Sutherland under 12s onwards and upwards
27-Sep-08

by J Gulisano

Saturday, 27 September 2008 saw the opening round of the 2008/09 Football NSW Futsal Super League Season and the Under 12's boys ventured to the inner-city to do battle with the Enfield Rovers at the "Roverdome" at Ashfiel Boys High School.

It was obvious that there was an air of excitement amongst the squad as Coach Lee Pepper indicated that there was plenty of chatter between the boys in the change-rooms .

The squad knew that this was their first official competition game as a team representing the Sutherland Shire Futsal Association and they wanted to make sure that they made their Association proud by getting off to a good start in their first game of the season .

After a tentative first-half where the boys worked off a lot of their nervous energy and repelled many of the attacking raids of their more experienced opponents, due in large part to the brilliant goal-keeping of Christopher Marques, they came out ready to play in the second-half trailing only 1-0 . Whatever Coach Pepper said to his team at half-time obviously worked as the boys looked far more settled and comfortable in their play, showing a level of intensity and vigour which clearly announced to their opponents that they were not going to have things their own way .

The boys created plenty of scoring opportunities, but to the credit of the Rovers goal-keeper, they were prevented from converting those opportunities until a foul was called against the Rovers in the penalty area and Cameron Belle was invited to take the direct penalty shot . Under pressure, Cameron slotted it into the back of the net and it never looked like missing . 1-1 and the intensity levels of both sides lifted another notch with the ball travelling from end to end without success until an absolutely freakish strike from the left-side corner by one of the Enfield attackers saw the ball scream past the Sutherland defenders and goal-keeper, jamming into the the back of the top right-side corner of the net, such was the ferocity of the strike, with approximately 3 minutes left on the clock . 2 -1, but the Sutherland boys were not about to give-up .

The boys began to dominate, in an effort to peg back the goal, with some slick ball-movement causing the Rovers defenders and their goal-keeper plenty of headaches . With time ticking away, the boys almost levelled the score after Samuel Gulisano made a break down the right-side and put a ball through to Kyle Riggs in some space who was only prevented from claiming the equaliser by the Rovers goal-keeper who, in desperation, put his body on the line to see his team through to the final whistle .

Most of the spectators who witnessed the match felt that a draw would have been a fairer result and the boys should walk away with their heads held high in the knowledge that it took a freakish, once-in-a lifetime goal, to beat them on the day . It needed to be that good!

After the game, Coach Lee Pepper congratulated all of his squad on their first-up effort and made special mention of the excellent contributions from Addison Klem-Goode, James Pepper, Cameron Belle and Jacob Opacak, all of whom never stopped running through-out the game .

Well done to all of the boys in the squad. You did your Association and families proud in your first official hit-out .

Source: SSFA