Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
The Arsenal School Bahrain Ladies League, supported by GulfWeekly, took a break this week and the first of the season’s Cup matches took place. Eight teams have entered – Seef Dental, TFA Joga, Eastern Flames, Venus, two Arsenal teams and two Arsenal U21 teams.
This season, the Cup will be a straight knockout with the next round draw taking place after the qualifiers. The first two quarter-final games saw holders Venus draw against TFA Joga, and the Arsenal Reds play Seef Dental.
Despite very windy and difficult conditions, there was some very good football and some excellent goals.
A tight first half saw Joga go into the break with a slim 1-0 lead through a beautifully placed shot by Sara Jalal against Venus. The Venus girls were not going to let their trophy go without a fight though, and tried hard to find an equaliser. This did not happen though, mainly due to Kholood AlGhassara and Ebaa AlKhamees playing so well at the back for Joga. However, they were caught on the break with another fine goal, this time by Alaa Dirazi and there was little time left to score the two goals needed to rescue the game. Joga added to their lead with the last kick of the game through Nora Abdulkader to seal a fine 3-0 win as revenge for last season’s defeat in this competition.
The other game was a lot more one sided, with the Arsenal Reds swamping Seef Dental by eight goals to one. The Arsenal Ladies proved just too strong for their opposition, playing some superb football and scoring some fine goals.
Coach Liam Trigg said: “All of the hard work that the girls have been doing in training really paid off tonight. The teamwork and passing play between the players was great to watch and resulted in some excellent goals.”
Reema Al Qassab notched five and new signing Sam Rule claimed a hat-trick. The Dental reply was a brilliant first touch finish by Mandy Ritchey.
The next quarter finals take place on November 6, with Eastern Flames playing the Arsenal U21 Yellows, and the Arsenal U21 Reds taking on Club mates Arsenal Whites. The semi finals will take place on November 20 and the final on December 11.
