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23/9/00
“A Team” Reign Supreme Yet Again
by Jeremy Ruane
Auckland’s “A Team” clinched the National Women’s Soccer Tournament title for a fourth consecutive season, and the thirteenth time in all, with a 2-0 victory over Canterbury in the final round of competition in Rotorua on September 23, 2000.
Both teams struggled to come to terms with the playing conditions in the first half, which were made more difficult than usual by a blustery diagonal crossfield wind. Allied to the hard playing surface, which made controlling the ball a challenge in itself, it’s understandable why there was little to differentiate between the sides, in terms of scoring chances, as a result.
Indeed, in the first fifteen minutes there were just two shots on goal, Erin Martin firing wide for the “A Team”, and Sara Clapham replying in kind for Canterbury.
Three minutes later, the defending champions came very close, Suran Dickson scrambling the ball to safety for her side following a Simone Ferrara-instigated move on the left flank, which flowed across the park via Amanda Crawford and Martin to Caroline Crittenden, who rounded a defender before unleashing a low cross-shot towards the target.
Ferrara was at the heart of another “A Team” raid in the 27th minute, this time releasing Crittenden down the right. Her through ball saw Crawford race in behind Canterbury’s defence, from where she pulled the ball back to Martin.
A touch-back for Tarah Cox saw the midfielder‘s shot fall victim to the wind, to the extent that it became an inch-perfect pass for Crawford! Her cross was cleared by the southerners to Zarnia Cogle, who set off on a run down the right.
Her low cross into the penalty area was partially cleared by Jill Corner, the “A Team”’s captain, to Clapham, who was unable to direct her shot on target, such was the speed at which the ball came to her on the edge of the eighteen-yard box.
Cogle chanced her arm from thirty-five yards four minutes before half-time, but her wind-assisted free-kick, like that taken by team-mate Kelly Jarden earlier, sailed harmlessly over the crossbar, a shot which was to prove Canterbury’s last of the opening period.
The “A Team” left it until virtually the last kick of the half to record their final effort on goal in the first forty minutes. Martin’s free-kick was touched on by Cox into Terry McCahill’s path, but the defender was denied by the reflexes of Wendy Giles, Canterbury’s goalkeeper recovering to save at the second attempt.
The second spell saw far more creative play take place, as the “A Team”, now with the wind at their backs, imposed themselves on proceedings. Within one hundred seconds of the resumption, Jennifer Carlisle had rattled Canterbury’s crossbar with a dipping thirty-yard drive, and Crawford was unable to capitalise on the rebound.
Within seconds, the “A Team” swept forward once more, this time through Vicki Ormond down the left. After getting the better of Tina Bosscher, she got to the byline and crossed the ball, looking for Crawford. Melissa Ruscoe stepped in, and sent the ball straight back to Ormond, who had landed on her posterior upon delivering the cross.
An instinctive header saw the ball land at Crawford’s feet, and she touched it back for Martin, whose shot rattled the fencing immediately to the left of Giles’ goal.
Within a minute, another “A Team” raid resulted in a corner, which was cleared to Ormond. She sliced past an opponent before whipping in a delicious head-high cross which needed but a touch to open the scoring. Crittenden just failed to make contact with the ball, much to Giles’ relief.
Ormond herself missed an open goal in the 49th minute. Corner rewarded Martin’s intelligent off-the-ball running with a made-to-measure pass, which the striker latched onto before scooting past two challenges. Drawing Giles out of goal, Martin unselfishly squared the ball to her young team-mate, who somehow contrived to lift the ball over the gaping goal from eight yards.
Two minutes later, “A Team” goalkeeper Yvonne Vale sparked another raid. Ferrara flicked the ball onto Martin, who threaded the ball into Crittenden’s path. She fended off the challenge of the well-performed Jarden before rattling the fencing just to the left of Giles’ goal with a twenty-yard strike.
The defending champions were piling on the pressure, to the point where Canterbury’s rearguard was at breaking point. And after Martin had sent a twenty-five yard free-kick over the crossbar, the deadlock was finally broken.
McCahill sent the ball forward to Crawford in the 55th minute, and the striker set off towards goal at pace. After playing a cheeky one-two off the retreating figure of Dickson, Crawford slipped the ball into Martin’s path. As she turned past Ruscoe in the penalty area, the SWANZ defender tripped the US U-20 international, who picked herself up and promptly sent Giles the wrong way from the spot - 1-0, “A Team”.
Seconds after Giles had prevented Crittenden’s made-to-measure cross for Martin from reaching its intended target, the Aucklanders doubled their advantage with a cracking 65th minute strike.
Carlisle and Martin combined on the left, the latter slipping the ball to Ormond, who drew two players before providing Ferrara with a precise pass to reward her off-the-ball movement.
From twenty yards, the only player to have scored in every match she played in throughout the tournament maintained her perfect record with an unerring finish, planting the ball into the bottom right-hand corner of Giles’ goal.
Canterbury’s goalkeeper produced two top saves in the final five minutes to prevent the “A Team” adding further to their winning margin. The first, to thwart Crawford’s rasping twenty-yard drive, she only saw at the last second as it came through a sea of legs, while the second, to deny Vicki Rainbow following Martin’s corner, was a fine example of narrowing the angle.
But the champions were more than satisfied with a 2-0 scoreline, a win which saw them round off the Silver Jubilee National Women’s Soccer Tournament by clinching the code’s provincial symbol of women’s soccer supremacy yet again.
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Auckland: Vale; Corner, McCahill, Hendricks (Hicks), Carlisle; Crittenden, Ferrara, Cox, Ormond (Rainbow); Martin, Crawford Unused subs: Exler, Hill, Jackman (injured)
Scoring: E. Martin (56), S. Ferrara (65)
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