Once more unto the breach, if that’s not an unfair description of the Ed Radice complex that has begun to feel like home for the Teddington girls. Their fourth and final game was a 10am kick-off, overcast and muggy but not exactly Mississippi midsummer and not too hot – and by half-time, it would be raining in advance of a gathering storm.
With an early alarm call and a game the previous evening, the players were perhaps understandably a little dopey; Millie T needed a third explanation during a warm-up that was eventually abandoned when the girls couldn’t get to grips with the rondo passing drill.
Even so, it has served them well, they are getting ever better at it – and, importantly, increasingly implementing the skills it teaches into match situations. They are also now self-sufficient in monitoring each other’s pre-match stretches, while today Carla Novakovic led the cardio warm-up with the enthusiasm and experience she has helped to bring to the midweek fitness sessions that have also helped the girls reach a new level.
After coming off the bench to excellent effect in the last couple of games, Carla returned to an otherwise unchanged starting XI: Ruby Rudkin in goal, a back four of Anna Kauffmann, Ella Waldron, Millie Theobald and Saskia Brewster protected by Amy Hallett. Ella Dodd and Emily Coulson patrolled the midfield with Phoebe Head wide right and Emily Bashford continuing her education up front; Sadie Day was ill but sat on the bench alongside Millie MacEacharn, Liz Kriebel and Ella Bothamley, with Ale Fairn defying pre-match injury doubts to join them later on.
All players having been briefed that a hooter would sound if lightning was detected to be getting dangerously near, the match kicked off to the atmospheric sound of thunder, the air moist but not yet raining. Having been asked before last night’s match to each set themselves a private personal target, today some of them were given personal improvements to attempt – things that might not come off, but for which they would not be chastised for trying. It’s good to report that all the players involved did so, and usually successfully.
Teddington started on the front foot, with Phoebe playing a nice give-and-go with Doddsy down the right before Anna – always a solid defender, and now increasingly creative – also sent Phoebe scampering away. The winger forced a corner which she pulled back to Jelly, whose cross to the far post found Bash but the shot whistled just over.
As is her right and wont, Phoebe then cut out the middle-girl and had a crack herself, forcing a good save from the goalkeeper, but as per last night’s game Teddington were working the defence harder than the keeper, having majority possession without creating too many clearcut chances.
There are many weapons in the Teddington armoury and after 21 minutes, Phoebe was replaced by Boz. Soon enough the sub came close too, with Doddsy driving on from midfield and finding her in the inside-right channel, but just as Boz cut inside and shaped to shoot with her left foot she was blocked by a despairing defender. It was the story of the half: Teddington commanding the opponents’ half but generally being halted at the 18-yard line. Not a bad story to tell, all told.
One of the coaching conundrums this season has been how to get more goals from Doddsy and Emily C. Last season they plundered 33 between them, with Doddsy playing a fair few games up front and Em usually tucked into the No.10 slot; since the move to 11-a-side they have generally been selected as central midfielders, working hard for the team but perhaps at the sacrifice of goalscoring potential. But with the back four allowing the full-backs (and occasionally Jelly) to come forward and overload the midfield, the two can now get forward a bit more – and when Carla received a throw-in and cleverly worked the ball to Doddsy, her good friend fired just wide of the near post. There’s goals in them there boots.
And there’s more elsewhere in the team. One direct threat is the pace of Bash up top, and just before the half-hour she produced a little lightning of her own, knocking it past a startled defender and leaving her for dead, then outstripping another before being stopped by a third.
But when Teddington made the breakthrough, just after the half-hour when Liz and Macca replaced Em and Carla, it was through teamwork and passing – entirely fittingly for the tone of the tour. Doddsy’s intelligent diag allowed Boz to force a corner, from which she found Doddsy in the area. The midfielder’s right-foot shot was blocked, but the rebound fell serendipitously for her to fire home left-footed.
This time Teddington tightened up their game management and made it to the impending break without conceding an equaliser. The half-time interval allowed the ref to announce that the thunderstorm – whose leading edge was already dumping plenty of precipitation on the participants – was expected to hit in 15 to 20 minutes, at which point he would abandon rather than delay the game.
It also allowed Teddington to rest Bash, move Boz up top and reintroduce Phoebe, and to encourage Saskia. Unquestionably a brilliant defender – well, almost unquestionably: told she’d played well in the first half, she shrugged “I haven’t done much really” – she also has the ball skills and technical awareness to create problems for the opposition, and she was reminded that the back four allows her (and Anna) the licence to get forward and do just that.
So she did. For the first 10 minutes of the half Teddington got a lot of pleasure down the left, with Sas helping to overload the opposition midfield, and after 44 minutes she was involved in a move which progressed through Doddsy and Boz to Phoebe, who expertly lashed high past the goalkeeper.
Having battled determinedly through illness, Ale then replaced Amy, with Doddsy dropping to the anchor role before being replaced by Em, and Boz having a go in central midfield before flitting back up top when Carla replaced the ailing Ale. It’s that kind of positional fluidity that serves the team well now and should hopefully serve the girls well for a lifetime of football.
The positional experimentation and rolling substitutions – just before the hour Bash and Amy reappeared for Macca and Liz – did hamper Teddington’s rhythm a little; Tampa came into the game more than they had previously, but like their visitors in the first half they struggled to convert possession into penetration or shots. On the one occasion they did get behind the backline, Ruby was quickly onto the scene once she’d been rudely disturbed from gazing directly upwards into the gathering stormclouds. Denying a Dave-started rumour that she was catching raindrops on her tongue, she insisted “I was wondering if I was going to get hit by lightning.”
And indeed on 64 minutes, later than expected but six minutes shy of the full term, the referee responded promptly when a lightning flash was followed rather too promptly by a startling peal of thunder.
All ran to the changing rooms, where Tampa Bay United chief George Fotopoulos thanked all concerned for getting involved. An intelligent and passionate advocate of women’s and girls’ soccer, he has been a superb host; having helped develop the Teddington girls’ football, he explained how he hopes they will continue to evangelise for the beautiful game. He has certainly done his bit to make it so, and not merely by presenting the Teddington team with a trophy later accidentally broken by a horrified Boz.
By that time the team had driven home unscathed through a tornado warning. The storm passed quickly enough for the girls to enjoy a trip to the mall and present a final-night entertainment revue, singing and dancing in teams – well, except Boz, who did her own thing with typical humour and winning self-mockery. The girls have had a wonderful time on a brilliant tour, and are coming home not just better players but better people.
TEDDINGTON ATHLETIC Ruby Rudkin, Anna Kauffmann, Ella Waldron, Millie Theobald, Saskia Brewster, Amy Hallett, Phoebe Head (1), Emily Coulson, Ella Dodd (1), Carla Novakovic, Emily Bashford. Subs: Liz Kriebel, Millie MacEacharn, Ella Bothamley, Ale Fairn.
