Soccer success for local lads | Taranaki Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Taranaki

IT'S BEEN a bumper school holiday season for local soccer, with the Taranaki representative 13th Grade Soccer Team scooping top spot in a recent Representative Soccer Tournament held between Central and Capital Soccer Federations in Wellington.

The tournament started on Saturday, October 4 in Petone, Wellington, and saw two pools of five teams each from around the lower North Island vying for the championship title.

Initially beating Horowhenua 3-2, the Taranaki boys followed up their early success with a 6-0 trouncing of Gisborne. However, a tough match against Hutt Valley broke the winning start of the Taranaki team and saw them defeated 3-0.

Despite the disappointment of the previous day, the boys came back fighting, beating Wellington 3-0, followed by Manawatu 3-1 in the semi-final.

With their place secured at the final, Taranaki found themselves up against the same Hutt Valley team that had previously beaten them.

With wind gusts of up to 130km and horizontal, driving rain, the toughness of the opposition was only exacerbated by the extreme Wellington conditions.

However, after a hard-fought match, Taranaki finally came out on top with a 1-0 win through a penalty scored by Sam Brailsford.

Joint coaches, Glenn Hooper and Stratford-based Steve Brailsford were very pleased with the outcome, especially given that Taranaki hadn't won a junior representative competition in over a decade.

"The team travelled well and gelled really well with each other," said Steve, "it was a great blend of skilful players that performed with pace and structure."

Having been beaten by Hutt Valley previously, it might have been an unnerving challenge for the Taranaki team to take them on again. However, Steve believed the prior experience was something of an advantage in the final face-off.

"Because we'd played them before, we had a plan to beat them. We played our ball in the wings because we knew that was one of their weak areas."

"Also, because they'd beaten us before, they may have thought it would be another easy win."

Playing against the wild wind in the first half certainly added to the challenge for the Taranaki team. However, it did mean the game entirely turned around in the second half, giving Taranaki a stronger, more confident edge.

Stratford, as well as being represented in the coaching, was well represented in the post-tournament awards: Sam Brailsford picking up the Golden Boot Award for scoring the most goals for Taranaki, Tom Ferguson (Joint) for Most Valuable Player and Connor Hobbs for Most Promising Player.

Steve, who has been coaching Stratford teams for the past three years, has enjoyed watching the rep team develop as they've prepared for the competition.

"Initially, over 40 boys were vying for a position in the squad. Glenn and I had it down to the last 16 about six weeks ago. We went to Wanganui, Palmerston North and Auckland for some training matches playing an elite team from Auckland who were runners-up in New Caledonia. We won 2-0."

"It's fair to say that the boys got better as the rep tournament went on. It would be magical to win the title again, and we're looking forward to defending it next year."

With the representative tournament behind them, some players in the team are now working towards trials for the NZ Federation Tournament in Easter of 2009, representing Central Soccer. Steve is confident that the boys selected will continue to do well now that they have had a taste of real success.