ANZA Soccer closes its season with a thrilling finals day says Anita Neville.
The end of the 2017/18 ANZA Soccer season finally arrived on Saturday 21 April with an action-packed day of footy, food and fun. 900 plus kids in 10 age group categories played for silverware and pride in a variety of Cup and Plate finals to wrap up the season.
For our U4-5 age group, the focus is on fun and learning basic ball handling skills – as displayed by the “little-ies” in their end of season games.
The U6s saw their numbers significantly increase over the year which bodes well for U7s teams next season. We were especially pleased to welcome more girls into this age group which should allow us to establish a Matildas team next year. The U6s Lynx team were overall winners.
U7s Tigers took home the Cup in this year’s fiercely contested U7s competition. And in the last of our Junior competitions, the U8s competed for the 2017/18 Plate and Cup with the Sailors and Flyers respectively taking home trophies. Sailors also took home the Cup in the U9s competition.
For the first time a Matildas team won the U10s League and were voted the Foreman FairPlay Award Winners for their age group. ANZA’s Matildas are increasingly strong and the dedicated programme for supporting girls is delivering results in club and overseas competitions, such as their success in Bangkok earlier this year.
Gordons took out the U10s Cup with Sailors picking up this year’s Plate for the age group.
There was a good spread of winners across U11s with Saliors topping the League, Gordons winning the Plate and Vikings just pipping the Matildas in a penalty shoot out for the Cup. The latter was further proof that our girls teams are going from strength to strength.
The U12s Gunners team repeated their U11s League win, topping this year’s competition with a side virtually unchanged from last year. Sailors and Vikings picked up the Plate and Cup respectively to wrap up the U12s competition.
U14s League Winners the Flyers, joined the Sailors in the Plate and the Gunners as Cup winners as the spoils were divided across half the competition teams. The Gunners, who were fifth in the League, won a thrilling Cup final against the Warriors in a penalty shoot out.
Lastly, the U17s Flyers picked up the Cup to close out ANZA Soccer’s official 2017/18 season.
Apart from great football on the pitch, there was lots to keep parents, kids and siblings entertained too. From Allied Pickfords-sponsored popcorn and delicious gelato courtesy of Jamie’s Italian (that was so popular, they served 1,400 scoops that day!), to face-painting and balloon-making, there was lots going on pitch-side. A great addition this year was the Light Painting photobooth from Vivid Snaps – watch out for those great pictures on the ANZA Singapore Facebook page soon.
Thank you also to the team sponsors: Expat Dental, World Wide Technology, Asian Tigers Mobility, City Osteopathy & Physiotherapy, Ego and Jamie’s Italian.
Thank you to Australia’s Deputy High Commissioner to Singapore, Ms Kate Duff, and New Zealand’s Deputy High Commissioner to Singapore, Ms Laura Grey for attending and conducting some of the presentations.
Congratulations to all the teams, players, coaches and team coordinators on a successful 2017/18 season. Thanks too to our sponsors who help make ANZA Soccer possible. Look out for a full report in the June issue of ANZA Magazine and register now for the 2018/19 season.
