Round 1 Finals – NH Vs I2C

The Archisoccer report is back! But it only needs to be short this week — We won! We scored no goals! No one was Best-on-Ground! We didn’t even kick-off!
Unfortunately for our opponents, i2C, they were unable to gather enough players and had to forfeit the match. Fortunately for us, however, this means we progress straight into the Final 8!

50 teams entered the competition this year and we’re proud to say that we have made it into the Quarter Finals. The evening wasn’t wasted, we still worked up a sweat playing a scratch match against ourselves. Having progressed into next week we spectated the DCM vs MAP game to see who we’ll be up against.

MAP were victorious which means, in order for us to make it into the Semi Finals, we need to beat the third-best team from Division 1 next week!

Match 9 – NH Vs EmAGN

The Archisoccer regular season has officially come to an end — we’re going to miss our pleasant Tuesday afternoons on the field in Parkville.

Our final game of the season was against EmAGN who needed to win in order to make an appearance in the finals.
The NH team worked tirelessly to support our strikers this week — Martin scored a single goal, while Sam crafted a hat-trick. Davis was handed the Best-on-Ground for both his performance and his ability to wear a hat while playing soccer. At the final whistle NH team had won with a triumphant final score of 4-1!

This win cemented NH as comfortable division 3 winners. With only one loss against DKO in the second-last game, we came so close to having an unbeaten season!
As a result, we have finished with some impressive stats:

– Our goal difference is 35 (the competition-wide leader)
– Compiled 51 goals! Competition-wide leader (next best being 44)
– Top 3 scorers were Martin (14), Sam (13) and Stuart (10 – with 5 Best-on-Grounds!)

Fear not, this is not last time we’ll play until next season. We now prepare ourselves for finals!

Final Score: 4-1

Match 8 – NH V DKO

Tuesday evenings continue to impress with their ability to roll out magnificent weather, but unfortunately the same cannot be said for the NH team. This week we registered our first loss of the season, narrowly going down 2-1.

Prior to this match the NH Archisoccer team were sitting comfortably in the top spot on the ladder with 21 points while our opponents, DKO, were sitting in ninth place on 2 points — We have no idea how DKO have only mustered 2 points all season as this was the best team we have faced!

We would love to use excuses such as having a shortage of players and rue our missed opportunities but, to be fair, DKO outplayed us. We opened the scoring with a series of passes that extended through Stuart who grabbed our only goal for the game. Stuart once again claimed the Best-on-Ground award – making it 5 for the season thus far! The rest of the game was played on a relatively even keel with DKO opening us up on enough occasions to come out as victors.

It is not all bad news though! A draw and a loss in other games last night means that, no matter what happens next week, NH will finish in 1^st in division 3!!

We will look to redeem ourselves next week when we play EmAGN in the final game of the season before we head into the finals!

If you haven’t been free to come and support the team on Tuesdays – all finals games are played on the Thursday, we’ll let you know when.

To provide further support you’re also invited to come and support Martin and James who will be representing NH in the ArchiSoccer All-Star game this coming Thursday!

Final Score: 1-2

Match 7 – NH Vs COX

The 7^th match of the season was once again graced with fine weather and some nicely mown grass to run around on. This week our competition was COX – our very close neighbours – who may be hiding in their office for the next couple of days as we continued our unbeaten run to come out VICTORIOUS to a tune of 2-0.

Danny is now to be referred to as the ‘Zoukeeper’ after his efforts in front of the net. Eddie also had a stint in the gloves — the pair of them not allowing a single shot past! Stuart was the source of both our goals, reaping the rewards of a consistent and balanced team performance.

This week’s win means, unless we lose by a very large margin in both our remaining matches, we will finish top of division 3!

Bring on the playoffs!

Final Score: 2-0

Match 6 – NH Vs Peddle Thorp

The first game back from the break was against Peddle Thorp and the NH team were feeling fresh and our game was on-point!

Sam was ruthless in his accumulation of 5 goals (but was snubbed for Best-on-Ground which was awarded to James), Eddie got on the end of 3 to claim a hat-trick and Stuart and James chipped in with a goal each. We now sit two games clear (as well as 22 goals in goal difference) at the top of the leaderboard. A very healthy safety net with only 3 games left in the year.

Next week we play COX – who we believe to be our strongest competition, wish us luck!

Final Score: 10-2

Match – NH Vs Woods Bagot

Our run of good form continued in our final game of 2018 against Woods Bagot.
We ran riot in the first half, scoring six goals while WB only managed one. After being left red-faced at halftime, WB returned serve in the second half capitalising on our lack of unity in defence and netting the ball on three separate occasions! Still, we outscored them with four goals of our own, bringing the full-time score 10 – 4.

Martin was our head showman tallying 4 goals, closely followed by Stuart who earned himself a hat-trick. Sam consolidated his efforts with a brace and James scored a single goal. It goes without saying that without the full team’s relentless efforts these goals wouldn’t have happened. A special shout out must go to Hannah and Kat for providing NH with a cheer squad which was greatly appreciated!

This game marked the half way point in the season so here are some of our team stats:

– We have played 5 matches and won five matches
– We sit three points clear at the top of the table
– Have scored a whopping 34 goals and have only conceded 11.
– Martin has racked up 13 goals in his 4 matches!
– Stuart has been awarded Best-on-Ground 4 times!

Final Score: 10-4

Match 4 – NH Vs MGS

We had another solid turnout this week to enjoy a perfect afternoon for having a jog and a kick in the park.

Our opponents for this week were MGS – a team who had only participated in one game so far. We started off strong, with James briskly tucking away our first goal early in the match. This seemed to fire up MGS who attacked our goals toward the end of the first half. Hans ‘the impenetrable fort’ and eventual Best-on-Ground kept our goals safe, however, with the score tallying 1-0 at half-time.

The start of the second half was similar to the first with an even display of play and opportunities on hand for both teams. That is until Tibo acquired his superman outfit – winning the ball on the last line on defence, he darted left and right through the middle of the ground, taking on his fourth casualty he feigned right and put his foot through the ball sending it into the top right of the goal!

NH once again keeping our unbeaten season alive.

Final Score: 3-0

Match 3 – NH Vs Metier 3

This week the NH Archisoccer team members headed over to the Ross Straw Fields to try and continue our unbeaten start to the season.

We were tasked with beating Metier 3 to retain our spot at the top of the ladder. The entire match was very competitive, and a special shout out must go to Miriana from Metier 3 – who donned her armoured shin pads and successful halted many of our advances — she was even game enough to tackle and take down our very own Stuart Knox. As compensation, Stuart was handed Best-on-Ground.

After arriving late to the match, super-sub Martin entered onto the pitch and hastily took charge to put us one-up. Great goal-keeping from Hans and a collective team effort meant we went into the half time break leading 1-0. The score line wouldn’t change for the majority of the second half as both teams created but did not capitalise on opportunities made. A collective sigh of relief was brought on by Sam who opportunistically slotted away the sealer from a distance.

Another very solid game from all to continue our winning ways.

Final Score: 2-0

Match 2 – NH Vs Hassell

It was touch-and-go if we were going to play on Tuesday night against Hassell with the expected rain and thunder.

We had a few extra team members tonight (even with the wet conditions), which was great, but we were also missing a few of our stars from last week’s huge win. On our way from the office to the game, the team shared the train carriage with the opposition, so we tried to restrict talking tactics until we arrived.

The skies opened up just in time for kick off — with most teams pulling out, there was only one other match being played. The team spirit was high, however, and the game plan was to keep fancy tricks to a minimum considering the conditions.

Our team had a disastrous start with two very quick goals scored against us. After making some changes to the team structure we started to see more of the ball. Martin eventually scored our first point just before half-time. We won a controversial penalty when the opposing defender had a handball in goals which led to Martin scoring a second goal for NH.

It was a real battle between the two teams for the second half, with both teams having great opportunities to score. Tibo showed incredible athleticism, and was able to use his head to stop numerous long balls. Hans was also solid as a rock in goals. Fortunately, Davis was able to get a quick pass off to Stuart who was able to capitalise on our third and final goal of the match, bringing NH to victory once more!

Final Score: 3 – 2

Match 1 – NH Vs Haskell

Welcome to the NH Archisoccer 2018-2019 season!

This season we have some fresh new faces, but unfortunately due to deadlines and injuries in training we found ourselves a few numbers short for our first match — with no substitutes. The conditions were hot and muggy, so our game-plan was to take it easy and not run out of gas.

That all changed quickly when we started the game! The team was strong from kick-off and we scored very early, which spurred us on. Amy was fierce in the keeper spot — she stopped some strong attempts early, and really set the tempo for the game. Martin broke the lines all game, and couldn’t be stopped. There were a ton of goals kicked by most of the team which was great, and Stu was nominated Best-on-Ground.

Huge win by the team, and hopefully we can keep up the momentum going forward.

Final Score: 16 – 05