Unfortunate result for Wai Utd U19

A tough weekend for the Wairarapa Utd U19 team at the annual National Championships held at Napier. Despite winning three of their five games and finishing the Group D division in second equal place with Bay Olympic, United missed out on progressing through to the quarter finals to the Auckland-based team on goal difference.

On paper it looked like a fair result. Bay Olympic finished the round robin with a goal difference of six while United finished with minus one. However I don’t think there’s any doubt that Olympic benefited by meeting eventual tournament winners, Fencibles United, in their final pool game. At that stage Fencibles had an unassailable lead and would have probably rested their top players in preparation for their quarter final game later that afternoon. Bay Olympic were able to take advantage to beat the top team one-nil and therefore snatch three points to match Wairarapa on the points table. If Wairarapa had drawn Fencibles in their last game, would they too have been able to win or draw to guarantee second spot?

As it turned out, Olympic met Ellerslie in the quarter final and that game finished nil-nil although Ellerslie went on to win six-five on penalties. Wairarapa had beaten Bay Olympic in the first round so would they have been able to bet the Auckland side if they had progressed? I think they were capable of it and it was a little sad that their fate was sealed by a draw that wasn’t in their favour.

That all said, I think there were two other slightly disappointing factors that led to the team’s early retreat to the showers. They likely walked off the field reasonably happy with a draw with North Wellington in their first game of the tournament, but it was a game they really should have won. Secondly the team is usually very strong defensively but they did leak eight goals - two against bottom of the table Port Hill, two against mid-table Taradale and four against Fencibles. That statistic counted in the end as Bay Olympic who progressed with the better goal difference, had only conceded two goals throughout the pool games.

On a positive note, big congratulations to Violet Fisher who picked up the golden boot for her seven goals. And, I’m also sure the girls played their hearts out and would have been gutted to miss out on a quarter final spot - I had been regularly watching the results and was sure that they would be meeting Ellerslie on Sunday evening.

Wairarapa United playing against NP rangers in the recent Harbour Cup

My final thoughts: At the end of the day Wairarapa were probably the second-best team in Group D but they were undone by a draw that wasn’t in their favour. I certainly don’t blame any team resting top players when they are in the position Fencibles found themselves - it was just unfortunate that Bay Olympic met them in that game. I suspect that United were probably good enough to beat Ellersie in the quarter final but it’s hard to judge what would have happened after that as West Coast Rangers in the semi final and then Fencibles in the final, won after penalty shootouts.