Leichhardt Saints FC proudly congratulates the Under 11 /1 team who today won a thrilling Final of their Kanga Cup tournament in Canberra, 3 – 2 in the final minutes of extra time!
The team has achieved sensational results during the week culminating in their Championship victory. This prestigious tournament draws competitive teams from interstate and overseas. You can read all about their lead up matches elsewhere on the website.
Well done to all the boys on their fine efforts. They have made their Club very proud of them all for their exciting on field play, sportsmanship and team work as well as their exemplary off field behaviour.
Coaches Tony Reed, Tom Browell and Angus Millar deserve special congratulations for their hard work and efforts preparing the team and Howard Charles for his enthusiatic and thorough team management and organistion.
Saints Player James Reed won Player of the Tournament for Under 11s.
A truly wonderful day in Saints history.
Liam – President – 9 July 2010
Manager Howard Charles has been keeping us up to date on the team’s progress in Canberra:
Preliminary Games
Monday: A 2-0 win and a Nil Nil draw has us equal first at the end of day one.
Tuesday: Had a 1-1 draw against Hobart Zebras, a great team with the game played in the best spirit of the game. We’re running second in our pool and probably have to win both tomorrow to get through.
Wednesday midday: Howard phoned with the exciting news that the team had a 4 nil win this morning over Stanmore Hawks. That puts them in the top of their pool! This afternoon’s game will determine their standings re the semis – good luck team!
Wednesday Evening Howard reports: I’m very pleased to confirm our 4-0 victory over Stanmore and Nil-Nil draw this pm with Bullen Burgundy Lions has left us 2nd in our pool on for and against. We play Brunswick City in tomorrows semi final. I’ll call with the result. Go the Saints.
Later Tom Browell sent a message: Today the boys did it! We qualified for the semis after 5 really tough matches. The Mighty Saints U11/1s are still undefeated this year, finishing the pool round with 2 wins and 3 draws. We came second in our pool, one point behind the Hobart Zebras – who we played in game 3 and had a thrilling draw. All the boys are having a blast here in Canberra and have impressed the locals and other visitors with their usual brand of great skill and fairness. Tomorrow we play a semi final against Brunswick at 11am – whatever happens, the boys are so happy and we are all so proud of them, it doesn’t matter. Go the Mighty Saints!
Semi Final
Thursday: Dear All, What a great and wonderful honour it is to be associated with football, Leichhardt Saints, and the Boys U11/1’s. Words cannot do justice to how well they played today to defeat Brunswick City 5-4 in penalty shoot-out after extra time and Nil-Nil at fulltime. Our 5 shooters Harry, James, Monty, Saxon & Callum all calmly kicked their goal, leaving the indefatigable Harry Browell as goalie to stop Brunswick’s 5th shot. I rate it as the most tense and exciting performance by this team to date. Both Brunswick City players and parents were a credit to the Code as were the Hobart Zebras who lost their semi final on the adjacent field and then immediately joined our sideline to cheer us on. We played them on Tuesday and had to wear our away strips. After today’s semi final they mixed with our boys kicking around with all in the mighty black & white.
So on to the Grand Final tomorrow against AC United and whatever the result, it’s been the experience of a lifetime and they’ve done their Club proud.
The Final
I hereby confirm the U11/1’s this morning won the Kanga Cup with an inspiring 3-2 win over AC United in the Grand Final played at the University of Canberra before a large crowd, which included supporters we picked up during the Tournament, particularly the Hobart Zebras who came back to cheer us to victory.
James scored our first with a great left-foot shot, followed by Cluny scoring within 30 seconds of coming on taking us to halftime 2-0 up. AC then showed why they made the GF equalizing at 2-2 by fulltime. During the 2nd part of extra time Roy scored a beautiful header off a beautiful corner by James.
They fought off an AC fightback and also countered several more times before hearing with great relief the final whistle. Every goal scored and every one saved this week was attributed to all 12 boys who played to their best ability.
RegardsHoward
James Reed won Player of the Tournament in the Boys Under 11 Cup division.