WPL Minor Semi-Final - Sunday 7 September 2008

Heidelberg United knocked out Ashburton in controversial style at John Cain Memorial Park today. Ashburton had the match all but won, but the referee allowed 5 minutes of injury time, despite the lack of stoppages,  giving United just enough time to force a tie at the end of normal time. Extra time saw United score from a dubious penalty and seal Ashburton's fate for another year.
The first 15 minutes of the game saw both sides playing very tentative football. Jamara Mazza was playing well and created opportunities for Heidelberg’s Groenewald and Thornton, however Rosie Bureta was marking the dangerous Pannella like a glove. Cindy Dussoye got better as the game progressed and started to distribute the ball to the Ashburton forwards. The crowd got excited at the 30 minute mark when Thornton hit the crossbar and the ball ricocheted back into play allowing Groenewald another shot at goal, which was well saved by Ashburton keeper Antoinette Michail. Until this point Heidelberg probably held the edge in possession and number of shots at goal but the balance started to shift to Ashburton aided by some great running by Gulcan Koca and precise passing by Sarah Walsh. Heidelberg started to get physical and Groenewald was shown a slice of cheese by the referee after some pushing in the 6 yard box. Towards the end of the half Ashburton had several scoring opportunities through Kelly Sandefur and Gulcan Koca but these were not realised.

The second half saw Heidelberg’s Pannella get back into the game and from this point on she looked extremely dangerous up forward. Meghan Archer was playing well in a sweeper role for United, but Christine Pfeiffer continued to break the ranks for Ashburton. At the 60 minute mark a through ball saw the Heidelberg keeper come off her line and leave the goal exposed but the Pfeiffer shot was cleared by a Heidelberg defender in a very lucky escape. Not long afterward Sarah Walsh gained possession in the centre and passed out wide on the right to Pfeiffer who ran into goal, ended up one out with the keeper, and duly scored. The goal stirred the Heidelberg team and they attacked relentlessly, despite the strong resistance from the Ashburton defence lead by Kelly Eaton and Linette Lavadure. When the referee signalled that there would be 5 minutes of extra time the crowd was absolutely perplexed as there had been no time wasted through injuries. As it panned out, with one minute remaining Heleena Alatsas managed to score for Heidelberg after a defensive blunder in goal and this score saw the game progress to extra time.
The first fifteen minutes of extra time saw no score and the second looked like the game was heading for a penalty shootout until the referee awarded an extremely controversial penalty against the Ashburton goalie for a charge on Sarah Groenewald. Groenewald made no mistake, and the fate of Ashburton was sealed for another year.

 Photos of the game are here.