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04/07/99
Ten-Up For Title-Chasers, & What A Magnificent Seventh!
by Jeremy Ruane
Three Kings United’s championship-chasing Bluebird Northern Premier Women’s League team scored one of their best-ever goals on July 4 at Keith Hay Park, Themes Papatoetoe finding themselves on the wrong end of a 10-0 tonking in a game transferred from Murdoch Park.
United didn’t waste any time in opening their account, a mere seventy-five seconds, in fact. And it was most apt that, on Independence Day, one of the team’s American imports, Amy Goaziou, should open the scoring. She did so in style, too, the ball screaming into the top far corner from twenty yards, after the scorer had worked a one-two on the left with Maia Jackman.
‘Toe’s ‘keeper, Lucy Troth, was kept busy by efforts from Michele Cox - a fifteen yard header following a Jane Simpson run and cross - and Goaziou, following a super move featuring the Cox sisters and Simpson, in the ninth and eleventh minutes respectively.
A minute later, Simpson was in the thick of things again, this time released by Jennifer Kelley. A low cross picked out Cox, whose first-time drive was foiled by Troth, the goalkeeper seemingly destined to be all that stood between United and a cricket score.
After Cox and Kelley had both fired narrowly wide, Jackman squandered a glorious opportunity to put the league leaders 2-0 up in the seventeenth minute. Kelley, Cox and Goaziou’s combination work on the left was exemplary, and the last-mentioned’s cross was inch-perfect for the in-rushing Jackman, who somehow contrived to put the ball past the post with Troth beaten all ends up.
Troth denied Goaziou in the twentieth minute, and was relieved to see Simpson shooting wide a minute later, before saving from Cox once more, this time after another clever build-up, which featured Melita Harrison, Kelley, Simpson and Goaziou.
Kelley slipped Jackman through once more in the 24th minute, but the striker appeared to suffer a crisis of confidence after rounding the last defender, opting to pass to Cox when scoring appeared the easier option. The pass was intercepted by Jane Neary, who was only able to clear as far as Kelley. She laid the ball back for Tarah Cox, whose rasping drive flew past the post.
Michele Cox, Kelley and Goaziou weaved their magic once more a minute later, the last-mentioned’s chip of Troth hitting the top of the crossbar. The ‘keeper was relieved to gather the rebound on this occasion, but had no answer to Michele Cox’s finish in the 27th minute. Simpson picked out her captain in acres of space, and Cox controlled the ball on her chest before finishing unerringly - 2-0.
Troth saved from Jackman in the 34th minute, after Rebecca Sowden had linked with Kelley and Cox. ‘Toe simply couldn’t cope with this pair’s clever combination play, particularly in the first half, during which there were times when it appeared that Kelley and Cox were conducting a clinic at their opponents’ expense, so completely in control of proceedings were they.
For one Papatoetoe player in particular, being given the run-around by a team full of technically far superior players proved to be far too much to cope with well before the final whistle. So exasperated did Virginia Kamphaug become that, in the second spell, she reverted to, shall we say, less refined methods in an effort to stem the tide, with Kelley her prime target.
These, too, proved fruitless, although they did prompt Kelley’s premature departure from the match, a move made more with the player’s physical well being in mind. Such was Kamphaug’s seeming obsession with keeping tabs on the American, however, that she put a new slant on the term “man-marking” by, quite literally, accompanying Kelley to the sideline as she was substituted ten minutes from time!!
By this stage, however, the league leaders were homing in on a double-figure victory. A buccaneering run from Simpson in the 36th minute saw her career through three challenges, while Cox, Goaziou and Jackman provided decoy runs to draw other opponents away from their team-mate. Simpson deserved better than to see her shot creep just past the far post.
Cox was denied by the massed ranks of ‘Toe’s rearguard a minute later, and Kelley suffered similar misfortune inside the next sixty seconds, as United’s opponents did their best to fend off the seemingly relentless waves of stripe-shirted attacks on their goal.
A further breach was inevitable, and it came about in the 39th minute from a most unlikely source. Such was the radar-like accuracy of Michele Cox’s set-piece delivery into the danger zone throughout this game that you could have been forgiven for thinking her efforts were laser-guided! Until now, however, none had been capitalised on by her United team-mates.
But Tarah Cox made amends for these failings with what, for her, was a real rarity - not so much the fact that she scored with a looping header, but that she did so from a range of twelve yards. Given we’re talking about a player whose usual scoring range comprises the area defined by the shadow of the crossbar, this was a true collector’s item!!
Troth foiled at Tarah Cox’s feet soon after, following Goaziou’s shot, before the Kelley - Cox - Goaziou combination carved ‘Toe open yet again, gifting Jackman another chance in the process. The gift remained wrapped, however, leaving coach Lee Green with little alternative but to write just two words on Maia Jackman’s training schedule for the coming week - shooting practice!!
Right on half-time, United engineered a stunning fourth goal. Stacey O’Hara sent Jackman scampering off down the right, and the resulting cross was swept home in emphatic fashion by Goaziou, her first-time shot bringing up the 4-0 half-time scoreline.
Troth pulled off a fine save from Michele Cox in the 47th minute, after debutant Anne-Marie Scott, Harrison and O’Hara had combined to provide the playmaker with the ammunition. The resulting corner was another inch-perfect Cox delivery, the cross this time picking out Kelley ... er, more accurately, hitting her flush between the shoulder blades before ricocheting over the line past the bemused Troth.
The ‘keeper was beaten again a minute later, but not without a fight. Sowden slipped a super pass through for Michele Cox, whose shot was parried by Troth. Jackman was onto the rebound in an instant, and rounded the prone custodian before rolling the ball into an empty net for goal number six of the day.
A sublime one-two between Michele Cox and Jackman in the 58th minute saw the former swing over a peach of a cross for Simpson, who just couldn’t climb high enough to direct her header under the bar. Soon after, Scott went close to crowning her debut with a goal, before, in the 65th minute, those present witnessed one of the best goals ever scored by Three Kings United’s Premier Women’s team.
And team is the appropriate word in this instance, because, with the exception of Michelle Hodge, who touched the ball just once in the entire match, every outfield member of the United squad touched the ball at least once in this bewildering burst of at least fifteen first-time passes which left ’Toe, literally, open-mouthed.
Starting near half-way, the ball was swept from left to right to left again, the final interchange in this precision passing masterclass being a one-two between Goaziou and Tarah Cox. The former strode onto the return pass and uncorked a peach of a strike to complete her hat-trick, and to crown a quite magnificent move in fitting fashion - so gobsmacked was Troth at what had unfolded in front of her that she barely moved as Goaziou’s curling left-foot chip arced gracefully in under the crossbar and beside the far post. 7-0 - and how!
The ‘keeper denied Harrison in the 74th minute, after another patient passing manoeuvre had culminated in Kelley and, unselfishly, O’Hara combining to set up the versatile defender. Three minutes later, O’Hara fed Michele Cox, who ripped open ‘Toe’s rattled rearguard with a made-to-measure pass for Simpson. Troth got her hands to the shot, but couldn’t prevent the scorer from claiming a well-deserved goal.
Barely two minutes had elapsed before United made it 9-0. Sowden’s turn on the edge of the penalty area deceived three defenders, and gave the reigning Auckland Young Player of the Year the space she needed to place her shot into the bottom right-hand corner of the net.
After Sowden had gone close with another turn and shot, and Troth had denied Michele Cox, Sowden wrapped up the scoring in injury time, drilling home from twenty yards to complete a comprehensive 10-0 win for the defending champions, who are now just four points away from retaining their crown.
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