Chelsea FC Teams Travel to
Bendigo for Tournament Weekend.
Fresh from the experience of the Autumn Cup held at Chelsea on
March 20, no less than Six teams made their way to Bendigo for the
wonderful tournament called Bendigo FC Boys & Girls, organised by the FV
and hosted in the wonderful regional centre of Greater Bendigo.
Frank Overberg and Kevin Russell, along with junior coaches
Sam and Will, took the little U9 team for their first travel experience, to
take on the best Victoria had to offer. These players hadn’t had any soccer
since they were U7 and hardly ever trained or played on a U9 pitch, so we did
not expect anything except an experience. The parents were wonderful giving
Frank and Kevin and Sam and Will, every support possible. The coaches had
literally had had only two or three training sessions with the boys, but these
four coaches can really be great mentors for any players.
They gathered the boys and had some influencing instructions
which saw the U9s play a number of games in one day on Saturday. The drew, lost
and won - and for a community club team taking on Academies and select squads
they did well. They were still in it on Saturday night and in the game to
decide the finalists (on Sunday) they fought extremely hard to win the crucial
match 1-0. They had made the finals of the cup! They had taken down some big
guns and found themselves in the Grand Final - against a high Flying Select
team from Williams Landing. Unfortunately, the tiredness had kicked in from a
long, sustained set of games and there was not much left in those little legs.
But the boys had done Chelsea proud – a small community team ranking second
from all the teams in the tournament to be runners up in the cup.
Congratulations to a young team that will only get better. It was a super
effort by everyone.
Our next team was Jon Jhoomun’s U10 mixed team. We just
wanted the kids to have a positive experience and maybe get close in some
games, as we had to scramble to make up numbers. There were even some U9s in
the team, as well as a mix of girls, joeys, wallabies and kangas. They had
trained together twice and honestly, we turned up to Bendigo with some
trepidation. But Jon has a great positivity about him and the players and
parents really love him as a coach. He gives his players confidence and - being
a teacher – is always trying to let them learn at their pace. They managed to
win a game on Saturday but lost the others – never being disgraced. They were
helped by some great goalkeeping exhibitions, and on Sunday found them selves
in the Bendigo Plate. They found themselves in the final of the plate against
the combined Sunraysia team. The final was tight and super goal keeping kept
them in it. Time and time again they defended until Chelsea shot and scored! We
were 1-0 up and had to now hold the opponents. They did a remarkable job and
time and time again, super goalkeeping efforts saw them sustain their advantage
and hold on and as a result earned their medals and a trophy for the club. Folks
could not believe how far the team had come and enjoyed the moment. What great
efforts from these boys and girls and what a great coach! The trophy sits
proudly in the Chelsea FC Trophy Cabinet!
Gerard McBurney brought his U12s to Bendigo, pretty much
under the same circumstances as all others - underprepared and not even having
coached team structure to this early point of the season. But here is another
coach who just has a great attitude and it comes across by the way his players
play. They played some outstanding games Saturday against tough opponents, but
won one and drew which gave them enough points to get to the semis of the
plate. Chelsea had a GREAT keeper who was absolutely magnificent in every game
– people from both sides applauded the saves he pulled off. So, on Sunday the
U12 team played, and the winner would get to play off in the final. The game
ended in a 2-2 draw so it was down to a penalty shoot-out. Chelsea won the
shoot out to get to the Plate Final – against the Sunraysia select team. We had
played them on the Saturday but today was a different day. The players from
Chelsea had improved every game and the kids had bonded tightly. In the final,
Chelsea was relentless and scored three fine first half goals. There was no way
that Chelsea FC was losing today and at the end of the game 100s and 100s of
people heard the Chelsea club song sung loudly across the Bendigo pitches – it
was a mass of players and parents supported by other Chelsea teams. Our
community club had picked up another trophy for the cabinet after being
beautifully led by Gerard.
The U14, the U15s and the U16s all won 2 games on Saturday
and had a draw. Spirits were high and expectations were level. The u16s had
done a great job. They only had 9 players and in the first game lost a key
defender so they had to play with only one Sub. To make matters worse, there
was no U16 competition and we had to play a year up in U17.The differences in
size were remarkable, and some of the teams seemed as if they had men playing –
but the 16s gave all they had. They were tired on Sunday and had to play the
Bendigo Select team - and after being 1-0 up we just gave way to tiredness to
lose 2-1. That put us in a tough situation to get into the finals where we had play
some of the best opponents – we played very well but went down 3-1. But let me
tell you readers – the style of play from the u16s and some of the beautiful
goals they scored were sights to behold. Even I found myself over-enthusiastic
seeing some of the goals scored against a big Physical Skye team on Saturday!
The U14s had a similar fate and earned a spot in the cup
finals. We had lost our keeper the day before to injury which was a severe
blow. We had to take a key field player to take the goalkeeping spot, which is
never easy. Chelsea, under the wonderful guidance of Juan Noguera, played
Williams Landing who were incredibly physical and taunted our players in a
desperate effort to win. It was disappointing to see a team play like that and
our players were not afforded protection by the young referee. We went down 2-1
to miss out on the final, but the boys and girls in the team played
beautifully.
Finally, the U15s had made the Grand Final of the cup –
similar to the achievements of the U9s. We also played Williams Landing who
came prepared to play harder Sunday after we had beaten them convincingly on
the Saturday. They scored two quick goals and defended stoutly. We pulled a
great goal back before the half to be down 2-1. The second half saw us pepper
the goals as the opponents never had a shot and committed everyone back to
protect the 5M x 2M goal. It was very difficult to get through but the boys
gave everything they had and were unlucky not to draw twice and then unlucky
not to get a penalty. But that is the game and this year a second place will
need to do, but I am sure the 14s, 15s, and 16s will be back to Bendigo in
2022.
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!
Finally, I would like to congratulate the FV team who
organised this event. The folks who ran this did a magnificent job. The FV
often comes under some scrutiny for their organisation – but this event was a
shining star for our State Body and for the City of Bendigo.
Go Chelsea!
