Electric 2016 National Powerchair Football Finals
NSW Powerchair Football Team narrowly lost to their arch-rivals Queensland in a blockbuster National Powerchair Football Final at Kevin Betts Stadium on Saturday 15th October.
New South Wales started out strongly, attacking from the onset.
New South Wales had several minutes camped down near the Queensland goal to open the match but unfortunately were unable to capitalise.
The game was much more even than the two previous match-ups in the group stage. As the first half developed into an end to end tussle before New South Wales were awarded a direct free kick in a promising position, however New South Wales couldn’t convert. 30 seconds later, Queensland had an attacking hit in and scored from a pinpoint accurate cross.
The second half opened with Queensland applying a significant amount of pressure to New South Wales, but the hosts held firm before launching an attacking raid of their own. A crisp passing move between Abdullah Karim and Jordan Crane resulted in Karim playing a perfect spin pass to Crane who poked the ball between defender and keeper for a well-deserved goal and ultimately levelling the scores.
Queensland once again proved how good they are at their set-pieces with two goals from corners taking them to a 3-1 lead with a few minutes remaining. A late solo effort from Abdullah Karim, pushing the ball between defender and keeper to score wasn’t enough, as Queensland ran down the clock to come out on top with a 3-2 win.
The third place play off saw Western Australia defeat South Australia 2-1.
Christopher Suffield a NSW player selected for the Australian Poweroos was appreciative of the New South Wales team.
“It was a disappointing result for us but we were beaten by the better team on the day. I’m proud of how we continued to fight until the final whistle but the Queensland team were extremely good this year and put us to the test throughout.
“Thanks again to Football NSW’s support of the team and the competition."
Congratulations to all the NSW players who were selected into the Australian Poweroos for the 2017 FIPFA World Cup
· Jordan Crane (Joint top scorer of the tournament equal with Josh Merkas QLD and Tristram Peters QLD)
· Abdullah Karim
· Dimitri Liolio-Davis
· Chris Suffield
· Chris Turnbull
NSW Results of the tournament:
Day 1:
New South Wales 3 – 0 South Australia
Queensland 4 – 1 New South Wales
Day 2:
New South Wales 6 – 0 Victoria
New South Wales 5 – 0 Western Australia
Day 3:
New South Wales 4 – South Australia
Queensland 4 – 1 New South Wales
Day 4:
New South Wales 4 – 0 Victoria
New South Wales 4 – 1 Western Australia
Day 5:
Major Semi Final: New South Wales 5 – 0 Western Australia
Championship game: Queensland 3-2 New South Wales
