Albion Park JSC Under 10 White vs Albion Park Green

Ky streaks through the defense on his way to the goals

Sooner or later you get to wondering just how much of the game of soccer the kids you watch every weekend are actually learning, and how much they are just running through the motions and listening to what the parents are yelling on the sidelines. This morning the Albion Park Under 10 Whites showed just how much they have learned in their local derby clash against the Albion Park Under 10 Green side.

It was a dire period to start with, as once again the Whites were faced with playing a match short. Starting the game with only seven players against their opponents nine meant that there was going to be a lot of running around for the team, as nominated coach Dan Kadwell went with a 2-2-2 formation. Fortunately a late arrival meant that just before half time the Whites had a complement of eight players against nine which eased the burden a little.
And yet, the Whites were quote magnificent. Despite the numbers being against them, the Whites dominated the first half of footy, able to have half a dozen good strikes at goal without being able to convert. The numbers told against them at the other end, when the Greens had only three shots at goal, but were able to convert two of them. It was a tired team at half time, but they were coerced to continue their excellent efforts.

Two further goals left the score at 4-0 to the Green team, but once again the second half belonged to Albion Park White. Indy Middleton held sway as custodian, and Jack Tate was a live wire from fullback, doing a great job in harassing his opponents and constantly getting back to clear the ball. Brock Young worked well with Josh Peters in mid-field, and Jack-Ryan Eberwein was forceful up forward. The stars of the morning was the left side of the park, with left back Belle Kadwell terrific in defense, Claire Kadwell at left centre being the perfect distributor to Ky Van Helden up front. The Whites scored two brilliant goals through that combination, with Belle winning the ball in the backs, passing beautifully to her sister Claire in the midfield who then did the same to Ky up forward, who ran through to score two goals with his great left strike. No team of any age group could have hoped to score better goals from better play. It was fantastic to watch.

The Whites completely dominated the play, and it was only the Greens goal keeper who won them the day. Ky, Jack-Ryan, Claire and Josh all had numerous shots at goal, all of which either scraped the post or were saved wonderfully. The final score of 4-2 to the Albion Park Green team was not a true reflection of how the game went, and the Whites should be wonderfully proud of their efforts in once again playing short but never giving in.

Player of the Match was awarded to Belle Kadwell who was superb once again, getting in the face of her opponents to take the ball off them, and then combining brilliantly with Claire in getting the ball to her midfield time and time again. Special mention to Claire for her role, as well as Ky who could easily have had a dozen goals today. When he is on the run with the ball at his feet he is wonderful to watch.

I started by saying I wondered how much our kids were learning. Well the answer is, quite a lot. As Dan rightly said, there was very little instruction needed to come from the parents on the sideline today. The kids knew their positions, they held their formations, and when the break in play came they knew where they had to be. They did a tremendous job today under tough conditions with less players than their opponents, and yet it rarely appeared that this was the case. It was great to watch again, despite the result.

Ky's shot at goal was brilliantly saved by the Greens goal keeper