USA Freedom vs Papua New Guinea

Under lights at the GWS training facility in Blacktown a vocal crowd came to watch the Freedom ladies take on the free-flowing Papua New Guinea Flames. What they got for their chants, blaring vuvuzelas, and strange dog-like barks was a scrappy hard-fought contest punctuated by several exhilarating individual efforts.

PNG were wary of the scoring power of the USA. They had been easily beaten by Canada the previous day and immediately set up defensively to limit the space the Freedom forwards had to move. One, and sometimes two, loose players patrolled their defensive arc. Freedom defenders Drea Casillas and Becky Kraft spent a large part of the game opponent-less as part of a defensive wall across the middle to back half of the ground.
It was not clear whether the Flames were trying to play a zone style defence, and were not experienced enough to maintain structure, or they were trying a rolling maul approach to restrict ball movement but, whatever they were attempting resulted in large packs forming around the ball from which it was difficult to get clean possession. When the ball did come free it would be kicked downfield where another pack would quickly form.

Lindsay Kastanek did not get an easy run at the ball from full-forward. There were always several defenders around her and others between her and the kicker. Despite being outnumbered Kastanek outpointed her opponents several times, kicking one goal herself, tapping to Jess Estrada for another and shepherding through a kick quick from the midfield.

With plenty of bodies around the ball collisions were inevitable. Neither side shirked the issue with strong clashes occurring in the packs. Several of the Flames had to leave the ground, unfortunately one on a stretcher, as the bigger bodied Freedom attacked the ball. Not that the Flames were soft, a high tackle on Jen Cravens had her looking very wobbly as she set up for her successful shot on goal. Siobhan McHale was also caught high and come down hard on her neck. A further 25m penalty for diving across the mark allowed her to also convert.

Judith Stein was a good player in heavy traffic as was Jessie Hazen. Their ability to gather the ball and create space with hard running lifts the crowd.

The Flames went back to a more traditional structure after half-time and were able to string together several free-flowing passages that took them deep in to their forward zone. But the Freedom backline stood strong. Several strong marks to Casillas, Kraft and Lara Porter repelled advances and ferocious attacks on the ball from Karen Stablein and Eileen Geoghagen pushed the ball quickly up the ground.

A goal to the Flames in the third quarter was the first score allowed by the Freedom in this tournament. In the last 10 minutes of the game the Flames poured everything in to their attack constantly driving the ball in to their forward 50. In an interesting move, at about the same time, the Freedom coaches (Leigh Barnes, Milli Bruce, and Troy Anthony) decided to move Porter from her customary full-back position in to the middle to 'give her a run'. This also meant the reliable Stein was taken from the ground. As Porter watched from up the ground the ball ricocheted around the backline.

Several players brought the crowd to their feet.

Jen Cravens gathered a kick from the centre at half-forward, turned towards the boundary and sprinted across the 50 metre arc. Her kick from 45 metres on the run never looked like missing.

Courtney Church, according to the official guide is 157 cm tall. I don't know how tall that is in real language, but it isn't a lot over 5 feet, but she is brave and quick and plays the wing with aplomb. And under the spotlight at Blacktown on Thursday night she sat on a girl's shoulders and took a screamer the equal of anyone. Highlight of the night.

If someone wants to learn how to play as a small forward seek out a video of this match and watch Monica Rasocha's effort. Constant motion and effort.

In the end the Freedom proved too strong for the Flames and ran out winners 6.5 (41) to 1.0 (6).

USA
Goal Kickers: McHale, Kastanek, Estrada 2, Cravens 2
Best Players: Rasocha, Riehl, Casillas, Kraft, Geoghegan, Cravens

What you don't see in the official reports starts now.

It was explained to Bob that the title of a position often describes its function. A forward plays in the forward line, a back plays in the backline (unless you are Nikki Peoples) and thus a runner runs. Otherwise it would be called a stand-arounder. Bob, the designated runner was doing a good job of auditioning to be the team stand-arounder. Bob redeemed himself when he was politely asked, by several screaming coaches, that if he couldn't get Judith Stein off the ground by telling her he was to tackle, drag, or carry her off. Bob did catch her, grab her by the jumper and pulled her kicking and screaming from the ground.

Coach Barnes had one simple team rule. If a free kick was paid (to either side) we would pick up the ball and hand it to the opposition. Hallie Adrian Lee took this literally and after picking up the ball while standing on the mark walked several metres towards the Flame whose kick it was. It was forgotten to explain the ball should be thrown on the full to the opponent. Which explains why Karen Stablein executed a perfect lawn bowl attempt bouncing the ball back from 30 metres. How the umpire was the only person not to see this latter error is still a mystery.

Becky Kraft, not content with getting a shout out from Tom Harley, also got in to Marie Lavictorie's pants. She now knows she can go down at least one size.

In a walk around The Rocks several players came across a beautiful gazebo in a park overlooking the Harbour Bridge. Several benches nestled under spreading limbs and on one of those benches you could clearly see tears glistening in the fading light. The view was that exhilarating.

The girls caught the ferry to Manly, with Manly (in joke. Ask someone), for a recovery session in the surf. To give you an idea of how cold it was when you first got in, Mel Chen had his shorts sucked off as he was bodysurfing and a passerby pointed and said "That girl has no boobies".

A reporter for the Manly Daily wandered by and was suprised to see 30 crazy swimmers on the beach on a wet winter's day. The bright coloured swimsuits and some bright ink earned them a quick photoshoot and an article in the local news - http://manly-daily.whereilive.com.au/news/story/american-girls-play-by-aussie-rules/

The ferry crossing back from Manly was quite rough. Rollercoaster rough. Crewmen were swabbing the floors to remove the vomit from the previous crossing as several Freedom players sat down. Lizzy Even is a nervous sailor and was not enjoying the screams from other passengers as the ferry crashed over and through the big waves. It didn't help that Becky kept making comments, innocently, such as "I've heard that these boats can right themselves if they tip over," or "It wouldn't look good to their insurers if we all died."

Several members of the Great Britain Bulldogs were on the ferry and were seen re-enacting the scene from Titanic where Kate and Leo stand arms outstretched on the bow. I don't remember the bit where the bow bites in to the sea in that scene, but today it did.

Siobhan took Kai on another date, but this time Leigh demanded he also attend as a chaperone. The lovebirds, or should that be boy and his cougar, gave Leigh the slip and Kai was last seen buying Siobhan an ice-cream.

After a few drinks , Tom Harley relented. There was a Luke Quirk at his school but all had made a pact not to discuss him; an under-privileged child who often slept in the ceiling of the gymnasium. He thinks that boy may have died, but couldn't say for sure.