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SWANZ Cup 1999
"Three-Peat" For Three Kings United
by Jeremy Ruane
Three Kings United clinched their third consecutive SWANZ Knockout Cup Final victory at North Harbour Stadium on September 18, but first-time finalists Wairarapa United pressed them all the way before they ran out 3-2 winners.
The cup holders ran Wairarapa ragged in the first half, the pace of Maia Jackman and the guile of Amy Goaziou key factors in their dominance.
Inside the first twelve minutes, Three Kings had created five scoring chances, many of which resulted from pinpoint corners delivered by Goaziou. Tarah Cox had a shot cleared off the line in the second minute, while Catherine Watt hooked a Sacha Haskell header off the line eight minutes later.
This resulted in another Goaziou corner, which Jackman headed narrowly over the crossbar. From the resulting goal kick, a flowing five-player move, featuring Rebecca Sowden, Jackman, Michele Cox and Jennifer Kelley, resulted in Goaziou's twenty-yard drive being smothered by youthful Wairarapa goalkeeper, Pam Yates.
Her clearance was pounced on by Sowden, who sent Jackman scampering away down the right to the byline, from where she delivered a telling cross. Yates misjudged it, and fumbled the ball into the path of Goaziou, who gleefully tucked the ball home into the gaping goal from close range to open the scoring.
Five minutes later, Haskell sent Jackman away down the left, which the speedster cut back for Michele Cox, who, under pressure, drilled her shot past Yates' right-hand upright.
Three Kings' pressure was unrelenting, Wairarapa having barely crossed the halfway line to this point. And when the cup holders struck a second goal in the nineteenth minute - Goaziou's cross from the left was headed down by Jackman into the path of Kelley, who steered home from twelve yards - you were left to wonder if a massacre was on the cards.
Somehow, however, Wairarapa survived the onslaught. Yates tipped a Goaziou drive round the post in the 22nd minute, the final debutants somehow scrambling clear the resulting corner. Then Jackman, having powered through Wairarapa's defence and provided herself with a golden goalscoring opportunity, opted for unselfishness, forcing an off-balance Kelley to fire over the crossbar.
Kelley and Goaziou combined for Jackman to head over in the 28th minute, while Sowden slipped Jackman through four minutes later to leave the striker with just Yates to beat. Somehow she made a meal of it, allowing Yates to save easily.
A further four minutes elapsed when Michele Cox and Goaziou played a one-two on the left which resulted in the former delivering a measured teasing cross to the far post, completely deceiving Yates. Unfortunately for the incoming Sowden, the ball was just a yard too far in front of her to capitalise on the chance, which would have made it 3-0 to Three Kings at a stage in the game when they were already well into double-figures on the corner count.
Allowed a rare moment of respite, Wairarapa made it count with their first real attack of any consequence in the half, just five minutes prior to the interval. A Lisa Gibson free-kick to the near post saw Nicky Smith somehow squeeze the ball past Helen Exler and across the face of goal to the far post, where Adrienne Bain slotted home to put Wairarapa on the board.
But within seconds, what had briefly been a one-goal deficit by which Wairarapa trailed had quickly been returned to a two-goal advantage in Three Kings' favour. Straight from the kick-off, United caught their opponents cold, with Tarah and Michele Cox combining to feed Goaziou wide on the left. Her cross arced across Sowden and into the path of the incoming Jackman, who thundered her volley across Yates and into the bottom far corner of the net - 3-1.
United could have further increased their advantage before the break, with Haskell heading a Goaziou corner narrowly over, and Yates bravely saving at the feet of Kelley as the striker bore down on goal in the shadows of half-time.
The second spell saw Wairarapa come out chasing the game, with Michelle Hodge, who had largely filled the role of a spectator in the first half, comfortably dealing with Henderson's twenty-yard strike a minute after the resumption.
Six minutes later, Jackman, again haring off in pursuit of the ball, went down as if she'd been shot. Her hamstring had gone, and she was replaced by Maria Wilkie, who was quickly brought into the action by Michele Cox, only to shoot tamely having scampered clear of the defence.
Hodge made a fine diving save low to her right on the hour to foil Bain, after Henderson had flicked on a Gibson header. The goalkeeper was again to the fore eight minutes later, tipping a Smith free-kick around the post, five minutes after Goaziou had cracked an eighteen-yard volley barely a foot over Wairarapa's crossbar.
In the 72nd minute, Wilkie was off down the right once more, this time slinging over a cross for Goaziou. Yates was again guilty of fumbling the ball, but Goaziou, from a tight angle, was unable to direct her shot on target.
Just when the Sport Auckland Team of the Year award finalists had thought they had done enough to weather the best of Wairarapa's fightback, a mistimed Hodge clearance was compounded by a Michele Cox error near the edge of her penalty area, which gave Henderson, the newly-crowned Women's Player and Players' Player of the Year, the opportunity to strike for goal in the 74th minute.
She didn't waste it, Wairarapa's player-coach's drive arrowing into the bottom far corner of the net, making it 3-2, and all to play for with sixteen minutes left to play.
Straight from the kick-off, Goaziou charged forward, intent on restoring Three Kings' two-goal advantage. Her dipping drive beat Yates all ends up but hit the crossbar. From the resulting goal kick, Wairarapa looked to level, and another defensive blunder by Haskell and Exler let in Michele Keinzley. A splendid save by Hodge, who spread herself superbly to deny the young striker, saved the day for Three Kings, and proved to be Wairarapa's last chance of note.
Kelley and Goaziou, United's US Olympic Training Development Programme graduates, came close to extending Three Kings' advantage before the finish, the latter only denied by Yates at the second attempt in the 83rd minute, after the goalkeeper had initially fumbled the goalbound shot from a player who was, to the surprise of many, overlooked as the winner of the final's Most Valuable Player award - this went, instead, to Wairarapa's SWANZ international, Nicky Smith, who had shown great courage to soldier on for the cause in light of a late first half injury, allied to those she was already carrying.
Three Kings had a greater feat to celebrate however, their 3-2 victory, as well as being their fiftieth win in their last fifty-three matches, sparking off celebrations to mark the competition's first "three-peat" which lasted well into the early hours.
Three Kings: Hodge; Haskell, Simpson, Exler; Jackman (Wilkie, 54), O'Hara, T. Cox, M. Cox, Goaziou; Kelley, Sowden
Wairarapa: Yates; Watt, Gibson (booked, 5), Donaldson (booked, 66), Hall; L. Henderson, Spargo, W. Henderson, Bain; Smith, Keinzley.
Referee: Tony Cawte
Scoring:
Three Kings: A. Goaziou (12), J. Kelley (19), M. Jackman (41)
Wairarapa: A. Bain (40), W. Henderson (74)
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