Air Force showed they are still masters of the world game, winning the ADF Football Federation ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Championships over-35 competition for the second year running.
The elite elder aviators beat Army in a tense tussle and floored a floundering Navy during the championships at Valentines Sports Park, October 11-18.
Air Force Masters team captain Flight Sergeant Ash Howell said Army were always tough to play, but his opportunistic lob over the keeper a few minutes into the game put Air Force ahead early.
Army equalised before halftime, but some tweaks to the game plan allowed striker Leading Aircraftman Fares Seno to score a nice goal from outside the box to win the game 2-1.
“We know Army are a bit stronger, more rigid and structured as opposed to Navy, so we do set up and play a little differently against them,” Flight Sergeant Howell said.
“The movement of the ball, our movement off the ball and our patience in key moments were certainly factors.”
The team watched Army versus Navy earlier in the week, and came up with a game plan that paid off.
Two goals in the first half set Air Force up for success, and three more after the break sealed the victory, though Navy’s goalkeeper made some key saves to keep the score 5-0.
Flight Sergeant Howell was the Masters top scorer with three goals overall, and Sergeant Hassen Arnaout was named Masters player of the competition.
A strong showing from Army won the women’s and open men’s competitions.
The Air Force open men’s lost their first game to Army 5-0 but recomposed themselves against Navy.
With only nine players for the last 20 minutes, they held firm for a 2-1 win.
Despite the loss, the tournament was a massive success, with new players showing a bright future for Air Force football, according to team captain Flying Officer Brandon Cashmoore.
“We prepared well, trained hard and everything that could go wrong went wrong, but we refocused for the second game, came back firing and got the result that we wanted,” he said.
“We went off on a high but we’ll take that redemption mentality into next year, to take that trophy back and dethrone Army again.”
Injuries kept the women from competing at the top of their game, going down 0-7 to Army and 0-3 to Navy.
Centre midfielder Corporal Olivia Tannock said what mattered was the team had fun and got something out of the games.
“The Navy game was a lot closer. We were down 3-0 at half time, so managed to keep them scoreless in the second half,” she said.
“It was still a tough game. They were quite good and quite physical, but I think we played a lot more of our game and everyone seemed to enjoy it a lot more.”
Corporal Tannock was voted the Air Force player’s player for the women’s tournament, which she said was humbling.
“It’s based on votes, so it’s really nice that the players around me voted for me. I’m just really grateful and I hope I didn’t let anyone down,” she said.
Despite the unsuccessful campaign, four aviators, including Corporal Tannock, were selected for the ADF women’s team.
