlike other tournaments and soccer leagues, at the end of each game, professional soccer players will offer feedback to student players. Fudan University and Shanghai University are the other two colleges that participate in the game.

The players from both teams had arrived at the field earlier for warming up. At 5:20 pm, forward jogging and high knees began as the daylight was fading away, and the chatters grew louder when both teams huddled to discuss the game plan. 

"Remember all your teammates are right footed, remember to get the angle right," said Rustam, the coach of the SISU team. 

The referee led the two teams into position at 6:00 pm, and the night fell as the match began at six sharp on the lamp-lit outdoor field. 

The handful of the spectators, who are mostly friends riding the subway to the field with their team, cheered their girls and shivered from the cold, and as minutes passed, tension grew on the faces of the blue team. 

"Back up! Guard it!" shouted Rustam from the sideline.

Time flew as the players racing against each other on the field. The 90-minute match soon ended with a score of 4:0; East China Normal University claims victory in the quarter-final. 

However, the spirit of the SISU team was not dampened by the rout. "We gained a lot from losing this match; our team needs to improve on communication, teamwork and basic techniques," said Zhang Jingjing of the School of Journalism and Communication, and captain of the women's soccer varsity of SISU.

The women's soccer varsity of SISU was founded in 2016. The girls practice twice a week at the soccer field on the school’s Songjiang campus. On Thursdays they practice alone for two hours in the evening, and on Sundays they practice with SISU’s men's varsity soccer team. The two teams hold matches sometimes. 

The quarterfinal with the ECNU is the end of the tournament for the SISU team. But the soccer game continues for the SISU girls, and right after the match, they started to get ready for a city-wide competition, Shanghai School Football League in mid-November. 

"This tournament has been a good warm-up for SSFL; we were able to recognize our problems now and work on it as soon as possible," said XuYingqi, the defender who is from the School of European and Latin American Studies.

SSFL is an annual sports tradition of Shanghai held by the Shanghai Municipal Sports Bureau. The league currently engages sports teams from 258 schools, 15 universities, 37 high schools, and 123 elementary schools. SSFL divides Shanghai into four districts of North, South, East, and West. SISU will play at the West district at Songjiang University Town. 

In face of the coming SSFL, the women’s varsity team of SISU finds itself in need of new blood. "We welcome anyone who is interested in soccer, especially those who have prior experiences," said Zhang. 

The 26 members of the current team span all grades, with two players from postgraduate programs of the school. The girls are all eager to play but few have prior professional experience. 

According to Zhang, the captain, this experience gap is one of the biggest problems for the team: newbies need to strengthen soccer basics, while other more experienced players need target training on specific soccer skills. 

SISU has an overwhelming female population, but sports feature strong in both genders. Besides soccer, baseball, softball, basketball, and table tennis are all popular among students. Owing to packed class schedules during the day, most sports practices are held at night. These young athletic enthusiasts rushed to play a sport after class until almost curfew for dormitory.