Saturday July 13th saw the playing of the 2002 Froccer Cup between the City of Perth and Scarboro SLSC's. The City team were keen to regain the trophy, but the Scarboro boys weren't going to give it up easily!
For the uninitiated Froccer, as the name suggests, is soccer while wearing a frock!
"Australians all let us rejoice..."
After warming up, the teams met in the centre of the ground to sing the National Anthem, led by City coach and Olympic Champion Todd Pearson. We talked about having a toss to decide ends, but ended up just agreeing to start at the ends we warmed up in.
The 2002 Cup saw a number of innovations brought into the game, including the use of a referee for the first time. Initially thought by many to be an unnecessary extravagance, he did an outstanding job of controlling a fast-paced and action-packed match.
 City team captain James O'Toole. Actually, I'm not sure if he really was the captain, but he acted like he was. | In another first, the City team organised a team training session the week before the match. I'm not sure if anyone actually turned up (it looked like rain, so I stayed home), but still it was a step towards a more professional approach.
The match was played in four twenty-minute quarters. The early pace was furious, with the City team getting the better of the early play and the first goal hammered home by Blair Trew. The celebrations were shortlived, however, with Scarboro putting in the equaliser just minutes later, and the score was 1-1 at quarter time. |
Coach Todd Pearson commanded our attention at quarter time, urging us to stick with the game plan. He said some other stuff too, but I wasn't really listening so I don't know if it was any good or not.
Although the early signs had been that this would be a high-scoring game, the next two quarters became a real arm-wrestle, with neither team able to score. The best chance came in the second quarter when City were awarded a penalty for a blatant foul while running in for a certain goal. Brant Yates stepped up to the spot and made a complete pig's breakfast of the kick, which was easily saved by Scarboro goalkeeper John Snook.
Half time came, and Coach Pearson went for the motivational speech. He was going all right until he started on some stuff about Wayne Gretzky, at which point he lost most of us. It might have worked OK for Gretzky, but we had our doubts about the tactic of running the ball around the back of the goal and then in translating effectively onto the soccer field. But the oranges were good, and we went back on full of confidence.
As the weather turned bad on us, the Scarboro team began to get a run on, and it really was only some fantastic goalkeeping for the City team that prevented them scoring on several occasions.
I think Todd gave us a three-quarter time speech but he was running out of material and the best we could get was "we've got the wind in the last quarter". Inspiring stuff.
Both teams gave their all in the last term, and both teams could have scored many times if not for more brilliant goalkeeping.
Then tragedy struck for the City team. With the rain coming down, the slippery turf brought out an Oliver Kahn moment from the goalie. The Scarboro strikers pounced on the spilt ball and put it through to take a 2-1 lead with about ten minutes to go.
Despite several more chances at both ends that was the final score, and Scarboro retained the trophy they won in 2001.
| Scarboro | 2 | (? 12m, ? 70m) | |
| City | 1 | (B.Trew 10m) |
We tried to get an interview with an obviously disappointed coach Todd Pearson. However he refused to make any comment and was last seen getting on a plane to Manchester. Good luck Toddy!
Cup History
| Year | Winner | ||
| 1999 | City | ||
| 2000 | City | ||
| 2001 | Scarboro | ||
| 2002 | Scarboro |
The City team
Donkey takes control of the midfield
A World-Class athlete in training
Spot the Ball!
Solid in defence
The teams after the game
If you have any more good photos from the match, email me and I'll put them on here.
