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Samoa
SWANZ Off To Strong Start At Oceania Qualifiers
by Jeremy Ruane
New Zealand's national women's soccer team, the SWANZ, got their Oceania Women's World Cup qualifying campaign off to a flying start at Canberra's Belconnen Soccer Centre on April 7, thrashing Samoa 15-0 in the Kiwi team's first international since June 2000.
The SWANZ couldn't wait to get out of the starting blocks, and their keenness to take out their inactivity on the unsuspecting Samoans saw them rattle home six goals in an eight minute spell with just twelve minutes of the match gone!
With just 103 seconds on the clock, newly-appointed captain Rebecca Smith - one of four new caps in the SWANZ starting line-up - signalled her team's intentions with a bullet-like header flashing just over the crossbar from Hayley Moorwood's corner.
Soon after, Samoan goalkeeper Tina Feagaiga thwarted a twenty-five yarder from Priscilla Duncan, before two Moorwood crosses were scrambled clear by the Samoans. On the second occasion, Zarnia Cogle was backing up on the left, and drove a low cross towards the near post.
Feagaiga reacted, but not as quickly as Maia Jackman, who swooped to steer home the opening goal in the fifth minute.
During the next seven minutes, the Samoans didn't know what hit them, as wave upon wave of black-clad SWANZ tore into their less-fancied opponents with a vengeance. After Kelly Jarden had grazed the roof of the net from twenty-five yards, the floodgates opened.
Jackman's low seventh minute cross found Nicky Smith, whose shot was blocked. Simone Ferrara wasted no time in lashing home the rebound - 2-0.
Two minutes later, Jackman released Cogle on the left. She beat two players before slipping the overlapping Jarden into space. Her measured cross was swept home by Jackman - 3-0.
Within seconds, another goal materialised. Cogle was again involved, this time centrally, as hers was the chip which Feagaiga could only parry - not the wisest idea when Ferrara is following in at a rate of knots!
Goal number five arrived in the eleventh minute. A surging run from Moorwood culminated in a pass for Cogle to pursue. Diana Sooialo won that duel, but promptly slipped the ball past her own goalkeeper. The defender did well to prevent an own goal, but merely set up Nicky Smith's first goal of the evening.
Her second - she struck five in all - came just seconds later. Jarden and Cogle combined on the left, and the latter's cross for Duncan was pawed away by Feagiaga. Moorwood picked up the pieces and crossed for "Smooth" to head home.
The shellshocked Samoans were reeling. That they failed to concede another goal in the next eleven minutes owed more to profligate finishing by the SWANZ than anything else.
Both Smith and Cogle hit the sidenetting, while the former headed another opportunity wide, had a shot saved by Feagaiga, and had a headed effort - due reward for following in a Moorwood drive - ruled out for offside.
Cogle, meanwhile, lifted a splendid Moorwood cross over the bar at full stretch, while Jackman side-footed tamely at Feagaiga, after Melanie Edwards and the lively Moorwood had combined on the right.
A seventh goal had to come, and arrived in the 23rd minute. Jackman's first international hat-trick was due reward for following in, after the unrelated Smiths had combined to force a parried save from Feagaiga - after conceding nineteen goals against Australia, she must have felt as if she had leapt from the frying pan into the fire, such was the SWANZ relentlessness in pursuit of goals.
And still they weren't satisfied! A lovely crossfield ball from Jarden saw Ferrara, Moorwood and the goalscoring Smith combine, before Ferrara forced another save from the over-worked shot-stopper in the 25th minute.
Moorwood sent a screamer fizzing across the face of goal a minute later, before Jackman contrived to direct a Nicky Smith cross wide, despite being in the shadows of the crossbar.
Feagaiga won an aerial duel with Jackman on the half-hour, before producing her finest saves of the match - a double-save to thwart Smith, then Moorwood, who had time enough to make a cup of tea before shooting, and should have done better.
Ferrara showed her young team-mate how to finish off a one-on-one situation, doing so with aplomb in the 32nd minute after her initial pressure in midfield had secured possession for the SWANZ. Nicky Smith picked up the ball and threaded it through for Ferrara, whose cool finish completed her first international hat-trick.
Sixty seconds later, Smith flicked an Edwards ball on for Jackman, but Feagaiga's anticipation saw her win that battle. The 'keeper then looked on as Smith first shot narrowly wide, then into the sidenetting, before being called upon to produce another couple of saves.
Jackman played the ball inside to Ferrara, whose defence-splitting pass invited Cogle to get her name on the scoresheet. Feagaiga grabbed her shot at the death, before smothering a low cross-shot from Jackman seconds later.
Two goals in two minutes brought up double figures for the SWANZ, the first of
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which was a snorter!! Jarden and Nicky Smith played the ball back to Duncan, who slipped the ball through for Moorwood. At full stretch, she sent an unstoppable volley screaming into the roof of the net - 9-0.
Mere seconds elapsed before Smith completed her hat-trick, beating two before smashing the ball home on receipt of a fine through ball from Jarden. The scorer could have had a fourth for herself before half-time, being denied by the post, then by Feagaiga, both following Cogle crosses.
The SWANZ wasted little time in adding to their ten-goal half-time haul, with Jackman roaring in to head home a pinpoint Moorwood corner from point-blank range five minutes into the second half.
Two minutes later, Edwards and Moorwood combined on the right, the latter crossing beyond the far post to Cogle. She steered the ball back to Smith, whose deft volley wrong-footed Feagaiga - 12-0.
After this, the SWANZ rather lost their way, and while they created opportunities aplenty, all too often there was a lack of quality and composure in their approach work, as much due to a loss of discipline in their play as to steadfast Samoan defending.
Initially, they weren't aided by referee Krystyna Szokolai ignoring strong claims for a penalty as Nicky Smith took an unscheduled tumble, before Feagaiga thrice intervened to thwart Michele Keinzley, who had come off the bench to replace Jackman.
On the hour, the goalkeeper again kept the SWANZ at bay, Cogle her latest victim. Keinzley was onto the rebound in an instant, but Hilda Hellesoe-Taualafini was on hand to clear off the line. This prompted six consecutive corners, the last of which culminating in Nicky Smith heading Keinzley's cross over the bar.
Duncan then chanced her arm with a twenty-five yard screamer which thundered inches wide of a relieved Feagaiga's left-hand post, while the goalkeeper somehow denied the same player in the seventieth minute, after Cogle and Smith had combined on the left.
The latter then blazed over the bar four minutes later - Keinzley the source - while a lovely finish from Duncan was thwarted by the offside flag fifteen minutes from time. Cogle then went close following a Jane Simpson cross, while Duncan sent a rasping drive fizzing wide, following a length-of-the-pitch move featuring Yvonne Vale, Terry McCahill, Keinzley and Smith.
More goals had to come, and Keinzley duly obliged nine minutes from time, emphatically thumping home into the roof of the net after Smith, Wendi Henderson and Moorwood had prised open a stubborn Samoan defence.
After Ferrara had fired a shot on the turn at Feagaiga, the goalkeeper was given no chance by Keinzley in the 83rd minute, the striker crashing the ball home after McCahill, Moorwood and Smith had scythed Samoa's left flank open.
Henderson sent a header over the top before the final goal of the game, two minutes from time. It was worth the admission money on its own - a quite glorious chip from near the left-hand touchline by Smith, whose delight in netting her fifth goal of the game - and ninth in just twelve internationals - was clearly evident.
Keinzley and Duncan were both prevented from adding to the SWANZ fifteen-goal haul by Feagaiga before the final whistle, while a dipping twenty-five yard effort from Rebecca Smith hit the roof of the net, and referee Szokolai inexplicably turned down even stronger penalty claims from the SWANZ, after the outstanding Moorwood was unceremoniously upended in the penalty area in stoppage time.
Coach Sandy Davie was "pleased overall" with the SWANZ 15-0 triumph, but "wouldn't want us to make the same sorts of mistakes we made tonight against Australia".
Nicky Smith was an obvious stand-out player with her five goals, while "Hayley Moorwood played particularly well" in the coach's eyes. "Indeed, the debutants overall did well", said Davie, "including Rebecca Smith, who was solid in defence alongside a steady Terry McCahill.
"Jane Simpson, too, played well when she came on, while Simone Ferrara was OK in midfield, and Maia Jackman could have scored another four goals to go with the four she did get".
The SWANZ are next in action on Wednesday afternoon, at 6.30pm NZ time, against the Cook Islands, who succumbed to a scratchy Australian combination 11-0 in today's early game.
Hayley Crawford, Tal Karp, Amy Wilson and Dianne Alagich all scored two goals apiece for the Matildas, with Rhian Davies, Olivia Hohnke and Danielle Small also chiming in for a side bereft of the experience provided by Cheryl Salisbury, Joanne Peters and Bryony Duus for the duration.
SWANZ: Vale; Edwards (Simpson, 63), McCahill, R. Smith, Jarden; Moorwood, Duncan, Ferrara, Cogle (Henderson, 77); N. Smith, Jackman (Keinzley, 53)
Samoa: Feagaiga; Sooialo, Folau, Hellesoe-Taualapini, Williams, Mamea (Bruce, 46); Seiuli (Peresia, 64), Lemana, Laumea (booked, 90), Tafafa (Warren, 90); Talai
Referee: Krystyna Szokolai (Australia)
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