What a spectacular day and a fantastic way to finish the year. Thanks to everyone who supported the cake stall with donations and/or purchases or by helping out in some way we raised over $350 for the Soccer Club which is a wonderful effort.

 

 

It was a beautiful morning for our last game and lovely to be playing on our home ground with its lush covering of grass with the Kangas lining the pitch to provide support. The slower surface suited our girls’ skills as it allowed them to demonstrate their running with the ball and 1v1 skills – things we have been working on through the season.

The girls ended a very positive season in great style with some of their best play for the year resulting in a 4-1 win (coming home strong being 0-1 down at half time after conceding a goal against the run of play).

What was most pleasing to see was the girls displaying some of their best passing for the season as well, with lots of good balls played to players in space in the midfield and attacking areas leading to a number of chances and goals. Quite a few girls played their best games of the season I thought and this showed in the result.

It was great to see both our more experienced players demonstrating and fully using their strengths and some of our less experienced players really showing their improvement, particularly in defence with their attack on the ball and refusal to let the opposition players get past them. The girls also showed development in their maturity and thinking which bodes well for next season.

We also saw some very positive goal-keeping from Chiara in the first half who charged out of her box on a number of occasions and played excellent clearing kicks. Great job Chiara. Thanks also to Lucy F who again stepped up as goalie with one of our regular goalies, Merina, being absent. Thanks Lucy and well done for keeping a clean sheet.

Well done again girls on a very positive season in which your final results were: 9 wins, 2 draws, and 6 losses – and always competitive.

I also commend you (and the parents!) on your excellent sportsmanship, clean play, care for one other and opponents and positive attitude shown through the whole season, win, lose or draw. Thanks for a rewarding year and congratulations.

Coach Tom

 

 

Secondly to the game:  What a fitting way to end the season - we started the year playing Yarraville who were as some may remember were playing their first year as a girls team.  We played them another three times over the year and today's game was certainly the most exciting and and terrific way to end our season for 2013.  The first half was tight but we went to the break with out noses in front due to the pressure we kept applying in front of their goal.  The corner kick from Rozie snuck in with a bunch of our attacking forwards keeping the pressure on their defenders.  

 

In the second half they came out full of attacking energy and levelled the scores 1-1 through some solid attacking from their midfielders.  We continued to have most of the attacking play and Ishani scored another goal after some really impressive mid field play.  With Bjan saving at least 5 shots on goal we were able to stay in the game and Yarraville scored another well earned goal - in the end the game was all tied up 2-2.  A fitting and fair result to a great game.  

 

With 5 subs today we really had to be on the ball so thanks everyone for putting up with the time on the bench ... I know we all come along to play and not be on the side line but i think we managed to juggle it pretty well through the year.  Thanks for the support from the younger families who had to slot into the team half way through the year after we realised how hard it was to juggle things week to week.  

 

Over the year the team as a whole worked really well ... the eight girls who played together last year were part of a nice leadership group ... Ruby S, Lam Nhi,  Rozie, Annabel, Isobel, April, Georgia and Ishi.  It was great to see your support for the younger girls who joined our group this year. Big welcome and congratulations  to our girls who were playing their first year ... Sarah, Ruby H, Chloe and Ella.  Its been great having you with the Kangas for the year and the skills of you all has developed nicely to form a cre across a range of positions.  For Sophie, Bjan and Kitty the transition from Joeys worked well and you really stepped up and slotted into your role - thanks again Bjan for being goalie in the second half today - I know no-one really wants to play goalie but we do have to have one - you did really well.  

 

It goes without saying that it has also been a very successful year on the field ... while there is no ladder or scores recorded I know you all know that we went through the season un-defeated - 2 draws in our last two games showed just how tight many of the games have been - but this will really make for a very solid base to our season next year.  We have over half the team score at least one goal and this showed the diversity you could all play.  Our specialist defenders with Georgia being a standout for the year - it was great to have Sophie helping and always keen to play the defence role.