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“Super Skalle” Shoots SWANZ Into Semis
by Jeremy Ruane
SWANZ striker Pernille Andersen shattered New Zealand’s individual goalscoring record at Mt. Smart Stadium on October 11, scoring seven of her side’s goals in a 14-0 win over Fiji to secure the home nation a semi-final berth in the Oceania qualifying series for the 1999 Women’s World Cup Finals.
Prior to the tournament, the most goals scored by a New Zealand representative in a women’s international was five, a feat first achieved by Wendy Sharpe against Fiji in the 1983 Oceania Nations Cup, and since repeated by Monique Van de Elzen in the 1991 World Cup qualifying match against Papua New Guinea.
But in the SWANZ first match on the road they hope leads them to USA ’99, ‘Skalle’ struck six against Samoa just two days ago to break the previous record. Today’s feat has forced a further rewriting of New Zealand’s goalscoring statistics, the ink on the last alteration having barely had a chance to dry in the interim.
These thirteen goals, added to the five she scored for the SWANZ in the two matches against Dutch club sides on the ‘Champions Tour’ in May, the four goals she amassed against provincial teams in the SWANZ pre-tournament preparatory matches, and the seventy-five goal haul she amassed in just twenty-two league and cup matches for her Three Kings United club during the just-completed season, means that this goalscoring phenomenon is now a mere three goals shy of scoring one hundred goals at senior level in the 1998 calendar year - a phenomenal achievement in itself.
The first of her haul against a competitive Fijian combination came to pass in the sixth minute. Amanda Crawford’s cross from the right was pawed off the head of Michele Cox by Fijian ‘keeper Visili Meli, only for Andersen to bundle the ball over the line.
Three minutes later, a battling run down the left by Wendi Henderson saw her beat two players before sending a low cross into the danger zone. Crawford overran it, but Andersen, behind her, had time to control the ball before picking her spot.
Henderson was the source of the SWANZ third goal, in the seventeenth minute. Sacha Haskell found herself on the end of the striker’s inswinging corner to the far post, and from point-blank range, the vice-captain made no mistake.
Andersen sent Meli the wrong way from the penalty spot in the 27th minute after Mereilisoni Aioreki was harshly adjudged to have handled the ball in the area by referee Tammy Peacock.
Two minutes later, Meli tipped a fierce Michele Cox drive against the crossbar, denying the midfielder the perfect finish to a powerful surging run. But the inevitable was delayed by mere seconds, as from the resulting corner, Henderson’s delivery was met on the run by the charging Haskell, whose header whistled through the gathered throngs into the net.
This was the first of three goals in as many minutes, as the SWANZ, despite their football lacking some of the fluency seen against Samoa two days previously, took full advantage of the wind at their backs to put the issue beyond doubt before half-time.
The sixth and seventh goals of the day were both long-range efforts, but what long-range efforts! Melissa Ruscoe’s sweetly struck 35-yard free-kick fair sailed into the top corner of the net in the 31st minute, while barely a minute had elapsed before Haskell completed her hat-trick with a drive from a similar distance.
Two goals in stoppage time at the end of the half ensured the SWANZ of a convincing 9-0 advantage at the break. The former was the best team goal of the day, Ruscoe, Henderson and Haskell combining to put Cox in on the right, and the midfielder’s attempted cross arcing off a retreating Fijian defender into the net.
The latter emanated from Crawford’s break down the right, her cross being headed home by Andersen under pressure from Meli, who had the misfortune to land awkwardly, whereupon she was whisked off to hospital with suspected fractures of both her finger and upper arm.
The second spell was barely two minutes old when Meli’s replacement between the sticks, Jacqueline Chambers, was fishing the ball out of the net courtesy another Andersen strike, this a result of a great piece of play from Kelly Jarden. Pursuing a seemingly lost cause, the defender sent a first-time pass at full stretch up the line to Andersen, who attracted the attentions of the approaching defender before smashing her fifth goal of the game inside Chambers’ near post.
The Fijians were a far more competitive proposition in the second spell, and went close to scoring on a couple of occasions. A superbly timed Rachel Oliver tackle foiled Losana Kubulala when three Fijians were bearing down on the New Zealand goal with just Oliver and goalkeeper Rachel Howard to beat, while some ponderous play from the off-form SWANZ captain Terry McCahill was almost punished by Kubulala soon after, Howard bravely foiling the onrushing striker.
The goal-fest resumed in the 65th minute courtesy Crawford, who pounced on a loose ball and charged through before unleashing a bullet into the back of the net from the edge of the penalty area.
Twelve minutes later, Ruscoe’s efforts to control a bouncing ball proved successful, and allowed her to slip a pass to Andersen. The striker turned her marker before firing home from the edge of the area for her sixth goal, New Zealand’s twelfth.
Before the SWANZ next goal, referee Peacock, from Australia, raised the eyebrows of many present, including members of the Australian media, with two extraordinary non-decisions. A buccaneering run into the penalty area by Andersen came to an abrupt halt when the striker was sent crashing to the turf by a lunging hip-high challenge from a frustrated Fijian defender.
Not only did Peacock wave play on, she had the temerity to tell the stunned Andersen to get up and get on with the game. Soon after, when her assistant, Teariki Goodwin, signalled a penalty after Cox had become the meat in a Fijian sandwich as she weaved her way goalwards, the referee acknowledged her assistant’s raised flag and simply allowed play to continue.
Justice was served in the last four minutes, however, as Crawford’s fine run and cross was met on the far post by Andersen, who headed home her seventh goal of the game.
Within seconds, she had the chance to add an eighth goal to her name from the penalty spot, after a Jill Corner shot had been handled by Kelea Vetuku. Instead, Andersen stepped aside to allow the youngest member in the SWANZ squad, Nicky Smith, to complete the scoring, and secure New Zealand’s place in the semi-finals.
Scoring details:
New Zealand 14 (Andersen (7), Haskell (3), Cox, Crawford, Ruscoe, Smith), Fiji 0
SWANZ: Howard; Ruscoe, McCahill, Jarden (Oostdam, 65); Crawford, Cox, Haskell (Wileman, 63), Smith, Oliver;; Andersen, Henderson (Corner, 59)
Fiji: Meli (Chambers, 45); Mathias, Regu, Lota, Wise; Meli, Moce (Valutu, 76), Vecena, Moce; Aoireki, Kubulala
Referee: Tammy Peacock (Australia)
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