James Murphy
Soccer kicked off in the Limestone Coast on the weekend with a men’s and women’s pre-season carnival contested in Mount Gambier.
The Limestone Coast Football Association (LCFA)hosted a full day of competition to start the season, with the men at Casadio Park and women at Malseed Park.
Naracoorte United was represented at both venues, with the men in particular showing improved competitiveness this year.
They played five games for the day – against each of the rival LCFA teams – and finished up with three wins.
That put the team in third position overall for the tournament, finishing behind winner International and runner-up Gambier Centrals.
They were the two sides which beat Naracoorte, 2-1 and 1-0 respectively, while Blue Lake, Apollo and Millicent were all bested by United on the day.
Naracoorte men’s coach Qussay Ibrahim was pleased with the showing from his team.
He felt it was a good start to the season and even tested his talents in the goalkeeper position due to the lack of a keeper for the carnival.
There was a good display of talent from Naracoorte on Sunday, which bodes well for its 2022 home-and-away season.
“They have the skills and they are good players,” Ibrahim said.
“We have some good players, we just need to keep training.
“We are lucky with some players who have come from overseas, they help us very well.”
Ibrahim believes his team will be able to match it with the bigger clubs this year and it certainly seems like it could shape up to be a tough competition across the board.
For the women it was a slightly less successful carnival and they were unable to record a win on the day.
A competitive match with Millicent was the highlight for the side but it missed out on the win with a narrow 4-3 loss.
However, it can now regroup over the Easter break and ready itself for the opening round of the season the following week.
