Fortune favours the bold

Saturday 21 August 2010

The druids over the hill (and far away) had been working overtime perfecting the steps to their rain-dance, and it looked like they had finally got it right, as the channel was blessed with tank-filling, garden-watering rainfall. A slight misstep in the Druidic choreography however made it seem like the rain might not stop in time for Saturday's games. The soaking made Woodbridge Oval a more appropriate venue for a performance of Swan Lake than football, forcing the cancellation of Junior games and the migration of the Under 16 game to a slightly-less-aquatic Kettering Oval.

Spirits were high within the Woodbridge under 16 team as they rowed to Kettering, the team's shaman had studied the portents, and declared that the birth of a Southern Right whale in the channel earlier in the week was a 'well-wickid' omen. Even so, circumstances forced the team to adopt a complex numerological strategy designed to make the most of a weird Saturn/Pluto astrological event in order to counteract the fact that they only had ten players for the game.

The upshot was a pretty interesting and competitive match-up with both teams playing an impressive, and in the first half, rather defensive game. Clarence's disciplined back line was doing a great job of stymieing the Woodbridge attack, and their Keeper – who from a distance looked a lot like Germany's Manuel Neuer – made it clear that he was not going to concede goals easily.

The more fluid Woodbridge defending was also on fire, cutting short Clarence forays into the Woodbridge half. Jack was making some crucial clearances and winning important aerial balls, Vincent was magically appearing from thin air to thwart any danger in front of goals, Sindri had his mojo on again repeatedly stealing the ball from opposition players. Plus Deans, Kye and Rainen were blasting about making nuisances of themselves around the middle of the park.

Solid defending meant that the game remained at nil all for some time, but eventually Jy opened the scoring with a magical ball that finally bypassed the German keeper. Clarence's response was quick in coming; and it was a pretty cool bit of hoodoo too, a high ball from way back that caught Aiden off-guard and resulted in a goal that will no doubt be talked about for years to come in the Clarence camp. As the whistle blew for half time the score stood at a very respectable one all; the defenders and goalkeepers on both teams could be proud of their performances.

Woodbridge consulted the oracle at half time, keen to find an answer to the stalemate. Nike, the goddess of Victory, who just happened to be tootling past on her little red Vesper, stopped long enough to mention that she had particularly enjoyed their gun-slinging performance against Nelson/MacKillop a few weeks previously; and suggested they might try a similar strategy here. Unfortunately none of the team speak or understand Greek so the Goddess's sage advice fell of deaf ears.

Luckily the team seemed to have reached a similar conclusion anyway, they had studied the Feng Shui and seen where the chi was being blocked by the poor placement of a vase of flowers. A slight rearrangement of the furniture was all that was required to get the energy flowing again. Subsequently the second half was characterised by much more attacking play, and a further seven goals were scored – that's an average of one goal every 5.71 minutes – exciting stuff! Woodbridge boots were behind 5 of those 7 goals. Jy charmed the ball into the opposition's net one more time; Bolan abracadabra'd a couple in and Phineas waved his magic wand and added his name to the sheet twice too. Clarence also managed to get a couple more goals, so the end result was Woodbridge 6 – Clarence 3.

All in all it was another fantastic effort from the team, one that cements them firmly the top of the division 2 ladder.

In a parallel universe, where everything happened a mere fraction of a centimetre to the left, Rainen's magnificent performance had netted him a hat-trick. In our slightly right-of-centre world however, his shots glanced off the post or were collected by the keeper and the hattrick just failed to materialise.

Alio

Bye, bye FBI

After the suspicious disappearance of the Woodbridge versus Knights match report from last week, it has been decided not to entrust the reporting process to Special Agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder of the FBI any more. No attempt will be made to recover the report, as it was largely about alien abductions in any case with precious little reference to the game at all.

This week’s match report has been left in the much safer hands of Bill and Ben, from Flowerpot, and it goes a little something like this:
Blip blop little weeeeeed.
…

Oh well, looks like it’s down to ol’ Muggins again… so here we go (‘ere we go, ‘ere we go…)

As luck would have it, a large proportion of the Woodbridge under16 squad travelled to Wellesley Park on Saturday for the second leg against South Hobart. A couple of them arrived hopefully at the Wentworth St stadium just down the road, thinking perhaps they would be playing in the Forestry Tasmania Premiere League… perhaps in a few years boys…

For some reason, yet again only 10 of the under 16 team seemed keen to take on South Hobart, and for the second time coach Dalles sought and received approval to field one of Woodbridge’s younger players. This time it was Dean’s younger brother Blake, who was absolutely awesome and played a level headed and skilful game. It was almost as if he had played with the under 16s before, as he read their play and passed the ball with astounding accuracy.

The game itself was the toughest so far; described as “intense” by the players and “exciting” by spectators. Forget last week’s backhanded compliment, this game was tougher by an order of magnitude.

I think it would be fairly safe to say that South Hobart dominated possession in the first half, and the fact that the score at half time was 0 – 0 is testament to some great defending by the Woodbridge boys and some absolutely outstanding goalkeeping by Aiden.

Possession in the second half was more even, and play bounced from one end to the other, as the teams seemed to take it in turn attacking each other’s goals. Woodbridge had quite a few chances, some of which South’s keeper collected and others which were off the post, too wide or to high. South, likewise, made numerous attempts on the Woodbridge goal with the same results.

The score remained at nil all until deep into the second half, when Jy managed to finally get the ball past the keeper and into the back of South’s net. South Hobart, having the luxury of a million substitutes (or thereabouts), responded by taking off a defender and popping another attacker on to the field. There may not have been long left on the clock, but the game was still up for grabs.

The last few minutes of the game were as full-on as the rest of the game had been, but no further goals were netted – leaving Woodbridge with a hard fought 1 – 0 win.

WSC U16s Vs Kingborough

The Woodbridge Under 16s played at home against a ten man Kingborough team on Saturday. You would imagine that would suggest a large win for the home team, however Kingo had a couple of really, really fast players, youngsters on loan from their mixed under 16 - 19 team; plus, even more worrying they had ex-patriot, and master of the midfield, Jack A.

So winning took some doing.

Fortunately for the home team Phineas was on fire, so we doused the flames and sat back and watched in awe as he proceeded to chalk up a marvelous hat-trick, two goals in the first and another in the second. Bolan, manning the fire extinguisher, managed to pop in a couple for the home team too and Deans cleverly converted a fantastic pass from Jy on the wing, to bring the Woodbridge tally to six.

It was a great team effort yet again, precious few mistakes were made, and those that were, were swiftly punished, giving the Kingborough lads 2 goals to our 6. Don't despair though Woodbridge, one of those goals was scored by a very talented, very fast Kingborough lad who is so good that he usually plays – and scores (8 times and counting) – against 17 to 19 year olds.

So well done Woodbridge, once again some fantastic team work and great, skilled play.

Alio

Great team effort puts WSC U16 at the top of the Div 2 ladder

WSC Under 16 Vs Glenorchy Knights White

Last time these two teams met was at the beginning of the season and the result then was a very exciting 3 – all draw. This time around both teams began play awash with confidence after securing impressive wins on the previous weekend; the Knights having defeated Clarence 9-2 and Woodbridge on the back of a 4-1 win against Nelson/Mac. On paper, the game promised to be quite exciting and in reality spectators were not disappointed.

On the pitch, the Knights scored first, and just in case they had plans of repeating their 9-goal-scoring-frenzy, Woodbridge thought it best to respond in kind. While Woodbridge's first goal – via our trusty Captain, Phineas - was loudly cheered and a welcome relief, the second and third goals were worthy of the World Cup highlight DVD. Goal two came after a speedy counter-attack; with defenders chasing hard on Bolan's heels and the keeper rushing at him, he kept his head, and at the very last second lofted the ball over the goalie. Time slowed as it arced through the air – a bit like one of those Nike ads [cut briefly to fireworks and scenes of wild celebration on the streets of Woodbridge] – and then the crowd erupted as the ball dropped into the back of the net.

The third goal, from Phin again (begin again), was absolutely awesome too; hurtling net-wards from a distance, it was another Nike moment [cut to cheering crowds lining the streets and waving flags as the Under 16 motorcade drives past] it surprised the Knights' keeper - the ball or the brief visit into the Nike Psyche? no one is quite sure - he barely had time to register the threat before it was past him. And so it was, that by half time some great defending and excellent support in the midfield had helped to ensure a score-line of 3 - 1 in the home team's favour.

Perseverance in the second half saw the Knights pull the score back to 3 – 2 against as they fought hard trying to regain the upper hand. Again Woodbridge found the answer, for a moment it looked as if it might be Jy providing it, but it seems he'll have to wait until this coming weekend to notch up his first goal for the under 16 team. Instead it was Bolan, putting in his second for the game.

With Woodbridge on 4 and the visitors on 2, the Knights bestirred themselves and turned the flow of the game around once more. A series of well-executed attacks stretched the defence and ultimately paid off for the lads from Glenorchy, giving them a third goal. With the margin narrowed to one, a second draw between these two teams was in sight. Time, however, was on Woodbridge's side and the game concluded with a 4 – 3 victory for the home team.

Once again, it was a brilliant team effort with 11 fantastic performances from the Woodbridge squad (and some great play from the opposition too, but let's leave the singing of their praises to someone else). Having carried on a bit about a couple of the goals has left no room to wax lyrical about the rest of the game – suffice it to say that it was an impressive team effort.

Thanks to the re-jigged Division 2 roster and two consecutive wins, this Woodbridge Under 16 team is the first ever Woodbridge youth team to hit the top of the ladder. Well done team! Massive achievement and one well-earned!

[Cut to scenes of the Under 16 team happily clutching the World Cup trophy, while someone avoids spraying champagne all over them because they are too young for that sort of thing].

Post Script:
Woodbridge extends its thanks to the Glenorchy Knights coach, who kindly stepped in to referee the game – thank you :D

Post Post Script:
If anyone is interested, FFT is conducting a FREE referee training and accreditation course in early July, check our website for details. Given that Woodbridge has two senior and two youth teams competing this year, and that providing a referee for home games is usually expected, it would be useful to have some qualified refs to call upon. Come on, you know you want to ...

An awesome team effort from our Under16s

The team's inaugural game of the modified Under 16 roster was a rematch between WSC and Nelson/MacKillop; although last time they were scheduled to play only 4 Nelson/MacKillop lads showed up. This time 14 opposition players arrived at Woodbridge Oval nice and early, a full squad with a generous sprinkling of substitutes.

The game started well, with Woodbridge taking the play straight into the Nelson/Mac half and threatening to score right from the get-go. Unfortunately Vincent was badly injured in a very physical clash with a goalie twice his size at around the 15 minute mark. His resultant injury will most likely see him sidelined for the rest of the season; a hard knock for both Vincent and the team.

Despite this setback, it seems that the Woodbridge players are really starting to gel as a team; their passing and positional play was impressive, forcing Nelson into largely reactive football for most of the game. The opposition's occasional counter-attacks were stymied on the back-line by an impressively in-form Rainen and some exceptional play by Kye – both lads had to work extra hard to make up for the early loss of Vincent. An intrepid Deans boosted the side's defence, consistently dropping back to defend or providing valuable attacking play, by surging forward as needed.

A solid midfield, showcasing Phineas and Jordan’s speed and skill, consistently moved the play forwards, allowing Jy and Bolan to repeatedly attack the opposition's goal-mouth and keep the Nelson/Mac goalie on his toes.. Bolan had numerous unsuccessful shots before finally threading his way through the defence and putting one in from close range. A hand ball in the penalty area gave him the opportunity to add to his tally, but in a move copied almost identically by Spain's David Villa against Honduras on Tuesday morning (EST), his shot went wide (darn that jabulani ball!), and he had to score his second goal in a more traditional manner.

At half time the score was Woodbridge 2 – Nelson/MacKillop 0; (replicating exactly the full-time result for the Spain Vs Honduras game mentioned previously.)

WSC's Captain, Phineas, as usual, dominated the mid-field, setting up goals, directing play and scoring his first official goal for the season early in the second half; his chance came from a corner ball expertly delivered by Nick. Nelson fought back and managed to get the ball past a feisty Aiden soon after. Finally, around half-way into the second half, Nadirah arrived to shore up the defence, helping to ease the building pressure in the Woodbridge half.

Nelson's increasing frustration was becoming more apparent as the game drew closer to an end; Woodbridge had had them on the back foot throughout, and they seemed determined to try and salvage something from the game. But, at 3 — 1 up, Woodbridge was on a roll; and in a mad goal-mouth scrabble, where several boots were aiming to put in the fourth for Woodbridge, it was ultimately Nick's that managed the magic touch. Shortly after, the 'bridge was denied another penalty kick after Jy, on track to score his first for the season, was knocked down in front of the Nelson goal. The game stood at 4 -1 until the final whistle blew.

Well done Woodbridge! An awesome team effort.


Post Script:
If the Woodbridge Under 16s take the cake, then Sunday's games added the icing and the candles:

In Sunday's Youth Plate knock-out round our Under13s dragged Kingborough to a nil-all draw at Woodbridge, forcing the game into a penalty shoot-out which they then won 4 – 3.

The men's team, who also took on Kingborough, played shortly afterwards at Lightwood Park, putting on an fantastic performance and winning 6 – 1. Jy's disappointment at not yet putting his mark on the Under 16 goalscorers’ board was washed away when he was put on as a Super-Sub in the last 15 minutes of the men's game against Kingborough, where he scored a goal for the senior team almost immediately.

What a fantastic weekend of football!