APJSC Under 10 Whites vs Kiama Blue

Another super day for junior soccer, and another close match for the Albion Park Under 10 Whites in their clash against Kiama Blue at Cavalier Park, where once again the Park just managed to finish on the wrong side of the ledger.

Kiama Blue made the most of their opportunities in the first half, and led 1-0 before Josh Peters found his way through the defense to level up the scores at 1-1. Despite some hard running, good defense and clearing from both Indy Middleton and Jack Tate through the middle, Kiama Blue managed to get two more goals through the Albion Park team before the half tie break. Zoe Middleton in goals made two good saves that stopped the deficit being more than the 3-1 score line.

Once again though, as with every match this season, The Park boys and girls dominated the second half exchanges. Out on the left wing Zoe Middleton had come out of goals and fearlessly attacked her opponents, making some great tackles, dispossessing her opponents and pushing the ball on to her forward line. She was backed up by both Belle and Claire Kadwell in the midfield, who chased down every opponent who managed to get the ball in their territory and harassed them constantly until they had managed to secure the ball. This freed up Indy and Noah up forward, which led to Noah scoring a second goal for the morning, and also a near miss to the left post. Kiama Blue 3, Albion Park White 2.

Every time Kiama found their way through to the back, they found the armoury in Brock Young, Jack-Ryan Eberwein and Josh Peters. They rushed the forwards coming at them, and cleared the ball from danger time and time again. Brock was terrific, not missing a ball all day, while Jack-Ryan's big boot kept turning back the attacking tide. Josh made the tackle of the day, with only himself between his opponent and the goals his full stretched leg ensured he only got boot to ball, and dispossessed the attacking run. The defense was spectacular, with Jack Tate making two diving saves that were worth the price of admission alone. Kiama had no answer, and it was only when a long range kick was saved by Jack, only to fall right at the feet of a Kiama player who nudged it past him that allowed them to score in a most unfortunate fashion. 4-2.

The Park team was undeterred, and continued to attack with even greater abandon. Noah had two shots on goal, one that hit the crossbar and another that would have cleared the roof of any stadium in the world. Finally the relentless pressure succeeded, with Belle slotting the ball past the right post, and the score was now 4-3. Unfortunately, that was the end of proceedings, and despite having once again won the second half, the game itself was lost by the narrowest of margins.

It was another terrific team performance. It is great to see everyone playing FOR each other, attacking and defending superbly well, but most of all enjoying themselves.

The Player of the Match was unable to be split this week, with both Zoe Middleton and Josh Peters being the chosen as the better performed in a fantastic team effort (I voted for Zoe, she was fantastic). The luck has to change sooner or later, and maybe next weekend is the time for the team's first win of the season.