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Sunday, December 4, 2016

FOR THE RECORD: ARCTIC WINTER GAMES 2016 FUTSAL RESULTS - JUVENILE FEMALE

Friday 11 March was the final day of competition at the 2016 Arctic Games, which were held in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, and amongst those competitions reaching their conclusions were the five categories under the Futsal tournament. The first section to be completed was the Juvenile Female section, which covers girls born in or after 2002.

Five countries or regions participated in the aforementioned section, and Alberta North, who had won the previous two AWG Juvenile Female tournaments, topped the group stage with maximum points, before being knocked out by Northwest Territories - who had finished fourth - at the semi-final stage. Chloe Trottier, who had scored twice in her side's 3:2 victory against NWT in the final group game, put the Albertans in front in the second minute of the second half, Katie Hart, who had found the net for NWT in the three previous group games, including the game against the Albertans, equalised with just 23 seconds left. She went on to break Albertan hearts by scoring a golden goal in the fifth minute of extra-time, putting her side through to the final against all the odds.

Greenland, who had finished as runners-up in the group, paired with Yukon in the other semi-final, and although the Canadians struck first through Leah Ott after less than 90 seconds, the hosts roared back with two goals in the next four minutes through Emma Thomsen and Lis Anja Eriksen Christensen. There was no holding the Greenland team back in the second half, and they went on to score two more, with Asii Kleist Berthelsen and Christensen getting on the scoresheet.

Alberta North had beaten Yukon 1:0 in the group, and a similarly tight affair was expected when they met in the third-place play-off. The first half ran true to form - it was scoreless at the break - but the Albertans seized control in the second half when Chloe Trottier opened the scoring after 30 seconds. Lana Shahadat netted the second just a minute later, and it was all but over with five minutes left when Carly Thomson scored the third. 

And so to the final; Greenland expected, and their Juvenile Female team started against Northwest Territories as they meant to go on, dominating the first half and scoring twice through Lis Anja Eriksen Christensen in the first nine minutes of play, the second of which was a free-kick from almost on the touchline which squirmed under NWT 'keeper Janet Enge. Christensen almost completed her hat-trick a minute before the break with a long-range shot which fizzed just past Enge's left-hand post.  

The second half began with Molly Gillard scoring for NWT, but it was correctly disallowed for the most obvious of fouls on goalkeeper Viktoria Bøgeløv. Moments later, in the 19th minute, she did get her name on the scoresheet, collecting a pass from her combative captain Katie Hart before rifling a shot across Bøgeløv. Just over a minute later, Christensen came close again for Greenland, smacking her free kick on to the underside of the crossbar with Enge beaten. NWT's Wren Acorn also hit the woodwork from a free-kick when her looping shot left Bøgeløv grasping at thin air.

With the last minute of the game approaching, Acorn picked up the ball half-way inside her own half, beat two opponents and let go a speculative shot from distance which Bøgeløv should have saved; instead, she seemed to stumble towards the ball, caressing the top of it as it sped past her into the bottom corner.

And so to extra-time, which would be decided by a golden goal, or penalties if necessary, and which seemed more than a tad unlikely at half-time, given the Greenland team's domination of proceedings. But, decided by a golden goal it was, and it went the way of the visitors in the second minute of extra-time when Bøgeløv's throw-out to Emma Thomsen was intercepted by Gillard. Gillard ran on, toe-poked the ball just as it was getting away from her and Christensen attempted to intervene; the ball travelled on past Christensen's lunge and Bøgeløv's despairing dive into the bottom corner to put NWT in front. 

There was some momentary confusion as to whether the match was over as the NWT substitutes invaded the pitch, but, yes, it really was all over and the Northwest Territories had achieved the most unlikely of victories, their first since they won the very first Juvenile Female competition on home soil in Yellowknife in 1990. Defeat was hard on Greenland, and on no-one more so than Christensen, who had scored twice, hit the crossbar and peppered Enge's goal with shots from all angles and distances, and the hard-working Asii Kleist Berthelsen.

All credit, though, must go to the NWT team as a whole; they had come from behind twice to register unlikely victories against more favoured opposition. It wasn't just thanks to Gillard's double strike in the final, though, Hart's goals were invaluable, as were the contributions of team-mates such as Wren Acorn, Jenna Guy and Hannah Porter. The team battled hard for everything and each other, and this will stand them in good stead should they manage to make the step up to Junior level for the 2018 tournament on home ground.


RESULTS 

GROUP STAGE

07/03/16 Greenland 3:2 Yukon (Kleist Berthelsen (2), Thomsen; Rich, Williamson)
07/03/16 Greenland 1:1 Northwest Territory (Eriksen Christensen; Sobrepena)
07/03/16 Alaska 1:2 Alberta North (van Flein; Shahadat, Trottier)
08/03/16 Northwest Territory 1: 2 Yukon (Hart; Cairns (2))
08/03/16 Alberta North 1:0 Yukon (Perry)
08/03/16 Alaska 0:2 Northwest Territory (Hart (2))
09/03/16 Alberta North 4:2 Greenland (Shahadat, Ipshita, Thomson, Moore; Thomsen, Svendsen)
09/03/16 Alaska 3:4 Greenland (Chagnon, Goering, McLaughlin; Svendsen (2); Kleist Berthelsen (2))
09/03/16 Alberta North 3:2 Northwest Territory (Trottier (2), Shahadat; Hart (2))
09/03/16 Alaska 0:2 Yukon (Williamson, Rich)


TEAM
P
W
D
L
GF
GA
PTS
GD
ALBERTA NORTH
4
4
0
0
10
5
12
5
GREENLAND
4
2
1
1
10
10
7
0
YUKON
4
2
0
2
6
5
6
1
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
4
1
1
2
6
6
4
0
Alaska
4
0
0
4
4
10
0
-6
 


SEMI-FINALS 

10/03/16 Alberta North 1:2 Northwest Territory (Trottier; Hart (2))
10/03/16 Greenland 4:1 Yukon (Thomsen, Kleist Berthelsen, Eriksen Christensen (2); Ott)

THIRD-PLACE FINAL 

10/03/16 Alberta North 3:0 Yukon (Trottier, Shahadat, Schubert)

FINAL 

11/03/16 Greenland 2:3 Northwest Territory (Eriksen Christensen (2); Gillard (2), Acorn)


SQUAD-LISTS

ALASKA: 2 Hope CHAGNON, 3 Eva GOERING, 4 Chloe SWEET, 5 Alexxa SCHUBERT, 6 Ryann DORRIS, 7 Molly McLAUGHLIN, 8 Riley McMAHAN, 9 Amanda VAN FLEIN, 10 Aubrey STACY

ALBERTA NORTH: 1 Haley MOORE, 3 Chloe TROTTIER, 4 Cloé TROUP, 5 Carly THOMSON, 6 Rachel PERRY, 7 Lana SHAHADAT, 8 Danielle GOUTHRO, 9 Ipshita TOMAR, 10 Katelyn DOUCETTE

GREENLAND: 1 Victoria BØGELØV, 2 Anouk HOLM JENSEN, 3 Susan HERMAJI, 4 Lis Anja ERIKSEN CHRISTENSEN, 5 Emma THOMSEN, 6 Kaya Sascha GODTFREDSEN, 7 Juliet EGEDE, 8 Asii KLEIST BERTHELSEN, 9 Navarana SVENDSEN

NORTHWEST TERRITORIES: 1 Janet ENGE, 2 Wren ACORN, 4 Jenna GUY, 5 Hannah PORTER, 6 Destiny HOBBS-STEWART, 7 Charlene SOBREPENA, 8 Katie HART, 11 Chidubem DURU, 13 Molly GILLARD, 15 Denaya HANNINEN

YUKON: 5 Peyton TWARDOCHLEB, 3 Jasmine SEALY, 4 Leah OTT, 10 Abby RICH, 13 Taliya LINDLEY, 14 Cassidy CAIRNS, 17 Kamryn WILLIAMSON, 20 Alyssa RUSNAK, 24 Amy VANDERKLEY


HONOURS LIST

1990 Northwest Territories
1994 Alaska
1996 N/K
1998 Alberta North
2000 Alaska
2004 Alaska
2006 Alaska
2008 Alaska
2010 Alaska
2012 Alberta North
2014 Alberta North
2016 NORTHWEST TERRITORIES

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Many thanks to Doris Landry, the recently-retired secretary of the Arctic Winter Games International Committee, for kindly allowing the reproduction of the above statistical information for the 2016 AWG, which is available via the following website, and for her general assistance:

http://awg2016.gems.pro/Default.aspx




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