Vale Finally Set To Join The "Fifty Caps" Club by Jeremy Ruane Auckland women's soccer team goalkeeper Yvonne Vale has had to wait a long time to play her fiftieth game for her province, but come 2pm at Ken Maunder Park on Saturday, the best custodian in the country will finally realise the noteworthy milestone. After making her "A Team" debut against Northland at the 1991 National Women's Soccer Tournament in Gisborne, Vale has endured plenty of ups and downs in the ensuing years which have, at times, denied her the chance to don the number one jersey for her province. Missing out on squads, understudying established internationals, being a victim of the player-rotation policies of former coaches, and the joys of motherhood have all played some part in restricting Vale's provincial performances over the past decade or so, but the occasion of game number fifty for New Zealand's foremost women's soccer-playing province is finally upon her. "I can't believe it's been that long!", she exclaimed, upon being informed of the milestone. "There's no doubt in my mind what the most memorable occasion to date has been - winning the 1995 National Tournament at Petone when Keith Garland was coach. That was my first tournament win as the first-choice 'keeper, so that will always be special. "Funnily enough, the biggest disappointment came the following year, when we finished fourth in Christchurch. Never again ...!!" Vale, who will become the sixteenth player, and the third goalkeeper, to make fifty appearances for Auckland when she takes to the field against Waikato-Bay of Plenty at Ken Maunder Park on Saturday, acknowledges four aspects of football which have played a part in her achievement. "The position I play in is a factor, along with the inspiration provided by the players around me. The fact I'm still enjoying it is a big bonus, plus the body's still holding out!!", chuckles the SWANZ international, whose husband, George, remains a tremendous source of support and encouragement. Now a working mother of two, Vale admits to finding it harder to juggle all her duties. "I certainly don't have as much time as I've had to do the extra training that's necessary for the position I play in, but a lot of people are similarly challenged these days, so it's simply a case of getting on with what's required". Having joined the "A Team"'s "Fifty Caps" club, Vale, a former Auckland Player of the Year and Uncle Toby's Women's Knockout Cup Final MVP, still has a number of ambitions she wants to achieve before she eventually hangs up her gloves. "I want to keep playing", says the thirty-three-year-old, "and add to my thirteen caps for New Zealand. As well, I want to play a part in ensuring we qualify for the Olympics when the qualifying tournament takes place in Vanuatu next March". Meanwhile, there's a National Women's Soccer League championship to be won, and more 'clean sheets' to be kept by a goalkeeper who admits to being "simply a soccer person - always have been, always will be!!" Auckland's "Fifty Caps" Club as at 25 September 2003 123   Barbara Cox                112   Michele Cox           110   Lyn Pedruco                93     Debbie Pullen           90     Wendy Sharpe                89     Terry McCahill 87     Amanda Crawford           70     Michelle Loos           68     Angela Hall                66     Julie Hogg           63     Jill Corner                60     Monique Van de Elzen 53     Audrey Rigby                52     Leslie King           51     Viv Robertson

SWANZ Star Vale Bringing Curtain Down On Career by Jeremy Ruane When New Zealand’s national women’s soccer team, the SWANZ, take on all-comers in Vanuatu at the Oceania Football Confederation’s Olympic qualifying tournament next March, they will sport a new goalkeeper as part of their first-choice line-up. Just days after veteran SWANZ international Wendi Henderson announced her retirement from playing, the country’s number one women’s soccer custodian, Yvonne Vale, has confirmed that she will be hanging up her gloves at the conclusion of the current National Women’s Soccer League campaign. The thirteen-times-capped SWANZ star opted to announce her decision at the Lynn-Avon United prize-giving dinner on Saturday evening, and it came as a genuine shock to a number of her team-mates and fellow club members alike, such is the aura of reliability and dependability which Yvonne has exuded when wearing the number one jersey of either her club, province or country during the past sixteen seasons. It wasn’t a decision which was made hastily, for, unbeknown to all but a select few, Vale has quietly but grittily played through the pain barrier during the last three seasons, not to mention endured the specialised training demands necessary for a goalkeeper of her calibre to retain her position as the country’s premier shot-stopper in women’s soccer circles. While her goalkeeping abilities remain undiminished, the nagging, persistent injury has forced the premature curtailment of a career which has seen Yvonne make over fifty appearances for her beloved Auckland province, whom she first represented in 1991. She made the first of her international appearances against Russia in the Jayalitha Cup tournament in India in August, 1994, and has proven herself a worthy successor to legendary SWANZ custodian, Leslie King, in wearing the number one jersey in eight of New Zealand’s last nine matches on the international stage, dating back to May 2000 at the Pacific Cup tournament in Australia. The birth of her second child forced Yvonne to miss New Zealand’s Oceania Women’s World Cup qualifying campaign in 1998, and the Champions’ Tour of Germany and the USA which preceded it, but there can be little doubt her greatest displays at international level came against China. The 6-0 thrashing at the hands of the Asian giants at the aforementioned Pacific Cup tournament would have been far greater but for Vale’s heroics throughout the match, while three years prior, she was in goal as the SWANZ produced arguably their finest performance in the last ten years when succumbing to the then Olympic silver medallists 3-1 in a tri-series tournament across the Tasman. On the club scene, Yvonne’s greatest successes have undoubtedly been in the colours of Lynn-Avon, with whom league championship winners’ medals and Uncle Toby’s Women’s Knockout Cup winners’ medals galore have been supplemented by prized individual honours, such as Auckland’s Player of the Year award in 2000, and the 2002 MVP award from the thrilling scoreless Uncle Toby’s Final against Ellerslie. The biggest testimony one can pay Yvonne Vale, as the quietly-spoken thirty-three-year-old prepares to don her gloves and goalkeeping jersey for the final time on November 1 - when Auckland plays Canterbury on her favourite ground, Ken Maunder Park - is this: To say her successors at club, provincial and national level have big gloves to fill is something of an understatement, such is Yvonne Vale’s goalkeeping prowess, and the standards she expects of herself in her position. The number on her jersey says it all.