Awards Ceremony Honors Players of Tournament

 It’s a big day for everyone involved today as the Kanga Cup reaches its finals stages with matches at significant venues throughout the nation’s capital. The culmination of a week of matches will see some lucky teams heading home with the silverware but, what is sure, is that all of the competitors will have memories to last a lifetime. Last night the individual awards were handed out at the AIS with the following players taking ‘Player of the Tournament’ honours:

 Player of the Tournament

 Under-10 Boys: Max Blakers (Belwest Foxes)

Under-10 Girls: Ella-Rose Brown (Woden Valley Hammers)

Under-11 Boys: Ruby White (Majura Warriors)

Under-11 Girls: Maggie Gorham (Gungahlin Gunners)

Under-12 Boys: Lachlan Camm (Monaro Panthers)

Under-12 Girls: Ella Vardon (Majura Avengers)

Under-13 Boys: Nathan Atkinson (Northern Tasmania)

Under-13 Girls: Monica Bomze (Easts Sharpshooters)

Under-14 Boys: Jamie Shin (John Paul College)

Under-14 Girls: Sophie Bui (Brindabella Divas)

Under-15 Boys: Alexander Lazarov (Canberra FC)

Under-15/16 Girls: Tyler Rini-Ayers (Coastal Spirit)

Under-16 Boys: Stefan Curic (Woden Valley Rivals)

Under-18 Boys: Victor Anyimba (Mt Pritchard Mounties)

Under-18 Girls: Aleisha Tupper (Canberra FC)

Team Fair Play Awards

Under-10 Boys: Belnorth Strikers

Under-10 Girls: Belsouth Red Matildas

Under-11 Boys: Woden Valley

Warriors, Under-11 Girls: Three Kings United

Under-12 Boys: SinGok PS

Under-12 Girls: Northbridge Swifts

Under-13 Boys: Belsouth Hawks

Under-13 Girls: Belsouth Swans

Under-14 Boys: Oakhill College

Under-14 Girls: Colo Cougars

Under-15 Boys: NCV United

Under-15/16 Girls: Coastal Spirit

Under-16 Boys: John Paul College

Under-18 Boys: Majura FC

Under-18 Girls: Goulburn Strikers

Referees

JUNIOR: Haydn Holdsworth (NZ)

SENIOR: Daniel Olson (QLD)

NORM ARMSTRONG TROPHY: Kevin McMillan (NZ)

Olympic boy’s at their last Kanga Cup

By Madeline Bonfini

The Canberra Olympic under-18 male squad has been together for four years. This year is their third Kanga Cup together. Defensive Midfielder Thomas Tadic was given the opportunity to put together his own team in 2009 for the Serbian White Eagles club in Canberra. Of course, He invited all of his friends to join the team and they have stayed together ever since.

Unfortunately, the team had to switch clubs in 2010 in order to play in the under-16 Premier League competition, due to the White Eagles club not being eligible to enter a Premier League team. Luckily enough their coach Fitsum Habtemarium did some investigating and found an opening for their age group at Canberra Olympic, where they have stayed ever since.

“The boys really enjoy playing together, so it was important that we could find a club that would allow us to continue on together as a team,” Habtemarium said. “I also wanted to find us a club that would allow me to continue on as the boys coach.”

The squad trains twice a week together and occasionally attends a spin class at a local gym to further increase their fitness. As Local Canberra boys they did not need to undertake and extra training or special preparation for the Kanga Cup as they are already accustomed to the climate and playing fields. The squad has some outstanding players who have had some fantastic opportunities to travel overseas and improve their skills with the ball. Striker Yusuf Kamara was given the opportunity to travel to England to train and trial with a number of clubs last year as a result of being awarded best player at Canberra Olympic. Left Midfielder Steven Tadic also had an opportunity to travel overseas to Serbia to participate in a one week training camp called Partizan.

This year is the last year that the team will be able to participate in the Kanga Cup together and they have certainly made the most of it, attending Kanga Cup events such as the disco and the match between Newcastle Jets and Canberra Rockets. “We have always had fun playing in the Kanga Cup together, it has been a competition we have looked forward to as a team each year,” Defensive midfielder Thomas Tadic commented. A trophy would be a great way in which to depart.

Darwin Olympic in tune for first Kanga Cup appearance

By Russ Gibbs

Teams come from far and wide to participate in the Kanga Cup but few would have had to travel as far domestically as Darwin Olympic from the Northern Territory. Junior focused, Darwin Olympic Sporting Club is all about developing young players and has known about the Kanga Cup for some time without having the means to make the competition. But the foresight of three players has helped to make their dream come true.

“We’ve has always known about the tournament, but only established a junior club six years ago,” Team Manager Litsa Kougioumzoglou said. “ Three of the boys in the team wanted to make the Kanga Cup dream come true so, leading up to Christmas 2011 and under parental supervision, Andoni, Paraskos and Charlie went door to door singing Christmas carols with one playing guitar while the other two sung. Thanks to the three boys raising over $1000 the team was able to be registered.” 

Whilst the carol singing helped towards raising the requisite funds it was but one step towards the final total.

“We set a goal of $18,000 and we raised $20,000 proving what an effort fundraising can be,” Kougioumzoglou said. “We held a number of events in the community including a DISCO DAY, an over 40’s soccer Exhibition Match between the Darwin Olympic Legends  versus Ellas Veterans Soccer Club, we had a number of soccer canteens, some raffles and generous donations from a number of sponsors in the community. We would like to thank Darwin Olympic Sporting Club for giving the kids the opportunity, our team sponsor ‘Diamond Property Group’, the Darwin Life Magazine, the Greek Orthodox Community NT, Ellas Veterans Soccer Club, Fannie Bay IGA, General Excavators, Holiday Inn, JN Mousellis,  HB Concrete,  Energy Electrical and all the people who helped with the fundraising events.”

When asked whether the team was excited about the competition Kougioumzoglou had no hesitation in responding.

“Absolutely! Under the guidance of Coach George Kougioumzoglou and Billy Mavros, the team is bound to do well, and while some of the boys haven’t experienced a southern winter before, competing in those conditions in a tournament of this calibre will be an experience they won’t forget!”

The team travelling to Canberra is the Darwin Olympic under-12 Team, which mainly consists of boys turning 10 & 11 playing up a division in the Darwin League.  The Team is currently on top of the ladder, 10 games undefeated with over 100 goals so should be a good chance to lift some silverware in the boy’s under-11 Cup.  

Belsouth come out on top in local derby

By Tim Foran

Rangers versus Celtic. Barcelona versus Real Madrid. Manchester United versus Manchester City. These are some of the derbies that spring to mind when you think of footballing rivalries. But today the derby that was on everyone’s lips was the local derby between under-10s Belsouth Spitfires and Belnorth United which the Spitfires won 4-2.

Lucky the derby is more of a friendly atmosphere with the parents and kids both knowing each other and creating more of a friendly atmosphere than most derbies as one supporter described. “There’s really no fierce rivalry. I mean both sets of parent stand on the sidelines and just talk and the some of the kids know each other. It’s really friendly” one onlooker said. Despite both teams being not able to reach the finals, they still played a great game with players on both teams putting in eye catching performances.

Two players that everyone was watching were Yaya and Nabil Djomni-Ousinane. With Yaya playing the role of the fast striker with a bag full of tricks at the tips of his toes and Nabil being the defender covering the space behind, it’s a shame that we won’t get to see the Spitfires playing in the finals. However Dad was certainly very proud when asked about his two boys. “Yeah thanks. Yeah they’re pretty good players. Just need a bit of push you know.”

Despite not making the finals the boys were happy to just play football with their friends and have a good time doing it. ”We just wanted to go as far as we could and if the kids are playing football and enjoying themselves then that’s all we want. I haven’t heard any complaints yet so they must be enjoying themselves.”

Queanbeyan keeper shines in narrow loss

By Tim Foran

In an extremely tight game, Queanbeyan FC lost to Majura Glory in the dying stages of the game. With both teams not being able to reach the finals a friendly game was arranged. However despite being a friendly, the excitement and tension during the game was incredible with both teams unable to gain an edge over the other until just before full time when a goal mouth scramble ended in the ball just trickling in.

But the score could have been a different story had it not been for the heroics of Queanbeyan goalkeeper Adam Baker. Pulling off save after save he single handily kept his team in the game as they desperately tried to stave off the advances of Majura who poured in shot after shot with each one either being saved by Baker or deflected by a defender with each save or deflection drawing gasps and cheers from the crowd.

This year’s tournament wasn’t as successful as Queanbeyan had hoped having lost all their games in the pool. However manager Sam Risteska was happy as long as her team was happy. Yeah we’ve lost all our games this year. But as long as the kids are happy everyone’s happy. I think the kids were a bit excited when they thought they would have a day off but I think they love playing just as much. It’s good that we were able to arrange this friendly match. Give the kids a bit more game time and a bit of fun”.

However if losing all your games produces games like this one and also showcases amazing skill such as Adam Bakers goalkeeping exploits than bring it on. A bit unluckily for Queanbeyan FC and hopefully they have better luck next year.