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NZ Universities, 11/7/05
Universities Score Deserved Draw Against Elite Squad
by Jeremy Ruane
New Zealand Universities scored a well deserved 1-1 draw against the NZ Women's Senior Elite International Development Squad in the rain and slush
at North Harbour Stadium on July 11, the first match of four the Universities squad is playing in Auckland this week prior to an appointment in Turkey at the World University Games.
The Elite Squad went into the match having not played opposition of any kind since the Japan Universities clash exactly seven weeks ago. Indeed,
this was just the sixth game played by the Auckland-based squad on home turf since the concept's inception earlier this year, so that they looked
somewhat under-done at times is understandable.
Mind, the NZU squad was similarly handicapped, given that they gathered as a group for the first time twenty-four hours or so prior to this match, with some squad members not even knowing their new team-mates until that time. So to produce a first half showing as good as what they did suggests this NZU squad has the potential to make their strongest showing yet on the World University Games stage next month.
The scratch side was all over the Elite Squad like a rash from the outset, with Emma Humphries firing a shot across their bows just ninety seconds into what, in the conditions, was a tremendously well contested affair.
In the fifth minute, Elite Squad captain Hayley Moorwood lost possession upon finding herself surrounded by three opponents twenty-five yards from
goal. Rebecca O'Neill and Humphries teamed up with Jamie Hackett to secure the ball, the last-mentioned's return pass to the American-based Humphries seeing her let fly from the edge of the penalty area.
Stephanie Puckrin turned her shot around the post for a corner, which Emily McColl delivered onto the head of O'Neill. Somehow, the NZU captain contrived to head over from point-blank range when scoring appeared by far the easier option.
More Universities pressure saw Maia Jackman and Hannah Bromley struggling to clear their lines in the slush in the eleventh minute, with the latter yielding the ball to the ever-lively Humphries. O'Neill was the beneficiary of her team-mate's persistence, but found Puckrin equal to her low drive.
The Elite Squad had barely had a chance to attack to this point in time, but when Puckrin played the ball out to Jackman after saving O'Neill's shot, it set in motion a quite superb move which gained due reward at the other end of the park some twenty seconds later.
Jackman picked out Michele Keinzley, who had dropped deep to receive, and she turned the ball inside to Helen Collins. A first-time pass wide sent Kirsty Yallop galloping down the right, with Moorwood racing forward ahead of her.
The twin terrors of Lynn-Avon United's midfield in recent seasons combined with a sumptuous one-two manoeuvre, and Yallop's subsequent first-time
defence-splitting pass arrived perfectly in Marlies Oostdam's stride.
The in-full-flight midfielder (those of a yachting bent may take umbrage at use of the term `the flying Dutchwoman`!) took a touch before arrowing a
shot beyond Chelsea Aim and into the bottom far corner of the net - 1-0, and a great team goal to boot, one with its roots very much in the Elite Squad's training programme. (Indeed, they practised this very move as part of their pre-match warm-up routine!)
This briefly rocked the Universities squad, coming as it did completely against the run of play to that point. But they swiftly regrouped and went after an equaliser, with both Hackett and Patrice Bourke, with a long-range free-kick, warming the gloves of Puckrin before the twenty minute mark.
The `keeper was forced to concede another corner in the 23rd minute, after Leanne Tiffen and Hackett had linked on the left, the latter managing to squeeze a shot in despite Jackman's presence. Humphries resulting set-piece delivery hit the crossbar and bounced to safety.
With the rain now cascading down by the bucket-load, under-foot conditions became increasingly challenging, and the sight of the ball stopping in an area of waterlogged ground becoming more commonplace by the minute. Consequently, many a potential raid fell foul of the conditions, with the attacking play of both teams suffering as a result.
But with the ever-infectious enthusiasm of Sarah Gibbs urging her team-mates on to greater heights, the Elite Squad gradually began to assume the ascendancy, and before the interval, makeshift Universities goalkeeper Aim - she is usually a right full-back - was forced to save at the feet of both Collins and Moorwood, and produce a top stop to deny Yallop from doubling the Elite Squad's
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advantage six minutes before the interval.
Where, in the first half, NZU had been on top from the off, the second spell was dominated from the whistle by the Elite Squad, who largely set up camp inside their opponents' half for the first twenty minutes of the half.
Within two minutes of the resumption, Aim was pulling off a fine save to thwart Collins' rising drive, after the Claudelands Rovers striker - an impressive performance - was presented with the opportunity by half-time substitute Pip Meo, whose eye-catching skills and abundant energy were all too often offset by her seeming reluctance to utilise better-positioned
team-mates, a situation which saw many a potential opening prematurely, unwittingly and needlessly closed.
In the 52nd minute, Hackett was dribbling out of defence when she found herself on the wrong end of a monster of a ball-winning tackle from Moorwood - easily the best challenge of the night. (And there were a few worthy contenders - Tess Murphy, take a bow - in conditions tailor-made for tackles in which quarter is neither given nor taken!)
The striker didn't know what had hit her, and within seconds, Rebecca Sowden had steered the loose ball into Moorwood's path. Unfortunately, the midfielder couldn't crown her crunching challenge with a shot of similar impact, much to Aim's relief.
How NZU survived a 63rd minute raid from the Elite Squad only they will know. It was pinball machine stuff in the goalmouth, as Keinzley, Moorwood, Meo and Collins all went close, the woodwork denying the Elite Squad's captain as she fired a tight-angled shot across the face of goal.
Afforded a brief respite from the pressure, NZU broke down the right in the 64th minute, substitute Rebecca Tegg finding herself the recipient of the handiwork of McColl and Humphries, two of Wellington women's soccer's brightest stars of recent vintage. The striker cut in from the right, but was thwarted in her attempts to score by Jackman's covering challenge.
Two minutes later, Jackman played the ball across to Rachel Howard, who is making her first visit to her homeland since being transferred to the German head office of her Adidas employers last year.
The chance to impress in the last half-hour of this match while in town was too good an opportunity to refuse, but Howard must have wished the ground
could have opened up and swallow her after what happened next. Running across her goal area with the ball at toe, the goalkeeper suddenly found herself an unsuspecting victim of a slushy patch, in which the ball stopped while she briefly kept on running.
Humphries, like any good striker should in such circumstances, was keeping a wary eye on proceedings, and swiftly moved in for the kill. Howard was able to recover and tried to clear the ball, but drove it against the closing figure of Humphries, off whom the sphere ricocheted into the top corner of the net - 1-1, and Minties ad material to boot!
Now it was the Elite Squad's turn to lose their momentum for a spell, and in the 74th minute, only a well-timed tackle with her first touch from substitute Petria Rennie prevented Tegg from giving the Universities squad the lead, O'Neill having sparked the move with a through ball.
That stung the hosts into action once more, with a 77th minute corner from Gibbs picking out Jackman at the near post. Maree Hannay was perfectly placed to block her header on the line.
After Hannay had hit the sidenetting six minutes from time, the Elite Squad piled on the pressure in search of a late winner, with Meo slaloming her way through the slush and four challenges to force Aim into an 85th minute save, the first of three she was to make in ninety seconds - Dana Humby and Collins were also thwarted by the shot-stopper.
Still the Elite Squad kept pressing, and a persistent build-up in and around the edge of the penalty area culminated in a well-struck Hannah Rishworth drive taking a wicked deflection.
Fortunately for NZU, it careered past the far post to safety, as their performance fully merited the well-earned 1-1 scoreline which stood come referee Wayne Stapley's final whistle. The return fixture, on July 14 at
the same venue, should be a beauty.
Elite Squad: Puckrin (Howard, 60); Ray (Humby, 46), Jackman (Ray, 81), Bromley (Rennie, 73), Gibbs; Yallop (Meo, 46), Moorwood, Sowden, Oostdam
(Rishworth, 70); Collins, Keinzley (Yallop, 83)
Universities: Aim; Light (Lewis, 51), Murphy, Rangi, Archer; McColl (Hannay, 75), O'Neill, Bourke (Kendall, 62), Tiffen (O`Keefe, 67); Humphries (Tegg, 51), Hackett (Humphries, 61)
Referee: Wayne Stapley
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