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10/9/99
Bain’s Brilliance And Potter’s Pedantics Can’t Stop “A Team”
by Jeremy Ruane
Some fine goalkeeping by Ingrid Bain, coupled with the sterling efforts of her Wellington team-mates, was not enough to prevent Auckland from reaching the National Women’s Soccer Tournament final for the twentieth time at Burnside Park on September 10, 1999, as the “A Team” recorded a 2-0 win over their arch-rivals, a result which very much flattered the beaten side.
Wellington failed to muster a shot on goal in the entire eighty minutes, as Auckland went about proving their superiority in what was, at times, a fairly physical battle, as the Wellingtonians looked to knock Auckland out of their stride by foul means rather than fair.
Referee Warren Potter won himself no friends with his handling of the game in this regard, his seeming reluctance to award free-kicks to Auckland when they were infringed upon countered by his seeming keenness to punish the defending champions whenever a Wellington player was found on the wrong end of a robust Auckland challenge.
The “A Team” were quickly into their attacking stride in this encounter, Bain recovering to save at the feet of Rebecca Sowden in the second minute, after fumbling a Sacha Haskell cross. Within two minutes, Amy Goaziou drilled a shot on the run across the face of goal, on receipt of Alisse Robertson’s quickly taken free-kick.
For some inexplicable reason, Wellington gave Maia Jackman free reign down the right flank throughout this encounter, and Auckland were quick to capitalise on this freedom. In the sixth minute, Jackman’s powerful surge resulted in a low cross for Amanda Crawford, which the tournament’s leading goalscorer touched back to Tarah Cox, whose shot lacked venom, Bain saving comfortably on this occasion.
Jackman was away again down the right in the twelfth minute, picked out by a precise crossfield pass from Michele Cox. The speedster’s drive whistled over the top, while two minutes later, Haskell failed to connect cleanly with Crawford’s lay-off, after Sowden had made the initial burst down the left.
In the sixteenth minute, Michele Cox won an aerial duel and guided the ball down to Crawford, who laid the ball off to Jackman. She threaded a pass through to Haskell, who, this time, did connect cleanly, and was celebrating before her sweetly struck twenty-five yarder had arced over Bain’s despairing dive into the top far corner of the net - a cracking strike.
Cox then had a couple of chances to extend Auckland’s lead, but on two of the three occasions she was within shooting range, she was upended in the penalty area.
Referee Potter ignored Auckland‘s penalty claims on both occasions, however, although on the second occasion, he did award a direct free-kick just outside the eighteen yard box ... one is left to ruminate on what the decision would have been had a Wellington player been infringed upon in Auckland’s penalty area.
Right on half-time, Bain saved from Cox after Jackman had, once again, created havoc down Wellington’s left flank. The Ruth Post-inspired Wellington rearguard briefly cleared the danger on this occasion, until Crawford won possession, and combined with Sowden and Goaziou to slip the ball through for Cox once more. Her shot, on this occasion, curled just past the far post.
The second half was one-way traffic, with Wellington crossing the half-way line just once in the entire forty minute spell, as they played into the wind, and into what was, to all intents and purposes, a relentless blue-and-white tide.
Half-time substitute Jennifer Kelley’s technical mastery left three Wellington opponents totally bemused just four minutes into the half, before the ball was slipped through to Cox, who was denied by Bain at point-blank range, the ‘keeper then saving from the same player two minutes later, this time a twenty-yard effort.
The Cox sisters, Kelley and Goaziou combined to create an opening for Crawford in the fiftieth minute, but again Bain proved equal to it. Two minutes later, Crawford and Cox were the architects of Auckland’s next opportunity, which Bain again foiled, this time denying Kelley, who stumbled as she shot on the turn.
Liz Oliver cleared Michele Cox’s inswinging corner off the line seconds later, while Post blocked Goaziou’s drive two minutes later, following a first-time cross from Jackman. The same player, on receipt of a Crawford pass, provided a 58th minute cross which Bain managed to reach just ahead of Kelley and Crawford, as the “A Team”’s unrelenting attacks kept Wellington pinned inside their own half.
The ‘keeper was at it again in the 69th minute, tipping a Haskell shot around the post, after Cox and Crawford had engineered the opening. Goaziou and Crawford were denied in quick succession by Bain, who was playing the game of her life - the shot which beat her in the sixteenth minute found the one area of the goal she couldn’t reach.
Crawford fired a Kelley cross just past the post in the 72nd minute, while Auckland were denied yet another penalty a minute later, as Haskell was taken out in the act of shooting.
Still Auckland pressed, Crawford again denied by Bain in the 77th minute. But the “A Team” got their just reward a minute from time, Terry McCahill’s free-kick picking out the head of Jackman some fifteen yards from goal, the ball fair bulleting into the bottom left-hand corner of the net, beyond Bain’s despairing dive - 2-0 to Auckland, and but for Bain, it would have been many more.
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Auckland: Vale; Carlisle, McCahill, Robertson; Jackman, Sowden (Kelley, 41) (Simpson, 72), T. Cox, Haskell, Goaziou; Crawford, M. Cox
Scoring: S. Haskell (16), M. Jackman (79)
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