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In Pursuit Of Excellence
In Pursuit Of Excellence - Three Kings United, 1998
by Jeremy Ruane
Every once in a while in northern region women's soccer, a team comes along which is far superior to any other around. Back in the 1970s, Eastern Suburbs were the first club to dominate the women's soccer scene. They were succeeded in the next decade by Mt. Wellington, who became Eden for a season in 1987.
The break-up of this side sparked a period which saw five teams each laying claim to being the best women's soccer team in the northern region. Between 1989 and 1994, South Auckland Rangers, Eden, Pakuranga Town, Avondale United and Te Atatu all proved superior to their rivals in successive seasons, without being able to maintain their grip on both league and cup over more than a single season.
This situation changed in 1996. Then, it was the turn of Lynn-Avon United, whose appearance on the scene four years previously had led to their being regarded as 'the Manchester United of women's soccer' in the north.
League champions a year prior, to them in 1996 went the honour of becoming the first team to achieve the "Grand Slam" - Northern League, Knockout Shield, Champion-of-Champions and the SWANZ Knockout Cup - since the introduction of the last-mentioned trophy in 1994.
Two years, and a further league title success on from that notable triumph, Lynn-Avon's reign as women's soccer's standard-setters in the northern region has been brought to an end by a team which, throughout the 1990s, have come to be regarded as their arch-rivals, without ever quite managing to get the upper hand on their nemesis.
Until halfway through the 1997 season, that is. For, since July 7, 1997, Three Kings United has played a total of 34 matches, winning 33 of them. Included in this feat are five wins, out of a possible six, against 'the auld enemy'. Two of these victories led to the club formerly known as Eden winning both the SWANZ Knockout Cup and the Auckland Women's Knockout Shield come the end of the 1997 campaign, but they missed out on the league title, and thus the "Grand Slam", by a solitary point, as Lynn-Avon retained their championship crown.
It would have been quite easy for Three Kings United to fall into the trap of becoming obsessed with winning the league title alone in 1998. Instead, their campaign was more broadly focused, the prime objective being:
To strive for excellence on and off the field of play.
From this evolved the twin targets of winning every match of importance, and, as a consequence, all four of the trophies to which they could lay claim.
History shows that both of these targets were achieved, but what was most pleasing was the way 'the Liverpool of northern women's soccer' went about the task - playing the game with style, with flair, and above all, with an emphasis on entertainment and enjoyment for players and spectators alike.
With this approach came achievements of record-shattering proportions. It also led to the entire thirteen-strong squad being selected for representative duties for either their province or their country, as well as a virtual clean sweep of the bonuses - the only individual prize not won by a Three Kings United player in 1998 was the Auckland Young Player of the Year trophy.
Next season, Three Kings United will seek to match the achievements of this campaign, this time with the added challenge of thwarting their rivals' bids to lay claim to the scalp of the 1998 "Grand Slam" winners in the process.
Meantime, they reign supreme, theirs being the standard by which all others will be judged for at least the next twelve months of women's soccer in the northern region.
The Northern Premier Women's League
Eight teams fronted up for the Northern Premier Women's League this year, down from ten in 1997, and at the end of the fourteen game campaign, a new version of an old name was engraved on the championship trophy.
Three Kings United put an end to the title-winning sequence of Lynn-Avon United, whose bid to land a fourth consecutive league championship saw them finish two points shy of the new champions, and with a far inferior goal difference.
It was a deserved success for the Keith Hay Park combination, who, as Eden, last won the league in 1991. Under the guidance of coach Sascha Viertal, the 1997 SWANZ Knockout Cup and Auckland Women's Knockout Shield winners continued on from where they left off, eventually stretching their winning streak in all competitions to 29 matches.
Lynn-Avon finally brought this sequence to an end in the last game in August, coming from 2-0 down to trounce Three Kings 5-2. But by this time the league championship had already changed hands, TKU clinching the silverware three weeks earlier with a 3-1 victory over the well-performed University combination, who were easily the best of the rest in the north.
En route to the title, Three Kings, as well as scoring a century of league goals for the second successive season - something never before done in the 26-year history of the Northern Premier Women's League, set a new Northern League record victory, hammering West Auckland 19-0 to easily shatter the long-standing 17-0 effort set on three occasions in 1987 by the all-conquering Eden side.
A few weeks after this effort, Lynn-Avon went close to equalling Three Kings' achievement, West Auckland again the victims as eighteen attempts on goal found the back of the net - needless to say, the inexperienced Brains Road combination, who were a late entry in 1998, were glad to see the end of the season.
After a slow start, Te Atatu proved a difficult combination to counter on occasions, the most notable instance being a 2-2 draw at Lynn-Avon, a year after winning 1-0 at the same venue. Meanwhile, new entrants Albany United, after gaining promotion from the Regional Leagues, acquitted themselves well in their first season of Northern Premier Women's League soccer.
Waikato Unicol and Claudelands Rovers both suffered from the departure of key personnel both before and during the season. This meant that neither side was ever going to challenge strongly for league honours in 1998, although one can only wonder how they would have fared in this regard as a combined team.
But to the victor, the spoils - Three Kings United, Northern Premier Women's League champions, 1998.
The Auckland Women's Knockout Shield
One had to feel for Papatoetoe as they trudged off Keith Hay Park at the conclusion of their third round clash with Three Kings United in the Auckland Women's Knockout Shield in August.
No-one knew it at the time, but the holders' 22-0 rout of the Regional League outfit turned out to be a new competition record, and one of two notable highlights in the entire competition in 1998.
The other was the final itself, and the almost inevitable "Clash of the Titans", Three Kings versus Lynn-Avon, the current holders versus the previous holders, in the last match of the season. But there was more to winning this match than just capturing a piece of prized silverware.
Over the last two seasons, Three Kings have emerged to rival Lynn-Avon for supremacy in northern women's soccer. After Lynn-Avon's "Grand Slam" success of 1996, Three Kings relieved the Ken Maunder Park combination of both knockout trophies a year later.
Now, having prised the league title from Lynn-Avon's grasp, and retained the SWANZ Knockout Cup a week previously in a hard-fought 4-2 win over Petone, they wanted the Knockout Shield to also claim the Champion-of-Champions trophy, the ultimate symbol of supremacy in northern region women's soccer.
Needless to say, Lynn-Avon were desperate to remain the only team to have won northern women's soccer's "Grand Slam". As well, victory was vital to them, if only to avoid the ignominy of failing to win a trophy for the first time since 1994.
So when Lyn Pedruco put Lynn-Avon in front in the 23rd minute of an absorbing final - the first time in over a year in which Three Kings had not scored the first goal in a match in which they were playing, their supporters could not conceal their delight.
That scoreline changed in the 56th minute, Beth Clark levelling matters as Three Kings, slowly but surely, began to turn the tide.
The tension of the occasion was all-encompassing, with edginess clearly audible in the voices of both sets of supporters as they urged their respective sides on with the final edging ever closer to extra-time.
There were close calls at both ends, but a minute into injury time, a mistake by Lynn-Avon captain Terry McCahill was pounced on by Pernille Andersen, who strode clear before sending a twenty-yarder arrowing into the bottom far corner of the net to clinch the "Grand Slam" for Three Kings, 2-1.
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