ANZA Cup 2011  - Turf City, Singapore   -  20th - 22nd May 2011

Our first trip overseas turned out to be a wet and muddy, but fun filled
experience for all our players and parents.

Check out the photos by clicking here

Our advance party arrived in Singapore on Friday morning, checked into
the Grand Hyatt and jumped straight onto the bus for a fun filled
afternoon at Universal Studios at Sentosa. Players and parents alike
had a great time, enjoying most of the fantastic rides and attractions,
not to mention the rollercoasters. After spending 5 hours at the theme
park, it was back to the hotel to meet up with the rest of the party
before heading off to bed.

The next morning we were up bright and early with breakfast at 6:30am
and boarded the bus for the short trip to Turf City. While the fields were
certainly big enough to accommodate over 100 teams, the poor quality
of the playing surfaces took us by surprise. Most of the pitches were on
slopes, with dips and troughs apparent everywhere. We managed to find
a spot in one of the team tents and our teams prepared for their first
games of the day.

The standard across the competition was very good and our u12 and
u10 teams had drawn tough groups, while our u8's had fared slightly
better. We have worked for a couple of weeks on the formation we
would use and our preparations seemed to have paid off with the u8's
claiming three wins and a draw in their four group games to claim a place
in the Cup finals. Our u10's started slowly and lost their first two
games 1-0 before winning the next game and finishing with very
credible draw against last year’s champions. It wasn't enough to take
them into the finals however and they found themselves in the Plate
competition.

Our u12's had a great start taking advantage of the extra point for
scoring 3 goals in a game rule. They narrowly lost their third game
against JSSL Arsenal despite dominating possession and went into the
last game needing a win to take them through. Their opposition,
Brazilian Soccer Schools also needed a win to go through, but our
movement and passing was enough to create the chances we needed
and we saw our second team of the day go through to the Cup finals.

With teams having played two or three games, the heavens opened and
stayed open! Within minutes the pitches were inches deep in water and
everyone was soaked to the skin. The football was abandoned but this
didn't deter our u8's who carried on playing their own game out in the
downpour. While everyone was naturally disappointed that the football
was cancelled, the extra time was welcomed by those who wanted to
fit in some afternoon shopping on Orchard Road.

Saturday evening was our group dinner at the Hyatt and we had some
great Pizza and Pasta at Pete's Place. We learned that we would have
an early start the next morning to catch up on the games that had
been postponed so it was early to bed for most, as we would need to be
at the pitch ready to play by 7:00am the next morning.

After an early 6:00am breakfast, we loaded everyone onto the buses
and made our way to Turf City to find the pitches in surprisingly good
condition given the amount of water they had taken just a few hours
earlier. The organisation was a little stretched, trying to coordinate the
games that needed to be played with new timings, but they soldiered on
and managed to get the competition back to within an hour of the
schedule.

Our u8's were desperately unlucky in the quarter finals, losing 2-0 to a
freak goalkeeping error and a penalty that should never have been
awarded at u8 level.  It was unfortunate as they had been the better
team throughout the game, but it wasn't to be. Before this result, they 
looked capable of going all the way to the final as they were one of the
best footballing sides in the age group. All our u8 players can be very
proud of themselves, as they had no substitutes and no goalkeeper and 
still managed to make it to the Cup Finals in a major regional tournament.

Our u10's weren't on their best form over the weekend, although there  
were some great individual performances particularly from Lucas and
James. Our play and possession improved over the competition and we
played some very good football throughout the weekend. While our play,
particularly in defence, was good it was the lack of goals that let us
down. While only conceding 3 goals in seven games, we managed to
score just once ourselves.

In the u12 division, we were having similar problems scoring goals, with
most of the threat coming from Bright. Our defence was excellent,
conceding only 3 goals across the whole competition but the lack of
goals resulted in the last three games being 0-0 draws, including the
semi-final and final. While we won the penalty shoot out in the
semi-final, we weren't as successful in the final losing 3-2 in the shootout
to finish runners up after having totally dominated play through the game.

Overall, it was a great weekend that all the players thoroughly enjoyed.
We could see at all levels that our football was as good as any team
there and our players can come away proud of their efforts. We hope
to make overseas trips a key part of our annual calendar giving the players
something to work towards throughout the year. 
 
Thank you to everyone who took part, particularly our parents who were
great supporters for all our teams and who braved the adverse weather
conditions all weekend !