 Saint Kentigern College and Three Kings United club striker Hannah Blake is heading to Jordan for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup off the back of a successful Lotto NRFL Women’s Premier League campaign.
The 16-year old was part of a front three that included Football Fern Paige Satchell and U-20’s striker Martine Puketapu, all of whom contributed to Three Kings’ unbeaten season that saw the team score an impressive 109 goals. Blake says playing alongside the likes of Satchell and Puketapu will prove valuable when she steps foot onto the field in Jordan. “I really enjoyed playing with Paige and Marty as a front three,” says Blake “I felt our playing styles complemented each other well. We had different strengths which allowed us to work so well together and we have all enjoyed elements of success with Marty winning the Golden Boot and Paige travelling to Rio for the Olympics.” “It was great to be able to learn off players who have experienced football at a World Cup level and I am sure it will be valuable come time for Jordan,” she adds. In 18 league matches, Blake found the back of the net 24 times including a six-goal haul in their 16-1 win over Hamilton Wanderers. The figure put her second equal on the Golden Boot ladder only three goals behind team mate Puketapu and Blake believes the successful season gives her a boost of confidence. “From a personal perspective it was great to finish the season with 24 goals but I felt it was the consistency throughout the whole season that gives me the most confidence.” “Being able to add to my tally against top sides in the competition was rewarding and it’s a good feeling heading into a World Cup after a successful season goal scoring wise.” New Zealand U-17 Coach Gareth Turnbull is equally as pleased with the youngster’s form for Three Kings. “Hannah has had a great club season and has continued her goal scoring exploits from last summer’s National Women’s League.” “It’s the positive performances with both goals and assists throughout the club season that has put her in a good place to compete for a starting spot at the World Cup in a few weeks’ time.” “When Hannah is playing with full confidence, we are a better team for it,” Turnbull adds. The successful year has not come by luck for the St Kent’s student, with obvious hard work and influential mentors helping her along the way. “From a young age I was heavily involved with Coerver Coaching with Phil Parker and that helped me develop a platform to start making improvements in my game,” says Blake. “More recently, Daniel Cope has invested a lot of time into helping me develop and over the last two years Alan Hindson has been a big influence on me. He saw my potential and put his confidence in me to play for Three Kings’ Premier Women’s side at 14 years-old and he has continued my development since then through school and club football.” As a result, she is now able to test her skills against the world’s best with three matches against the host nation Jordan, Spain and Mexico, and Blake believes there could be more. “You never want to get too far ahead of yourself, but we feel we have a squad with the ability to surprise a few teams.” “It’s obviously difficult to get a gauge of the strength of the teams we will be facing but we believe we have the ability to get out of the group stage and potentially further.” Hannah’s St Kent’s First XI recently finished third behind winners Mount Albert Grammar School at the NZSS Girls Nationals in Nelson. St Kent’s lost 0-4 to MAGS in their semi-final and beat Hamilton Girls’ High School 4-1 in the playoff for 3rd and 4th.  New Zealand Women’s U17 football captain Michaela Foster is proudly continuing the family name as she prepares to lead her side out at the FIFA U17 World Cup in Jordan this month.
The left back is the daughter of All Blacks assistant coach Ian Foster which could be the reason she conducts herself around a footy pitch so well. The talented Hamilton Girls’ High School player will look to create her own piece of history come September 30 as her side will look to first get past football giants Mexico and record only the second win for an NZ U17 Women’s side competing at a FIFA World Cup. Foster said her team’s preparation could not have been better leading up to the tournament. The New Zealand side is fresh from a tour of China where they played world-class teams Japan, Canada and China and that experience has given them the standard they need to perform at to progress in the tournament. “Our tour to China really helped our preparation,” said Foster. “We were able to experience some high quality football, and it was needed. We were able to realise some our weaknesses we need to work on, which will be very helpful going into the World Cup.” Foster said the team’s main aim for the FIFA U17 World Cup in Jordan was to progress from their group and make history as the first New Zealand team to do so. “We’ve been treating all of our warm-up matches as if we were playing at the World Cup, so it’s important for us to get in that mind-set, so we know how to prepare when the tournament starts.” Foster loves the challenge of leading her team and she knows that if they are going to progress they have to deliver a team effort in all three of their matches. “It’s not just me helping the girls, we have a really good leadership team within the group so it takes a bit of pressure off me and makes my job easier. It’s important for me to know each girls role in the squad so I can help with team morale, which will give me a better understanding of our strengths and weaknesses.” Head coach Gareth Turnbull said Foster is the perfect fit for the job. He believed her composure and poise will allow her to showcase her leadership skills on a global stage. “She’s an incredibly intelligent player and with that she can see and read the game quite clearly,” said Turnbull. “There is a real presence around Michaela, extremely well respected from the playing group and the staff. She has that real aura and mana about her and she is able to get the most out of the players, which is something that’s rare. It’s difficult to showcase those leadership skills at this age but out of anyone in the group she stood out the most.” FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2016 When: September 30 – October 21 Where: Jordan The Groups: Group A: Jordan, Spain, Mexico, New Zealand Group B: Venezuela, Germany, Cameroon, Canada Group C: Nigeria, Brazil, England, Korea DPR Group D: USA, Paraguay, Ghana, Japan The New Zealand team is: Goal Keepers: Anna Leat, Nadia Olla, Ashleigh Emery Defenders: Claudia Bunge, Ally Toailoa, Michaela Foster (Captain), Rebecca Lake, Amber Phillips, Francesca Grange Midfielders: Grace Jale, Alosi Bloomfield, Nicole Mettam, Malia Steinmetz, Sarah Krystman, Maggie Jenkins, Rose Morton Forwards: Hannah Blake, Jacqui Hand, Samantha Tawharu, Emma Main, Saskia Vosper
16/9/2016
Eye On The Ball – Henry Evans Last year Henry Evans was playing grade rugby at Sacred Heart College when he dislocated his knee. In 2015 he missed over six months of sport and early this year it hurt to kick a ball.
The prospects of playing rugby in 2016 were bleak, but football became a lifeline when Evans was invited to play for the 2nd XI. “The school was short of goal keepers so they encouraged me to play for the seconds. I had played football previously. After a couple of games in the seconds they called me up to the firsts which was a thrill,” Evans reflects. Last week in Tauranga, Evans kept five clean sheets and saved a penalty in a shootout to help Sacred Heart claim their third National title in the past six years. “It’s been a fantastic season. The combination of great coaching by Danny Hay, talent and hard work has all played a role in this success. I think the other thing that helps is the Sacred Heart brotherhood. It’s very hard to explain to outsiders what this is, but we are a very tight group and the brotherhood is palpable,” Evans acclaims. Sacred Heart changed their formation and required some good fortune to prevail. “We played more defensively than what we had previously. We figured we had real strength on defence and wanted to catch teams on the break. It worked well until the semi-final which we were pretty lucky to win. Westlake hit the post a couple of times and we battled through,” Evans explains. In the final Sacred Heart fell behind almost resigning themselves to the prospects of penalties. “There isn’t a lot between St. Kent’s and us so when they got ahead first we knew it would be hard to win in regulation time. We didn’t want to panic and break shape,” Evans says. Evans had never been involved with a penalty shootout. His opposite was New Zealand U17 keeper Reuben Clark. “I was confident our five shooters would score, but obviously they had to miss or I had to save one for us to win. I managed to stop the first short. Dylan Morris shot low-left and I anticipated the right direction and managed to block it,” Evans recalls. What goes through a keeper’s mind during a penalty shootout? “I try to watch for little things like the angle of the hips and the foot which helps provide a clue as to where the ball might be going. I don’t premeditate any of my movements because that means you’re not really concentrating on the ball,” Evans reveals. Sacred Heart won the Auckland league for a third year in a row. They kept seven clean sheets in 14 games. In 2017 Evans is thinking about returning to school with the desire of proving himself worthy of a college scholarship in the US. Sacred Heart – National Results Group: New Plymouth BHS, 3-0 Group: Mount Albert Grammar School, 4-0 Group: Lincoln High School, 1-0 Quarter-Final: Napier BHS, 2-0 Semi-Final: Westlake BHS, 1-0 Final: St. Kentigern College, 1-1 (Won on Penalties, 5-4) Looking for $40000 University of Waikato Study Scholarships CLICK HERE Looking for Sport Exchange Opportunities to Australia CLICK HERE
7/9/2016
NZ Football names U17 Squad New Zealand Women’s U-17 coach Gareth Turnbull has named an exciting squad to compete in the FIFA Women’s U-17 World Cup in Jordan this month.
The New Zealand side, who won the OFC qualifiers earlier this year in the Cook Islands without conceding a goal, will come up against Mexico, Spain and hosts Jordan in their three pool games in the tournament which runs from September 30 – October 21. Turnbull is looking forward to seeing what his team is capable of at a FIFA World Cup against quality opposition. “We are really excited to be able to bring this group together as we look ahead to Jordan,” said Turnbull. “The majority of this squad have been together for almost two years and most were on the recent tour of China or in the Cook Islands for the qualifiers. We are excited to test ourselves against Mexico in two weeks’ time.” Turnbull has named three new players in his 21-strong squad. Ashleigh Emery (Western Springs) comes in as the third goal-keeper alongside forward Saskia Vosper (Forrest Hill Milford) and midfielder Rose Morton (Palmerston North Marist) for their first international call up. “Ash has been part of our mix for a while and has shown good potential,” said Turnbull. “Saskia has had a great season with Forrest Hill and we see a lot of athleticism and pace in her that will help her cover a couple of positions which will be handy for us as a tournament such as the World Cup. Rose’s sister [Sarah] is part of the 20s and Rose is a younger member and shown a lot of promise and potential every time she has come in. She has performed every time in our environment. So we are excited to give all three of them an opportunity.” Two players in Sarah Krystman (Claudelands Rovers) and Maggie Jenkins (Wellington United) who played in the OFC qualifiers come back into the fold after missing the recent tour to China. “Maggie is a next cycle 17s player so she has massive potential,” said Turnbull. “She was away with the Secondary Schools tour of Australia [at the time of the China tour]. “Sarah has taken the disappointment of that non-selection for China incredibly well and deserves her selection and no doubt will be pushing for a starting spot.” The Michaela Foster-captained team learned a huge amount on the tour of China where they lost the three fixtures to Canada, Japan and China in their first taste of football outside the Oceania region. “We needed that, we all learned a lot from that experience,” said Turnbull. “The team now has a real benchmark of what top football at this age group is. Partly what we found in China has dictated our selections for this World Cup. We have gone for a group that is a little more athletic and that can compete for three games in eight days. We look forward to retesting ourselves.” Turnbull said this World Cup is hugely important for the development of future Football Ferns with the FIFA World Cup in 2019 and the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in mind. “This is a big part of the longer term pathway,” he said. “Looking ahead to Tokyo in four years I am hopeful that there will be a decent representation of this group in that squad. Our main strengths lie in the attacking part of the field. We have some goal scorers and goal threats and we know that we need to score goals to win games. The Ferns is the end goal but we want to perform with distinction at this World Cup and we are going there to win games. There is no two ways about it.” New Zealand U-17 squad for the FIFA World Cup in Jordan: Goal Keepers Anna Leat (East Coast Bays) Nadia Olla (Norwest) Ashleigh Emery (Western Springs) Defenders Claudia Bunge (Glenfield Rovers) Ally Toailoa (Papatoetoe AFC) Michaela Foster (Capt) (Claudelands Rovers) Rebecca Lake (Coastal Spirit) Amber Phillips (Palmerston North Marist) Francesca Grange (Wellington United) Midfielders Grace Jale (Eastern Suburbs) Alosi Bloomfield (Three Kings) Nicole Mettam (Eastern Suburbs) Malia Steinmetz (Forrest Hill Milford) Sarah Krystman (Claudelands Rovers) Maggie Jenkins (Wellington United) Rose Morton (Palmerston North Marist) Forwards Hannah Blake (Three Kings) Jacqui Hand (Eastern Suburbs) Samantha Tawharu (Forrest Hill Milford) Emma Main (Upper Hutt) Saskia Vosper (Forrest Hill Milford) FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2016 Fact Box When: September 30 – October 21 Where: Jordan The Groups: Group A: Jordan, Spain, Mexico, New Zealand Group B: Venezuela, Germany, Cameroon, Canada Group C: Nigeria, Brazil, England, Korea DPR Group D: USA, Paraguay, Ghana, Japan Looking for USA Scholarships? Check out USA CONNECT CLICK HERE Looking for $40000 University of Waikato Study Scholarships CLICK HERE Looking for Sport Exchange Opportunities to Australia CLICK HERE |
CategoriesArchives
March 2023
|
RSS Feed
OrganisationCollege Sport Media is dedicated to telling the story of successful young sportspeople in New Zealand
|