Junior Matildas 3

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Junior Matildas 3

Standing: Sarah Carroll, Meg McLaughlin, Shamiran Khamis (c), Emma Checker, Alexandra Natoli Kneeling: Elizabeth Ralston, Alisha Bass, Lucy Metcalf, Olivia Price, Ebony Philcox

Standing: Emma Rolston, Martine Puketapu, Jess Innes, Briar Palmer, Lily Alfeld, Emily Jensen (c) Kneeling: Jasmine Pereira, Hannah Carlsen, Megan Lee, Laura Merrin, Catherine Bott

Young Ferns Come From Behind To Clinch Series Win

by Jeremy Ruane

Three goals in seventeen second half minutes saw New Zealand's Young Ferns turn around a half-time deficit to defeat Australia's Junior Matildas 3-1 on the North Harbour Stadium Tigerturf on October 7 and clinch the three-match series by a 2-0 margin, with one match drawn.

The final outcome was due reward for the Young Ferns' overall efforts over the course of the week, with this victory coming against an Australian side which produced its best football of the series in the final game, and which was good value for its half-time lead.

The hosts enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges, but it was Australia who fired the first shot in anger in the contest. Sarah Carroll fed the inspirational Ebony Philcox - she bossed the first half - in the ninth minute, and she slipped a pass into the stride of Emma Checker, racing up in support from fullback.

Her twenty-five yarder sizzled a yard over the bar, while Amy Harrison dragged a shot across the face of goal seconds later having been put through by Philcox, who stung the gloves of Lily Alfeld in the sixteenth minute after pouncing on a mix-up between Jess Innes and Emma Rolston.

This duo, plus Hannah Carlsen, simply were not working as a unit throughout the first half, and that lack of engine room harmony resulted in team-mates trying to make amends via any number of cameo efforts.

As a result, New Zealand was guilty at times of playing too much football - taking anywhere up to six touches on the ball when one or two and then a pass to a team-mate would have brought greater reward.

The Junior Matildas took full advantage of the lack of coordination in their opponents' play, and needing to win to square the series, sought an opening goal. In the seventeenth minute, Olivia Price's surging run from midfield culminated in a slide-rule pass which Meg McLaughlin battered goalwards.

Lily Alfeld saved this well as she dived to her right, and relied upon the recovering figure of Emily Jensen to block Australia's next effort, a Harrison drive after Alisha Bass and Price had caused havoc in the penalty area.

The pressure had to tell, and in the 22nd minute, the Junior Matildas opened the scoring. Lucy Metcalf played the ball up the line to Bass on the left, whose cross found Harrison arriving on cue.

She slipped past an opponent before battering a shot over Alfeld, only to see it hit the underside of the crossbar and bounce down. McLaughlin, following in, gleefully tucked home the rebound to the delight of her team-mates.

The Young Ferns had only been sighted as an attacking force on one occasion prior to the goal, and that came from an Elizabeth Ralston error. Martine Puketapu pounced on it and powered goalwards before unleashing an eighteen-yarder which Shamiran Khamis saved low to her right.

Four minutes after the goal, they fired another shot in anger. Innes swooped on an Australian mix-up on the right and threaded a pass into Rolston's stride. Ralston got across to block the effort, and generally had little else to do during a half in which New Zealand produced a muddled performance, rich in individuality but sorely lacking in teamwork, a charge which could not be said of their opponents.

The Junior Matildas couldn't break through a second time, however, thanks to the sterling efforts of Catherine Bott, Megan Lee and Laura Merrin, who was consistency personified throughout the entire series.

Together with Jensen, they rebuffed the bulk of what was thrown at them throughout the remainder of the half, save for a 41st minute opportunity upon which Harrison pounced, only to lash her fierce drive across the diving figure of Alfeld but narrowly past the far post.

In first half stoppage time, the Young Ferns twice went close to netting what, on the balance of play to that point, would have been an undeserved equaliser. The decidedly subdued Briar Palmer - she had been anonymous to this point - suddenly discovered her dance-floor moves, shimmying and shuffling her way past two bemused opponents before linking with Ralston and Carlsen, whose pass to Puketapu was read and intercepted by Alexandra Natoli.

She turned the ball back to Khamis, whose clearance was of the poor variety. Not that Innes minded - she gathered the ball in and battered it back towards the target from fully thirty yards. Australia's goalkeeper redeemed herself by gathering the shot at the second attempt.

Young Ferns coach Paul Temple calmly addressed the first half confusion during the half-time break and made one significant change. Enter Emma Fletcher, an introduction which immediately restored balance and order to New Zealand's midfield, with Rolston becoming the attacking spearhead, a position to which she is far better suited, as her goalscoring return in 2011 suggests.

The Junior Matildas made three changes at half-time, and ended up making four more by the end, as they took the opportunity to finalise their squad ahead of next month's Asian U-17 Women's World Cup qualifying tournament in China. So they had plenty to play for as well as a series-levelling victory.

Cue a good old-fashioned arm-wrestle during the early stages of the second spell, with both teams striving to gain the upper hand in this latest trans-tasman tussle. The Australians fired the first shot of the half, on the hour, after Philcox picked out Harrison with a peach of a pass on the right. The flank player played the ball inside to Bass, who worked a one-two with McLaughlin before letting fly with a shot which Alfeld saved comfortably.

The Young Ferns responded seconds later, Jasmine Pereira haring down the right after good harrying by

Rolston had forced a turnover of possession. The speedster's attempted chip was grabbed by Khamis, whose poor clearance following a Carlsen drive seconds later was mercilessly punished by the Kiwis in the 63rd minute.

Fletcher swooped on the loose ball and fed Rolston with a slide-rule pass through the inside right channel. The striker, upon reaching the edge of the penalty area, lashed an unerring right-foot drive across the diving Khamis and into the far corner of the net - 1-1, game on!

And very nearly 2-1 to the hosts seconds later. Palmer and Rolston combined to send Fletcher flying through the middle, but the midfielder was thwarted by Ralston's defensive nous, the stopper getting in between the ball and her opponent to enable Khamis to gather under a lot less pressure than could have been the case.

Back came the Junior Matildas, the game now very much in the balance. Jensen tried to be a little too clever when running back towards her own goal with an opponent in hot pursuit, and suffered the consequences as McLaughlin, the pursuant, picked her pocket, only to drag her shot well wide of the target - so much so, in fact, that the ball went out of play by the corner flag, inches away from being a throw-in!

Growing Young Ferns pressure paid dividends in the 74th minute. Merrin and Palmer have developed a good understanding down the left during this series, with the fullback winning possession before feeding the winger down the line on this occasion.

Palmer is all left foot - her right is for standing on - and she used it to completely bamboozle Checker before darting past the dumbstruck fullback and firing over a cross. Or was it a shot? Either way, it totally flummoxed Khamis, who was left to fish the ball out of the back of the net after it soared over her and crashed high into the net by the far post to put the Young Ferns in front.

It was a mortal blow to the Junior Matildas, one from which they never recovered. Some of them started getting a bit stroppy - the odd toy or three was seen emerging from a few perambulators over the course of the next few minutes as the harsh reality of a series loss to the old enemy from the right side of divide loomed large in the West Islanders' revised copy of the script.

While their rivals were coming to terms with the situation, the Young Ferns tore into them with gay abandon - there was only one team in this contest now. Two minutes after the goal, Innes, Palmer, Carlsen and Rolston teamed up in delightful fashion, with Carlsen enjoying the chance to pull the trigger.

Khamis proved equal to the task, but her defence were torn apart in the 79th minute by a riveting raid from Pereira, who rampaged down the right onto a ball from Bott before tearing past her marker and darting into the penalty area, from where she sent a low cross sizzling just beyond Rolston. Palmer, backing up, thundered a rising drive high into the side-netting from an acute angle.

It was Pereira's last contribution to the match. Her replacement, Jolene Muir, certainly made her mark when she came on ten minutes from time, because with her first touch, she killed off the contest.

A poor goal-kick was pounced on by Palmer, who played Rolston through the middle. Khamis came out to thwart the front-runner, but the ball spurted out to Muir, who gleefully lobbed the series-clinching goal into an untended net - 3-1.

Before the final whistle, Khamis pawed out another teasing cross-shot from Palmer from under her crossbar, while the Junior Matildas' pursuit of a late consolation goal foundered on Alfeld's adroitness, the 'keeper confidently clutching the ball after a Bass cross had given the Young Ferns' defence temporary cause for concern.

But New Zealand was a very happy team come the final whistle, their come-from-behind 3-1 win sealing a 2-0 series victory which they richly deserved, as coach Temple testified afterwards.

"It's tremendous for us, and has certainly enhanced our self-confidence. It's always tough playing Australia. They never want to lose - that's the Australian way. We've responded to every challenge, come out and got the rewards, playing a good brand of football while doing so. From a collective perspective, there have been some big positives for us this week.

"Consistency-wise over the course of the series, Laura Merrin was fantastic - she played every minute. I was really happy with the centre-backs - Catherine Bott, Emily Jensen and Megan Lee were all solid. Hannah Carlsen did well, while Emma Rolston really sparked in the last game-and-a-half.

"I was really pleased with Emma Fletcher's contribution, too - she's settled well and fitted straight into the group. She's a result of our ongoing scouring of the globe for players who can add to what we have.

"After the initial contact, we researched her on You-Tube, and liked what we saw. It was a bit of a risk to bring her in sight unseen - she plays for Vancouver Whitecaps in Canada, but she's certainly fulfilled our expectations over the course of this week, that's for sure".

The Young Ferns will now don the colours of their respective federations in the ASB National Women's Youth League, and Temple is hopeful of securing further matches for them either side of Christmas prior to the Oceania U-17 Women's World Cup qualifying tournament, which will take place in Auckland in April.

Young Ferns: Alfeld; Bott, Jensen, Lee, Merrin; Rolston, Carlsen (Cleverley, 82), Innes; Pereira (Muir, 79), Puketapu (Fletcher, 46), Palmer

Junior Matildas: Khamis; Checker (Sheahan, 83), Ralston, Natoli (Henry, 46), Metcalf (Cootes, 46); Carroll (Clarke, 46), Philcox (Dillon, 66), Price, Harrison (MacIntyre, 83); Bass, McLaughlin (Caceres, 72)

Referee: Steven Black

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