By Brian Stockwell
NOOSA SOCCER
With the ball hitting the back of the Woombye net twice in the first five minutes, it was clear what Noosa’s game plan was.
While these two shots were both called back for narrow off-side plays, the momentum was maintained.
Andre Jancevski was the first to find himself on-side with a one on one opportunity on the Woombye keeper and deftly opened the scoring shortly after.
The goal was the culmination of a recurring series of events that was repeated for the majority of the match.
Noosa’s midfield dominated the opposition, and initiated forward momentum as quickly as possible with two to three passes down the outside corridors, followed by a killer pass for the forwards to chase down.
Here to improve his language skills at the local English school, centre midfielder Oriol Salter, from Barcelona, literally ran rings around his opponent with a signature move of turning away and circling 270 degrees around their backs to provide quality possession to his winger or an overlapping back.
While Woombye was struggling to match the pace and skill of the Noosa side it took only one errant pass to put them on goal. Receiving the ball in a congested box their striker turned nicely to slam home the equaliser only a few moments later.
It was a driving run by brother Chris that set Andre Jancevski up for his second goal before half time.
Andre’s positioning off the ball, and consummate balance over it, frequently made the Woombye backs appear ordinary.
The Lions started the second stanza the same as the first with numerous attacking forays being frustrated by a final offside play. With a few different starters in the side to last week, Noosa’s combinations were firing.
When Matt Thompson scored the third goal after a well-executed free kick, it looked like the match would go the same way as the Reserve Grade, where Noosa had a convincing 4-0 victory. Woombye, to their credit, were dogged in defence.
While the substitutions added fresh legs, Noosa’s combinations appeared to suffer, resulting in Woombye enjoying its first sustained period in front of goal in the 85th minute.
After a series of corner kicks they managed to get their second, which was the last for the match – Noosa 3/Woombye 2.
