Guess What? Canterbury Pride Are NWL Champs Yet Again
When it comes to Grand Finals, they don’t get much more poised than this one was. The National Women’s League decider for 2019, Canterbury Pride hosting Northern Lights. The Pride had topped the regular season ladder after twelve games, scoring more goals than anyone else and conceding the equal fewest, and rocking a damn near perfect record having won ten out of those 12 games. The only team they didn’t beat? The Northern Lights. Who topped the Cantabs 3-1 on their own turf back in October and held them to a 0-0 draw up in Auckland a few weeks ago. Northern were actually undefeated this year... just a few too many draws keeping them down in second place – specifically a pair of draws with Auckland in the double header round over Labour Weekend doing the damage there.
And of course this was a rematch of last season’s Grand Final too, which Canterbury won 3-2 in extra time to claim their fourth title in the last six years – these two also meeting in the prizefights of 2013 (Canterbury winning) and 2015 (Northern winning). Clearly they were the best two teams across the entire season. Northern have really come on strong the last couple seasons with an exciting young team full of age-grade internationals while the Pride have been chilling at this elite level for ages now. They were seeking here to extend an extraordinary dynasty as they rolled up to their seventh consecutive Grand Final.
The thing with Grand Finals though is that the occasion is often a bit of a hurdle. Not so much from a mental perspective – most of these players have played big games before, hell there were nine of them who were in that U17s squad that played World Cup semi-final last year – but definitely tactically when two teams have had only conceded eight goals in a dozen games go head to head. With both teams also going with 3-5-2 formations it also meant three central defenders and three central midfielders so the middle of the park was absolutely crowded. Hence not a whole lot of chances in the early stages. Northern were a little more threatening when they were able to find some room in open play for the likes of Kelli Brown and Maggie Jenkins and Liz Savage to work in... but there wasn’t much of that space available while the Cantabs did their early prodding from set pieces.
Mostly the defences were just too good. The amount of crucial interventions, from tackles to interceptions to blocks, that Canterbury’s captain Rebecca Lake made was out of this world. And Chloe Jones and Annie Gilchrist weren’t far behind either. Meanwhile on the other side Claudia Bunge was leading the way having made her international debut for the Football Ferns a month ago, with Anneka Mittendorff and Mackenzie Barry alongside – both members of that U17 WC squad (along with Maggie Jenkins, Kelli Brown, and Arabella Maynard for Northern and Marisa van der Meer, Macey Fraser, Gabi Rennie, and Jayda Stewart for Canterbury). There were also a handful of players from the 2018 U20 World Cup squad too: Claudia Bunge, Maggie Jenkins, and Mittendorff for Northern and Una Foyle, Rebecca Lake and Rennie for Canterbury.
The closest either team came in the first half was probably Kelli Brown’s glancing header which she couldn’t quite get on target from a tricky angle. The bouncy artificial turf at English Park didn’t really help either as neither team was able to find the creativity to break it open in the first forty-five... the Pride also of course missing Annalie Longo who has been their star player for ages now, she and midfielder Whitney Hepburn were the only players to have started all six previous finals in a row but Longo has since popped over to Melbourne Victory for some W-League fun (playing against Rebekah Stott’s Melbourne City last Thursday night – peep some Flying Kiwis on Tuesday for that action). But Hepburn was here, making it seven out of seven for herself.
That’s the strength of the Canterbury Pride though, they’ve got such fantastic structures in place there with a team that has a great mix of youth and title-winning experience. As the first half went on they grew more into the game and they certainly started things hotter in the second, busting this game open in the 56th minute when Nicola Dominikovich got on the end of a brilliant ball over the top from Gabi Rennie and bingo, there you go. Dominikovich’s second touch was actually pretty heavy and Lily Alfield (fresh from a Footy Ferns call up) probably should have come out and smothered it but she stayed put and Dominikovich was able to flex just enough pace to hold off Bunge’s lunge and slide the ball home for the opener.
Yet that lead only lasted eight minutes before Kelli Brown smacked in a screamer from distance and yeah that’s how you do it in a Grand Final. The Lights have some serious talent up top but getting Kelli Brown and Ava Pritchard into shooting situations was almost impossible against Lake and the rest of that Cantabs defence (which includes the midfield coverage of Tahlia Herman-Watt and Whitney Hepburn too). So what Brown did was she dropped a little deeper and a little wider and showed exactly what she can do. Quality players find a way.
Chloe Knott was superb for Northern in midfield, absolutely all over the place in both halves, and Saskia Vosper was getting up and down that right flank too. As such Northern did look a little more likely to force that special moment that could decide this match... but it never broke right for them. Stoppage time of the second half they caused all sorts of havoc after a corner kick but two remarkable blocks kept us level and took us to extra time and to be honest by then both teams were already feeling the effects of a massive game and a massive amount of running. Canterbury did at least roll out three subs along the way (including their top scorer Britney-Lee Nicholson) to mitigate that, while NL gaffer Shane Verma didn’t go to his bench until the 102nd minute and even then it was injury enforced as Vosper simply couldn’t run any more. There had been one wonderful opportunity when the Pride had an indirect free kick inside the Northern penalty area earlier but they weren’t able to make the most of it. Extra time it was.
Where nothing much happened. Both teams were exhausted and the two defensive units were just too bloody good, too impenetrable and too clever to make any drastic mistakes. Penalty kicks were an inevitability.
But there was some drama there, don’t even worry about it. Rebecca Lake and Liz Savage converted their team’s first attempts before Bel van Noorden made it 2-1 to the Cantabs and Chloe Knott, who had arguably been Northern’s best player on the day, blasted over the top to have the advantage to the hosts. That was short lived as Lauren Dabner hit an awful one that Alfield was comfortably able to save... but the assistant ref determined she’d left her line early and Dabner buried it at the second attempt. Alfield claimed she dragged her foot and it looked like she had a fair case too, she definitely did a little shuffle forwards but there wasn’t a camera angle that was definitive which made it to broadcast so can’t really say. This looks kinda rough though...
In fairness the ref had the best view and that’s literally why there’s an assistant there so gotta assume they saw what’s up. Again, the telly coverage wasn’t very helpful in that matter. Maggie Jenkins scored for Northern in response but when Britney-Lee Nicholson made it 4-2, Kelli Brown knew she had to score to keep this thing alive and she didn’t.
Ultimately these two sides were too closely matched to split short of spot kicks, a weird feeling for Northern who didn’t lose a game all season but fell agonisingly short of lifting the trophy. But they weren’t able to get that top three of Jenkins/Brown/Pritchard involved enough to cash in so that’s how it goes. Canterbury Pride pretty much served up a dictionary definition of why the saying goes that defence wins championships.
Hence Canterbury Pride won their fifth title in seven years and the dynasty reaches even greater heights. The best and most consistent team throughout the season lifting the trophy in front of their home fans and basically just continuing to show what a fantastic team they are. To be able to maintain this level of success for nearly a decade, that’s the kind of thing you simply have to bow down to. The Pride set the standard for everyone else to try and reach. Deserving champions, yet again.
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