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Juniors |
2005 Sikh Games Junior Soccer Champions!
Report by Avin
Captain of the team.
This year the Singh Sabha Sports Club made the trip to Renmark. Little did the Singh Sabha under 17’s team know that this was going to be the tournament that they are going to take by storm.
This was to be the first win of an undefeated run through the tournament.
Before this game everyone was nervous for two reasons: one being that it was the first game of the tournament and the second being that we have never beaten Sydney since the finals of the Sydney games in 1999.Which they beat us in penalties at the end of a 1-1 hard fought game.
This game got off to a great start with all the boys playing to the best of their abilities. After a little while into the game Jag did a nice run through the strong built Sydney defence and went one on one with the keeper and put the game to 1-0 SSSC’s way. The game went into half time with the game being 1-0.
We came out in the second half with Jagjot still running wild up the front putting worried faces on the defence and Vicky setting up lots of plays that couldn’t be put into the back of the net. Soon while later Sydney’s defences were penetrated again by the terrier that goes by the name of Supreet. After a run along the touchline he was being challenged by a official from Sydney who ran on the ground trying to remove the ball from Supreets feet. Sup got around the challenger and put the game to 2-0. From then on the game was just getting pushed towards Sydneys goal with Sydney being put under a lot of pressure. The keeper made one good save and he dishes it out to the Sydney left wing. The left wing passed it off to Sydney’s Tall forward which he half volleyed into the back of the net. The SSSC players went straight to the ref stating that the play was offside and shouldn’t be allowed. The calls were turned down and the goal was allowed. The boys started to get worried thinking that Sydney might come back at them and eventually win the game. The team Captains Avin and Vicky viewed the situation and knew it needed to be calmed down. The vicious Jagjot was called into action. Soon after the kickoff Avin passed the ball to Vicky which he sent a long ball straight down the ground for Jagjot to use his speed. Jagjot weaved in and out of several players before putting the ball into the bottom left corner. The team went wild. They knew that the game was nearly over and they had one their first game of the tournament. Five minutes later the final whistle was blown and the game was over. As everyone was shaking hands all the players from each side were exchanging the same words “Good game and we’ll see you in the finals.”
Later that day after a nice break we were up to face Griffith. Griffith thought this game was going to be a push over for them because they gave Melbourne a run in the Griffith games.
As the game started it was a rough first half with only 2 goals going in from our end and 2 goals going in from the opponents. Everyone in our team was feeling sore from the first game and everybody was tired. We eventually picked our game up after 10 minutes into the second half and made the game finish 4-2.
The next day everyone was feeling fresh and went into battle with New Zealand. Nobody knew how this team was going to play because their previous results were varied in both games.
This game everyone wasn’t playing to their ability. It was like a Cat and a Fly. We toyed with them the whole game and when it was time to kill we walked away from the opportunity on many occasions. The game was only 1-0 at half time. The coach was very disappointed with us and reminded us that we are the team to knock off this tournament. A bit of strategic advice told to the team by the vice captain Vicky would lead to something that would expose the keeper from his line. In the second half all the boys came out firing on all cylinders at New Zealand. The ball was dished to Vicky about 20 metres out and he fired a curling shot perfectly in the top right hand corner it looked like something that David Beckham had produced. Later that game Dally Jandu was unleashed onto the scene for 10 minutes to see if his leg was going to pull up in his seniors game. As Dally came on to play centre midfield his younger brother Avin came from sweeper to play centre midfield so he could play along side his brother. These two caused trouble for New Zealand because one-two’s were being played everywhere with Dally and Vicky being the playmakers. A nicely placed ball put behind the defence unleashed Avin down the right hand side to cut in and put the ball underneath the diving keepers arm. The end of the game finished 4-0 against a hard fought New Zealand team, which we hope to see again in the games.
The next game we were paired up with the hosts of the games Riverland. They had the home advantage so we tried to put the game out of their reach at the start of the game. This game was one sided the whole game with Riverland hardly touching the ball once. They were being exposed in the defence regularly and the forwards weren’t getting the ball upfront because of a strong defence partnership with Avin and the young gun Harjeet who is the younger brother of Deepa Garcha. The team played the same from start to finish in this game and the consistency on the ball is what won this game for SSSC. The game finished up 8-0 with Riverland being on the wrong end of a whipping.
With SSSC having a guaranteed finals berth it was out of Sydney and Griffith to see who would oppose us. Both teams came up to our players asking for tips on either teams weakness. We all gave the same reply to majority of their players by saying “We don’t know just hurry up and get to finals to try take the cup from us.”
Sydney won the match with Griffith in a hard fought to the last minute game. Well done to the Griffith boys and we thank them for their sportsmanship throughout the tournament.
The day of the finals came. Everyone was nervous yet psyched up. Out of everyone I think Avin and Vicky were the most worried because they both had a lot to prove this game, to Sydney and themselves. We had lost to Sydney twice now in finals and we didn’t want it to become a tradition.
After lots of motivation talks by Avin, Vicky and the coach it was time to show Sydney the road back home. The first whistle went and it was time to play some soccer. Surprisingly SSSC took control from the first whistle. Sydney put up little resistance. It was about 5 minutes before Vicky fired home a shot to put the game 1-0. Another five minutes had passed and it was obvious that Sydney were getting worried so the orders were put out by the team captains to start dishing the ball to the three danger men up front: Vicky, Jagjot and Baldeep. Vicky slid another shot home to make it 2-0. Not long passed before the Sweeper Avin Jandu charged on a run from our 18 yard box down the left side of the ground towards the Sydney defence. He cut through from the left towards the centre and fired a shot off from basically the touchline that curled around a defender and the keeper. His celebration showed the Happiness he felt to score as he took his shirt off and ran and jumped on top of his older brother Dally who was standing on the sidelines cheering. The SSSC team was shocked. The team they versed in the first round was a whole lot better than the team they were facing at the moment. As one of our players was surging through the box he was brought down in a harsh challenge from behind. The discussion went on outside the box to see who would take the penalty. It was narrowed down to Vicky and Avin. Avin told Vicky to take it to seal off his hat-trick. Vicky strode up casually and stuck the ball to the middle right…it was saved by the keeper, the opposition thought they had been handed a life line just then Vicky came flying in with the half volley to put the game to 4-0.
It was obvious to everybody at that game that Melbourne had one hand on the Cup. All they need to do was repeat the performance and make sure they were heading back to Melbourne with the Silverware. During the halftime break, parents and friends were motivating the boys even more to win this game. Skatter Uncle (Shane and Ricky’s dad) came up to Avin with a wish. He asked Avin to score one more goal for him.
The game was kicked off and Melbourne were held back but this resistance was short lived as after 10 minutes the ball had passed the line again to make the game 5-0. It wasn’t long after that another ball had been pierced through the defence to make the game go up again 6-0. Five minutes from the end of the game SSSC had been given a corner. The corner curled in and it had been cleared by a the head of a defender, it fell to the boot that belonged to Avin who put the ball into the top right corner on a half volley from 12 yards out. The game had been sealed definitely as the score was 7-0. After the seventh goal Melbourne just toyed with Sydney and played the ball around between each other. The final Whistle went and SSSC u 18’s went wild. They knew they had beaten their biggest rival Sydney and taken the cup. It was nice to beat Sydney but it felt even better to thump them a good 7-0 in front of the Australian Sikh Community.
We would like to take the moment to thank these following people: Makhan Rai for coaching us. Dalvinder Garcha and Gurdip Ahluwalia for Assisting in the coaching, Ricky Gill for giving massages on the legs when needed and Ranz & the rest of the people who came to support our matches.
1998 Junior Side.
