NEW ZEALANDERS SHOW TEAM SPIRIT

The club itself is only three years old but the boys from the Coastal Spirit are already mak-ing waves at the 2010 McDon-ald’s Kanga Cup. Hailing from Christchurch, New Zealand the boys have made a serious as-sault at the Under 13 Cup, opening the tournament with three wins from four games. Junior coordinator, Steve Ager, said the competition is a prize for outstanding club players who spend months preparing for the McDonald’s Kanga Cup.
"We’ve bought this side together through our centre of achievement and this is the end result, we bring them over here as a reward for their hard work," he said. The talented side plays an exciting brand of football and uses possession effectively, which is reflective of their coach’s theories. Chilean Jose Matiz loves the different styles the international competition brings as he aims to develop his players into creative and complete young footballers.

"We play football, no long balls and kicking to run and chase," the 24-year-old coach said."We play direct football with short passes and diagonal runs, playing into space and moving to support each other." Their performances have been impressive, with superb play and spectacular goals complemented by solid defen-sive efforts. Matiz agreed his youth was a good thing amongst the playing group, helping him connect with his players."They know when to get serious, but most of the time off the field I’m one of the boys, instead of being 15 boys, it’s 16 – I’m just one more, but then they know when it’s game time." That doesn’t mean all fun and games in camp however, with the players knowing their boundaries and main-taining discipline. A few nights ago some of the boys were caught playing football indoors when they should not have been, but it wasn’t Ager or Matiz who told them off, rather their team-mates. "They take ownership; we’re on the sidelines but they’re on the field and it’s all about discipline and ownership," Ager said.

The club was formed three years ago by merging Brighton and Rangers, two east-ern-Christchurch clubs, and has come a long way in that time. This is its second Kanga Cup and Ager said the plan is to keep preparing squads over long periods of time and to return to Canberra annually raring to go. "As soon as we get home we do a de-brief and hopefully name next year’s squad this September or October," the coordinator said. "They work through the summer period, where they’ve got good weather and can work outside and keep training in preparation for the tour-nament." The club funds itself for the trip, with parents, friends and the coaching staff pitching in to ensure there are sufficient resources to make the trip. "The parents form a fundraising committee and whatever we can do – sausage sizzles, movie nights, discos, quiz nights – we make a dollar," he said. "The club is growing in leaps and bounds and the Kanga Cup is a result of three years of hard work in getting the club together and it’s starting to show results." There is certainly no lack in confidence