Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
As the season draws to a close, the fixtures have been coming thick and fast in the GulfWeekly-sponsored Arsenal Soccer School Bahrain competitions.
The cup semi-final between Arsenal Whites and Joga TFA was a tense affair. The game was even from the start and just as it looked like it would be a goalless first half Alex Ziegler pounced onto a loose ball after great work by Sara Van Urk, ran forward and calmly placed the ball into the corner of the goal.
Ten minutes later, Alex struck again, brilliantly heading home a Lucy Hogg throw-in. Joga are a team that always fight until the end, however, and after some pressure on the Arsenal goal which forced a hatful of corners, they were rewarded when Alaa Al Dirazi shot low into the net.
Any hope of the Joga girls making a comeback with 11 minutes to play was thwarted when Alana McConologue attacked down the left side, cut inside and blasted an unstoppable shot into the goal to restore the Whites’ two-goal cushion.
Despite more Joga pressure, some excellent defensive work by Claudia Burgos and Van Urk, and sound goalkeeping by Natalie Harake saw the Arsenal team through to tonight’s final.
Joga managed to overcome their disappointment when they faced Eastern Flames in the match to decide the league runners-up position.
A fine header by Leah Montenegro evened the scores minutes later. After that though, it was all Joga, who went on to score another through Zahra Al Ghassab before half time, and four unanswered goals in the second half, with a hat-trick from Sara Jalal, and a well-deserved goal for a great display on the night from Iman Ramadan.
Also on Wednesday, Venus played Seef Dental and put on what was probably their best performance of the season, scoring five goals in the first half. Huda Busheeri, with four goals, led the way for Venus, with Fatima Mahmoud also getting on the scoresheet.
The seventh season standing of the GulfWeekly Ladies League is as follows:
Arsenal Ladies 15, Joga TFA 12, Eastern Flames 7, Venus 6, Arsenal U21 4, Seef Dental 0
In the second cup semi-final on Saturday, Arsenal Ladies Red team took on their U21s , a squad that has really matured this season and surpassed everybody’s expectations.
The first half was very close with the youngsters dominating, but it took them until the second half to make this pressure count through a Raya Al Khalifa goal. However, they were unable to turn further chances into more goals, and this was their undoing when goal-scoring machine Reema Al Qassab added two more to her season’s tally, and the Reds held out to win 2-1.
So, the final tonight at 7pm will be an all-Arsenal affair, with the girls who have already secured the GulfWeekly League title battling each other for the Cup, the U21’s playing Joga in the Plate, followed by the season’s presentations.
