Northern Gauteng A’s Cinderella story continues
Northern Gauteng A was the first team to book a spot to compete for the Sandra Jordaan trophy in the SASHOC U18 National Week finals in Bloemfontein. They defeated KwaZulu Natal Coastals 3 – 2 in a penalty shootout after a 1 – 1 deadlock in regulation time.
Northerns will face Southern Gauteng A in the final. It is the first time in a long time that sides from the same province will duel for the trophy.
The highveld side was one of the lesser fancied outfits in Pool A, where defending champions Southern Free State A and Southern Gauteng A were expected to be the dominant sides. Sinoxolo Mbekeni’s charges have proven to be the dark horses of the tournament and have a 50-50 shot at winning the title. They also have an opportunity to avenge the 3 – 0 defeat they suffered at the hands of Southern Gauteng A in their second pool match.
Coming into the semifinal tie, Coastals was one of the most clinical outfits in the D, and desperately hunted for an opportunity at goal from the fifth minute onwards. They enjoyed the lion’s share of possession, dictating the tempo in their pursuit of an equalizer, but just couldn’t deliver the final punch. They won several penalty corners, all of which but one were closed down by Northerns.
“Our brief was to let them play but let them play in front of us. That’s why we went that deep and tried to compress the space. They are a good side; they have scored a lot of goals and we wanted to eliminate the 1-v-1 battles,” Mbekeni shared.
Northerns’ leading goal scorer, Arista van Zyl, had put the Gauteng side on the front foot with a fourth-minute strike. The Garsfontein learner chased down a Coastals defender, forced an error and capitalized on the opportunity. After the goal, Coastals reacted by launching foray after foray into the Northerns half. Jacinta Wedderburn’s side chased the game for 34 of the 60 minutes of the contest.
“They have a strong team and keep the ball so well. We tried to not give any penalty corners in defence because we know how good they are. We knew from the beginning there was going to be pressure, we knew they were going to come hard at us,” Daniella McCann explained after the match.
McCann, who speaks highly of the team culture they play in, shared that the Northerns players became each other’s cheerleaders as they raised a wall of defence to repel the KZN team’s attacks. The forward found herself doing defensive work more than she did in making life tough for the Coastals defence.
This Northerns cohort has always been the side that no one took a second look at. According to Luane Janssen, their goal-minder, the girls have played together since they were Grade 6 learners but never achieved a position higher than eighth at provincial tournaments.
“We have never won anything and so our main goal was to make the semifinals. That would have been a big win for us,” the Waterkloof learner explained.
However, after making the semifinals, they dared to dream bigger and realized that dream by adhering to good defence principles. “Throughout the week there have been quarters where we were under a lot of pressure, and I think we have learned from it. The girls are not robots, they are not going to automatically be calm under pressure, but I think they have become better at handling pressure with each passing game,” Mbekeni said.
After withstanding the pressure from the game, Northerns backed themselves to handle the pressure of the shootout with ease. When Coastals took the first penalty stroke and missed, the Gauteng side’s belief swelled. They converted their first stroke but went on to miss the next three, while Coastals scored two of the next three.
Janssen needed to prevent Coastals’ Caprice Bengston from converting her penalty stroke to keep Northerns’ dreams alive. She did so. Andrea Groenewald needed to beat Ella Casterns to keep the Gauteng side alive. She also did so and sent the teams to sudden death. That is when Daniella McCann stepped up to take the stroke.
“You don’t go into a shootout alone; you go with the rest of the team behind you. We also have one of the best goalkeepers in the tournament, so I think that also helps us to stay calm under pressure,” McCann, who converted her stroke, explained.
After making three good saves, Janssen was required to make what later proved to be the most important save of the match. She was facing the talented Emily Macquet. “A shootout is always stressful for everyone. It is stressful for me, the keeper, and I also know that it is stressful for the striker against me. But knowing that my team backs me is also great for my confidence and it helps me to back my training. I train hard for moments like this,” she shared.
Northerns will now carry their underdog tag into the final, where they hope to upstage Southern Gauteng A in a repeat of the Jukskei Derby from earlier in the week.
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