AMBRIT BOYS: St. George's Tournament

Ambrit boys came a very creditable 2nd in this year's first tournament. Captain Simone went into defense to make up for a lot of absences, but he popped up all over the pitch making tackles, scoring goals and taking throw ins and corners. Marco Ossicini took over in central midfield and gave a great demonstration of how to play there, making lots of important tackles and incisive passes. Giovanni played with his usual determination and with bursts of inspiration, and Antoine was at his dangerous best. Luca Cerri got better as the day wore on and Luca dV was reliable when called upon. Hans represented Grade 6 and did well in three different positions. Nawin and Lorenzo were solid in defense and Joshua continues to improve. Andrea was fantastic in goal. He made a huge number of important saves and showed good positioning, good movement and a lot of courage.

Southlands 3-1 Ambrit

Ambrit began the day with a group match against Southlands. Having gone 2-0 down, things were looking bad but the team fought back well against their bigger opponents and were rewarded when Antoine scored his first goal of the day. Ambrit pushed forward for the last few minutes and almost got an equalizer from one of Simone's well taken corners but Southlands broke away and killed off the game with a third goal.

Rome International 1-2 Ambrit

Ambrit lined out against Rome International knowing that they needed a win to get to the semi finals. Early pressure paid off when Simone's shot was deflected past the goalkeeper and Antoine headed a second from a long throw in. The team should have gone on to record a comfortable win against mediocre opponents but, instead, RI came back into the game and almost took a point off Ambrit.

St George's 1-4 Ambrit

Ambrit's semi final opponents were the host team, St George's. In their best performance of the day, Ambrit dominated the early exchanges and, once again, it was Antoine's head that gave them the lead going into the half time break.

In the second half, Ambrit's determination saw them winning all the loose balls in midfield and forcing their opponents into conceding a lot of free kicks. Simone hammered home one of these to put his team 2-0 up. Giovanni then crowned an excellent performance with a well taken goal but the best was yet to come: moving on to a loose ball, Lorenzo played an early pass to Joshua who scored the fourth goal with a perfectly-judged lob over the advancing goalkeeper.

Southlands 6-3 Ambrit

And so to the final where Ambrit once again came up against Southlands. Ambrit began well and should have taken the lead in the opening minutes. However Southlands were always dangerous and in fact they were first to score. But the Ambrit boys came right back at them. They equalized with another Simone goal and then Antoine hit the post with a shot on the turn and Giovanni hit the bar with a high shot from the right. But the old gol mangiato, gol subito rule then saw Southlands score to lead 2-1 at half time.

In the second half, Ambrit started well again and Luca Cerri, having his best game of the day, equalized with a headed goal. But that was the last hurrah. Five minutes later, Ambrit found themselves trailing 5-2 and, even though they never gave up, Simone's late penalty wasn't enough to stop Southlands from taking the winner's trophy.

PLAYER OF THE TOURNAMENT: Andrea Sgambati

SCORERS: Simone 4, Antoine 3, Luca C 1, Giovanni 1, Joshua 1