Brooklyn (1); University (1)
 
Brooklyn girls arrived at Wakefield Park on Easter Sunday with keenness and fervour.   What more could make you happy, a beautiful blue sky day, a game of soccer and a holiday the next day. 

Once the girls were kitted up, warmed up, and knew our positions, we were given the “grand walk on the pitch” drill by Bronwyn.  The young University girls looked less than impressed that they were expected to shake the opposition’s hand who they were supposed to hate just before a game.  But nevertheless, they reluctantly gave us each a hand whack. 

Once the whistle blew, it was all on.  It became apparent very short in the piece that we had enlisted Ruby for a very good reason.  She would have made an excellent advertisement for ever-ready high powered batteries.  But the whole team looked dangerous and had the ball in our half for the majority of the game.  There was some good accurate passes to feet coming up from our defence, to midfield, and then on to our attackers and we had some promising attack with a few good opportunities to score.  But by half time, the score was nil all.

The University team must have had a very effective half time team talk with some clever strategising.  That alongside some very fit players who managed to come back with a vengeance giving us all a run for our money.  We all continued to battle it out and our defence were now working over time.  We were wearing a little thin under the pressure and eventually University scored, turning the score to one nil. 

Brooklyn now needed to step up to the mark.  Tash was brought in at an opportune moment as our second striker.  Her calm on the ball and perfect positioning allowed her to back up Cat’s shot on goal and slot in an equaliser just before the goalie could save it.
 
That was just what we needed and morale was boosted.  We had a couple more close near goals that could have seen Brooklyn bring home a win for our first game.  But the University team fought hard and tirelessly to ensure that would not be the case. 

Brooklyn should be proud of its valiant effort to come away with a one all game against a strong side.  We look forward to working on some more dangerous football at training.

Rose Artemiev