WNPL team Heidelberg United will contest its first ever Team App cup final later this month, after defeating rival WNPL club Alamein FC in a tense semi-final which went all the way to the wire at Ringwood on Sunday 3 July.
A nail-biting penalty shoot-out was needed to decide the match after both teams were locked at 2-2 following extra time. Early first-half goals to Heidelberg’s Leigh Gray (14′) and Elise Mamanu-Gray (22′) were cancelled out by two Alamein goals just before the break to Melina Ayres and Hannah Keane.
For Heidelberg coach Bill Mihaloudis, he felt his team played particularly well apart from the five minute lapse in concentration just before the break, when Alamein equalised.
When the match went to penalties, the coach preferred not to watch. “I never watch the penalties – I just can’t watch them,” he said.
After each team had taken five penalties each, they still couldn’t be separated, but the coach’s anxiety soon turned to relief when Elise Mamanu-Gray put away the match-winning penalty to give Heidelberg the penalty shootout 6-5, and a place in the 30 July cup final against league leaders FC Bulleen Lions, who had earlier brushed aside Boroondara Eagles 8-1 in the first semi-final match.
In knocking out Alamein, Heidelberg overcame a side to which it had recently lost by a 5-1 scoreline. Coach Mihaloudis believes that defeat was a result of a hectic fixture schedule for his team.
“We were pretty fired up and confident leading up to the game. We really wanted to make amends for the way we played against this team a few weeks prior. Prior to the five minutes before the second half and after that, I thought we were fantastic, ” said the coach.
He believes the team can take a lot of confidence out of the game into the final against Bulleen.
“Definitely, we are a bit of an unknown today. On our day we can beat anybody, simple as that. I think the girls are really starting to believe they are good enough. It is a brand new team this year. Most of the other teams have been together for a while, whereas this team, I knew it would take a little bit of time for it to gel and hence the reason we’ve had a bit of a roller coaster year. But we’ve been able to beat the top teams in the league as well. Bulleen is probably one we really need to step up for and we’re really looking forward to the challenge.
“We don’t underestimate anybody but one thing we do know, we’re starting to believe in ourselves. We’re starting to believe that we’re good at what we do. So it’s a matter of taking that confidence into each game,” he said.
Apart from the chance to win silverware for the team, and club, the coach agrees that playing in a cup final gives the players the chance to perform under the watchful eye of talent scouts.
“Anything’s possible. You’ve got W-League coaches that are coming down and watching these games, seeing how these players perform in a finals match. And that is critical for any W-League coach, to see if a player is composed under big game pressure.”
Coach Mihaloudis says he would love to see the women’s game develop to the point where it has a national cup completion analogous to the FFA Cup.
“The WNPL is in its infancy. But down the track it would be fantastic to see something like that occur, where the winning team does go and play at the national level.”