Grand Final 2007 Match Report

Narrabundistas,

The Grand Final: NFC 2 (R. French, H.Ormeno) beat WVFC 1

"Team Photo" (click image to enlarge)

Canberra awoke to a beautiful spring morning on Saturday 22nd of September 2007, the day that Narrabundah FC's fourth division warriors made history. Dani Park's charges had won EVERY game since the 11th of August - that's 6 straight wins leading into the Grand Final - taking out the Minor Premiership (League Champions) along the way. Their statistics were impressive:

Played: 6 - Won: 6 - Goals For: 18 - Goals Against: 4 - Points: 18

O'Connor enclosed field number 1 was in reasonable condition and the playing surface was fairly flat and even. Going back to the year 2005, Narrabundah's fourth division side had lost their Grand Final on penalties to a star-studded Canberra Olympic side on this very field and the 2007 version of the team was keen to make amends in front of the large crowd that had turned up to cheer the reds on to victory.

Dani was able to choose from a full squad with just a couple of players carrying niggling injuries picked up during the hectic run-home, which included 3 games in one week. The first half was a fairly tight affair with both sides having their share of possession and both Serafin and his opposite number from Woden Valley made a couple of good saves with Seri a little less busy than the guy at the other end. The NFC defence of Pep Ruiz, Mase and Chey was doing a good job restricting the opposition attack to long-range shots and smothering out the few occasions when Woden got into our third. Serge, Laz and Micael battled to contain a very talented Woden Valley midfield while still supplying our frontline of Daniel Park and Ryan French with good chances to open the scoring. Carlos and Alistair were up and down the flanks in both defence and attack helping out the defence and midfield. Ryan and Herbie, when he came on, had further opportunities to open the scoring but the scores were still 0-0 at the break. Coach Dani gave the lads a 'calm but firm' half-time talk and asked them to continue on when they left off in the first half - playing the way we have all year.

Unfortunately, while the NFC defence was re-organising after a substitution at the back, Woden capitalised on the confusion and their striker received a through-ball in the box and finished calmly to put Woden Valley 1-0 up……but NFC did not panic. It was almost as though they knew that they were still bound for victory. The NFC 'engine room' of Serge, Laz and Micael tackled themselves to a standstill as the Woden midfield mistakenly felt they were closing in on victory. Once we had weathered the storm of attacks following the WVFC goal, it was our turn to start going forward. And on our first real attack after going a goal down, Ryan finished off with a thumping shot after good work from Lazar. The NFC supporters went wild and the players knew that the game was theirs for the taking. Woden was now really starting to have trouble keeping possession for more than a pass or two due to the reds players hassling them with persistence. With 7 minutes to go, Serafin gathered a harmless Woden Valley cross and sent a mammoth kick downfield towards Herbie. The ball bounced over both the Woden defenders 'guarding' the NFC striker and it sat up wonderfully for 'Beto' to volley home the winner !!!!!!…..he raced over to celebrate with the NFC bench and supporters and we knew we were in for a big celebration later that night. The reds held out for the final few minutes before the referee blew fulltime and then collapsed in jubilation.

The team was hosted by Legends Spanish Restaurant for the celebratory dinner and they then continued on to some of South Canberra's more famous watering holes for a drink or two…..the 'Trucks and Cars' song was heard many times throughout the evening and a few Division 1 and Division 6 lads came along to help with the vocals.

NFC Presidents Message

"It has been a long season with many ups and downs along the way. I would like to thank all the Coaches and Managers for their dedication to training and match days. To all the players of NFC I would like thank each and everyone for the passion and courage shown on the field this season. To our Division 4 Minor Premiers and Grand Final Winners I would like to thankyou for the RESPECT you showed to the opposition and the referees on Saturday. The Committee and I are very proud of your efforts on the weekend and more importantly we were very proud of the support from the Division 1 & Division 6 players and coaches. It was great to see that it was not only 15 players out there winning the Grand Final it was a CLUB that won on Saturday. Everybody associated with NFC should have been awarded a winners medal because each and every one of you whether player, coach, manager, committee member or supporter played a part in getting the Division 4 title.

I look forward to seeing everybody at the Presentation Night and at the Hispanidad Cup.

Cheers

El Pres."