2009 ROUND 2

Western Suburbs vs LUSC Women 0-4

Goals:

Marum, Justine (2)
Mills, Nicole (1)
Veltri, Kami (1)

Goals Assists:

Pettit, Tory (2)

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La Trobe Uni Womens Soccer Team Kicks Off Season With Style

Having sat out the inaugural round of the season, the La Trobe Uni Womens team kicked off their start to the season with an impressive win. Travelling away from home La Trobe Uni secured a comfortable 4-0 victory over Western Suburbs, with La Trobe’s own version of Danny Allsopp: Justine Marum, helping herself to a brace!

In sunny conditions the game kicked off at a fast pace as both sides tested each other early. But within minutes Latrobe settled the quicker of the two and began to control the midfield. Nicole Mills was partnered with Tory Pettit and the two were winning the contest in the middle, distributing the ball cleverly to the forwards. Nice interplay between Kami Veltri and Nikki Garner, from a through ball by Tory, released Nikki and her shot on the run went just wide of the post.

Latrobe quickly regained possession to once again launch a probing attack. Nicole received the ball and played a first time pass to Justine Marum, who cleverly laid it on for Nikki. Despite the attention of two defenders Nikki managed to have a shot, but again it went wide of the target. Latrobe, were getting closer.

Western Suburbs brought the ball out of defence and were threatening the Latrobe goal but Beccie Ambrose, stoic in defence, fought for and won possession of the ball. Breaking clear of her opponent she moved the ball forward and looking up placed a nice pass to the right where Nicole had moved to. Having time Nicole raced forward and lined up a shot at goal from outside the penalty area. It was 1-0 to Latrobe and only four minutes had passed!

Nicole, after the match, said “I was very happy with my goal because believe it or not as I was taking the shot I remembered Victor saying top corner so that’s what I tried to do and it actually worked! Yay!”

Being a goal up Latrobe picked up a gear. Threatening runs from Kami on the right, coupled with clever passing from the midfield was turning the Western Suburbs defence inside out. Such was the pressure that the ball did not get out of Western Suburbs’ half for a large part of the first period. When it did the Latrobe defence worked well together to snuff out any threat, turning the Western attack into a counter attack.

Sixteen minutes later it was 2-0. Kami broke free and eluded her defender. Running into the penalty area her shot beat the keeper but hit the post. Fortunately it came back into play and she was able to hit it into the open goal. Justine Marum ran in to make sure it went over the line, but the referee had already declared it a goal to Kami.

Western Suburbs were stunned but they did launch a quick attack, which was easily dealt with by Marte ur Lovaas and captain Melanie Meehan. When the ball did manage to get past them Hannah Matthew-Prosser in goal was equal to the task. Her collection of the ball and quick distribution to Tory propelled another Latrobe attack.

Disappointingly, Coach Victor Sekulov had to make a change when Nikki Garner broke down and hobbled off. A leg injury, which could mean she will be out for a couple of weeks. This was a sad blow to the side, in their quest for a top four position.

Despite the injury to Nikki, Latrobe went and scored their third. On the 20th minute mark Justine brilliantly chipped the keeper from a nice through ball from Toy to score her first for the game. From then on Latrobe played an excellent defensive game as they stifled the Western Suburbs attack. Mel was ensuring no threats would come down her side of the park and Emily Ryan was doing the same on the other wing. Running out of options the Suburbs team tried to go through the middle. But here Nicole was challenging every ball and winning many. Tory was riding tackles and playing the ball out to the forwards, threatening the Suburbs’ goal.

The first half ended with Latrobe playing clever football

The second half was only five minutes old when Tory had her shot charged down by the Suburbs keeper. Justine was first to the rebound and helped herself to her second of the game. It was 4-0 and Latrobe had made the game safe.

The game moved towards a stalemate as Victor tinkered with the line ups and used this opportunity to give players a run and gain valuable playing experience. Suburbs did manage a couple of attempts at goal, one shot coming back off the Latrobe post. But that was the closest they came to scoring.

Latrobe on the other hand had five or six chances to add to the score, with shots going just wide of an empty net. The best chance fell to Emily. Racing onto a free ball a metre out of the centre of the open goal, her attempt went over the bar! Full time was called by the referee and Latrobe had started the 2009 season in the best possible way with a comfortable win.

Latrobe Uni Captain Mel Meehan said “I think that Sunday's game was a good result for us and a great start to the season. While we had a bit of a nervous start (I think this was partly due to it being our first game), we pulled together and came away with a good win. If we continue to work together and improve on each game, I think this will be quite a successful and enjoyable season for us.”

Forward Justine Marum added, “Thought we started well – switched on, putting pressure on, and stringing together a few good passes and defence was tight – they didn’t even look like scoring”.

Coach Victor Sekulov said “It was a game in which we did exactly as I asked the players to do. Our midfield was excellent and it was nice to see Nicole play a bigger part in it. Happy she started our season off with a goal! Our defence was very strong. In the second half they could afford to become more relaxed, especially Marte, who was really enjoying herself on the park.”

“The goals were nicely taken, nice passing and support. We won the game in midfield and consolidated it further in defence. It gave our forwards the luxury to go and do their job without too much pressure.”

“Watching the girls on the field one got a real sense of team throughout.”

“Having said that, I can still see a lot of scope for improvement. At times our positioning and reading of where the play was going was naive. We need to work on better communication, passing and chasing back. For our first competitive match however we could not be happier. “

Results of the round included a resounding victory for title favourites Bundoora with a 10 - 0 destruction of Melton, Western Eagles getting a very comfortable 4-1 win at home against Darebin Falcons and a tight 1-1 draw between Fawkner and North Geelong.

Next week’s home game pits Latrobe against Bundoora in what will be a mouth watering encounter. Victor Sekulov said, “There’s no doubt this is one of the biggest game of the season. Bundoora are on fire. They have the same team from last year which just missed out on promotion. We are basically a new squad just learning to play together. I also have two key players missing this week so it will make it even harder for us. Having said that I have a lot of faith in my players and I believe they will stand up to the challenge. Either way it will be an exciting match, a good advertisement for women’s football”.