What a day! The first full day of matches at the 2018 McDonald’s Kanga Cup has come to a close, full of sunshine, goals, fun and football!

Canberra turned it on (as much as it can in Winter) for a beautiful day of blue sky, and the football didn’t disappoint with some excellent matches played across the ACT & Queanbeyan from the early morning. The Abbotsford U/11 Male Plate boys claimed the ‘Snood of the Day’ award, honoured with a post to Kanga Cup social media, and you can see the image below.

 

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Meanwhile, Nick Graeber-Browne caught up with the first Singapore club to attend the McDonald’s Kanga Cup, and you can read that below!

MATCH OF THE DAY

For the first time in its history, ACTIVESG Football Academy of Singapore took to the field in the Kanga Cup. They cruised to a 5-0 victory? over the North Shore Mariners Blue in their opening game of the U/9 Male Shield at Hawker Football Centre. However, their U/11 side was in for a much sterner test.

In their first match, their U/11 side took on Easts FC Blue in the U/11 Male Shield. Easts came out firing, putting the Academy under severe pressure in the opening moments of the match. The Singapore based side absorbed the early pressure well, and began moving the ball around excellently once they gained possession of the ball. Despite ACTIVE playing some great football, they lacked shots on goal.

Towards the end of the half Easts began to pile the pressure on yet again, forcing some good saves out of the ACTIVE goalkeeper, and smashing shots high and wide. Eventually Easts made the break through and scored through Daniel Orozco as he slotted the ball home from close range and they carried that lead into the break.

Trailing by a goal ACTIVE came out for the second half enthusiastically, and started strong but were unable to finish their chances that they created. The Academy defended well but so did their opponents who absorbed their attacks well for the duration of the second half to hang on for a win in a high-level match played well in the #SpiritoftheCup.

REACTION

Asked about his first ever McDonald’s Kanga Cup, ACTIVESG’s Ang Siew Penn said it was a lot of fun so far.

“It’s a really nice experience so far,” he said.

“It’s my first ever time playing in the winter and the cold weather, but I hope going forward that we can begin to take our chances.”

Teammate Lee Seth turned in a good performance in goals and explained why after the match.

“I receive goalkeeper training privately from a very good goalkeeper coach,” he said.

“He will train us most days for at least an hour outside of normal training.”

Easts’ Marcus Duong was happy with how his side played throughout the match and their tenacity when under pressure.

“We hung in there really well,” he said.

“We were really intense, pushing for the ball, getting it away from our goal area, and that really helped us get the win.”

Duong was full of praise for the opposition in their inaugural McDonald’s Kanga Cup outing.

“They were very skilful, moving really quickly and their passing was very slick,” he said.

“We’re all grateful for the opportunity to play against an international team, and we’re just hopeful we make it out of our group this year.”