NZSS 2017, Taupo
MAGS v Saint Kentigern: 4-4 after extra time. Penalty shootout: 7-8 to St Kent’s
MAGS was pleased to make the NZSS final for the fifth year in a row, having won the previous four. The key difference between the teams in the final this year was experience – St Kent’s had six Year 13 students doing the traditional walk out onto the field prior to playing their last game for their school, while our squad only had three: Maisy Dewell, Grace Jale and Lily Taitimu. Sadly, Alosi Bloomfield’s surgery prior to tournament prevented her from playing. We could see immediately that it was going to be a game between a very young MAGS side and the experienced squad of St Kent’s, who had already won the Auckland League and Auckland Knock-Out Cup this season.
Despite the age gap, MAGS dominated play from the kick-off, resulting resulted in the first goal early in the first half, scored by Kathryn Gow . That was a shock for the St Kentigern players who probably didn’t expect a start like this from our girls. A few minutes later Charlotte Tinsley saw the GK away from the goal, took her chance and struck the ball from long distance into the back of the net. Suddenly MAGS was 2-0 up 10 minutes into the game. Our girls were everywhere – faster, very strong on the ball and wanting to play.
However, not long after MAGS missed a chance to score another goal, which seemed to make the young MAGS squad nervous. After about 20 minutes the St Kentigern players woke up and started to show a bit more of their play. All the danger came from Hannah Blake who was trying hard to make some changes in the game. Our girls dealt well with the pressure and did not give them many opportunities, but were sitting very deep. We went to the changing rooms 2-0 up at half time.
Everybody knew that St Kent’s had to score a quick one to get back in the game and unfortunately the goal came too early for us. It was from a set play, when we let a player free in the box. The score was now 2-1. That was the moment our girls put their head down a little bit and at the same time the girls from St Kent’s were alive again. They were playing very well and we were defending most of the time. After a few set plays, which we defended well, there was a free kick for St Kent’s about 30m from our goal and Hannah Blake put the cross in the box. She found her teammate who scored second goal – 2-2.
The game continued to be open and it looked like there would be no more goals in this final with very few chances on both sides, but with 10 minutes to go, Grace Jale, who was playing a very good game, got a through ball behind the defenders and went one on one with the GK. She would usually finish with a goal, but unfortunately she missed this time.
The game was played at a high intensity and both teams wanted to win in normal time but after 80 minutes the score was locked at 2-2.
So into extra-time the girls went – there would be two 10 minute halves. St Kent’s put a lot of pressure on MAGS in trying to score the winning goal, and succeeded just few minutes into the first half of the extra time. The score was 2-3 to St Kent’s. A lot of people watching the game were probably thinking ‘game over for MAGS’ but that is not the MAGS way. The team always fought back and after changing the formation, Grace Jale kicked a long ball, which found Maisy Dewell and she managed to score a goal and got us back into the game 3-3, just before the end of the first half of extra time. What a final this was turning out to be!
The second half of the extra time started with neither team wanting to make a mistake, so there were a lot of incomplete passes. Five minutes before the end of the game St Kent’s made an attack on their left side with a cross into our box. A devastating moment followed when the goal was scored – 3-4 to them with only five minutes to go. That would normally feel like game over to most of the teams after having played 95 minutes of football in a final game, on top of six games over four days. However, this was not the case for the MAGS girls, who showed a never-give-up attitude and made one last try to come back. Grace Jale found our captain, Maisy Dewell, with a long ball and Maisy, with probably the last piece of her energy, ran past the defender and went 1v1 with the GK. Our captain, who had been a great leader for the whole tournament, scored her second goal in the final, to draw 4-4 with one and half minutes to go! The drama kept building and a lot of people around couldn’t believe what had just happened – the St Kent’s players were shocked! The final game was played for 100 minutes, which is almost double the time of a normal league game. But due to the draw, we had to go to a penalty shoot-out.
The five girls who stepped up for our team were: Maisy Dewell, Kathryn Gow, Grace Jale, Lily Taitimu and Charlotte Tinsley.
Round 1: St Kent’s scored / Maisy Dewell scored: 1-1
Round 2: St Kent’s’ best player in the final Hannah Blake didn’t find a way to get the ball past Alisha Perry, who saved the penalty! and Kathryn Gow could have put us 2-1 up but unfortunately Kathryn also missed her penalty so the score stayed 1-1
Round 3: St Kent’s scored and Grace Jale scored her penalty to make it 2-2
Round 4: St Kent’s scored and Lily Taitimu didn’t give a chance to their GK and scored: 3-3
Round 5: This is the moment a lot of us will probably feel a bit upset about because Alisha Perry saved the penalty, but the referee gave a yellow card to Alisha for her step up which is not allowed and let the player retake the penalty. Sad thing is that we have a video record, which shows that Alisha didn’t move forward at all, clearly a bad referee decision but that is history. St Kent’s player didn’t make the same mistake again and scored her second chance. The pressure was on for Charlotte Tinsley who was probably taking the most important penalty in her football life, but she scored and made it 4-4
Round 6: both players scored and from our team it was Alexandra Ragg: 5-5
Round 7: both players scored and from our team it was Alaina Granger: 6-6
Round 8: both players scored from our team it was Genevieve Ryan: 7-7
Round 9: St Kent’s scored their penalty but unfortunately for MAGS Tayla O’Brien missed her penalty. The score was 7-8, which made St Kentigern College National Champions for 2017.
The girls were very upset after the final penalty as they really tried their hardest to keep the trophy at MAGS for another year, but unfortunately after an absolutely amazing final the girls finished second.
MAGS made the final for the 5th time in a row after winning the four previous tournaments, which is clearly showing Girls Football at MAGS is at a high level. This year we had a much younger squad compared to our previous teams at the tournament and yet we still made it into the top 2, which is a great result, giving us the confidence that Girls Football at MAGS has a great future and we will be back in 2018 to once again fight for the New Zealand title!
Ms Chris Long, Manager