On the weekend of March 26 and 27, three Chelsea teams made
their way to Bendigo for the annual tournament called “Bendigo FC Boys &
Girls” organised by the FV and hosted in the wonderful regional centre of
Greater Bendigo. Each year this tournament draws the best academies from all
over Victoria, as well as regional teams, NPL teams and composite
representative teams. The standard of football is amazing as one would expect
when the very best teams attend.
It's a serious tournament where every team is HIGHLY
competitive. Win at all costs is the general mentality!
Paddy MacGuinness took our community U10 team for their second
visit to Bendigo and took on academies such as Rowville Institute and Williams
Landing. We played well and the team learned a lot – evidenced by their win in
the Chelsea Easter Cup a week later. Congratulations to a young team that will
only get better. It was a super effort by everyone.
From the Coach Paddy himself:
“The team started off very nervous and took a while to
warm up. But once they were going, they gave a great performance.
Day
1
First
match against Williams Landing – score was 0-4. The score didn’t reflect our
performance the standard of the teams was matched
Second
match against Real Football institute – the team were at a much higher level.
Ended up 6-1
Last
match against surf coast – was a tight game, ended up in a 2-2 draw. Chelsea
did score a third in the last minute, but it was disallowed as the ref said it
hit one of our players hands in the net….so the boys claimed this win lol, and
it closed the day nicely as they were all in high spirits
Day
2
First up
was Shepperton and the team were losing 2-3 at half time and the heads were
down, then a 4th came for Shepparton, but the boys fighting spirit
came out of the bag and they played their hearts out to come away with a 5-4
win. It was an amazing show of talent when put under pressure. This win got
them through to the plate final so they were hyped and ready to go.
The
final was against Sydenham and the boys again were very well matched but
unfortunately it wasn’t their day and the score ended up 0-2.
All in
all it was a great experience for the team, the standard was very high. The
team made some mistakes that they will learn from to help them in this season
and the weather was 30 degrees so tough for the teams to play in.
The
support and encouragement from the parents was second to none and the manners
and decorum and sportsmanship of our kids was something the club should be
proud of”
Two other teams attended – the U15s and U17s. Both teams had
much success. The u17s were able to make it through to the semi-finals losing
1-0 to the Sunraysia NPL team. It was the first time the boys in U17 had played
together and the weekend was more aligned to be a team bonding exercise which
was successfully achieved. In the division matches we were able to draw
Williams Landing 1-1 – and they went on to win the Cup. Great job by all the
young folks in the Chelsea Phoenix!
The U15s, led by Coach Juan and Assistant Coach Alan, made
the Grand Final of the plate and were able to bring home the silverware which
now sits proudly in our trophy cabinet at HD Thomas Reserve. Congratulations to
these guys – who also played for the first time as a team. From Coach Juan:
“The
boys played well.
We
went to penalty shootout in the semi final
Then
we played in the grand final in the plate.
We
won the Grand Final 2-0!”
Overall, it was a FANTASTIC experience and I want to say
what a great bunch of parents we have at Chelsea. They were supportive, never
argued with referee decisions, congratulated great play and I believe had a
great time.
And of course, the coaches – without them we could not have
achieved what was achieved during the Bendigo FC Boys and Girls weekend!
Next year, 2023, we hope to take more teams such as our U8,
U9, U10, U11 teams, as well as our next year’s
U15 girls.
Go Chelsea!
Robert Giabardo
Chelsea FC Head of Football