Roslyn dominant against University
ROSLYN Wakari had a convincing 80 win over a depleted University side in the ODT Southern Championship on Saturday.
University started strongly and only a fine save from Roslyn’s standin keeper Fraser Hunter denied the students.
Roslyn settled after scoring from a couple of corners, as Nick Treadwell and Tennessee Kinghorn gave it a 20 lead at halftime.
Roslyn ran away with the game in the second half. Kinghorn and Treadwell both wound up with hat tricks and Cam Anderson netted twice.
Mosgiel beat Northern 21 in a tense affair at Forrester Park.
It looked to be goalless heading into the break when a well-flighted cross from Charlie Gruppelaar found Regan Coldicott, who coolly slipped the ball past keeper Jacky Loong in the 40th minute.
Northern restored parity in the second half when Ryan Hawken beat the offside trap and Mosgiel keeper Sean McDonald with just under an hour gone.
Loong, who recently transferred from Mosgiel, was having a great game but in the 65th minute he took down Coldicott in the box, conceding a penalty and earning a yellow card. He then magnificently saved the penalty from Coldicott.
Coldicott had revenge minutes later and sealed a hardfought victory, when he scored from a tightly angled free kick from 20m.
It was a game of two halves between Caversham and Green Island at Hancock Park, where Green Island won 10.
Caversham created a few chances in the first half from playing down the flanks but was unable to get on to the crosses delivered into the box.
With the sun in its eyes, the Island defence was stretched and the bobbly pitch made the bounce of the ball erratic.
After a good movement down the left side a welltaken shot by Matt Milton drew a great lowdown save from Caversham’s Zane Green, which kept the score 00 at halftime.
The second half was a reversal in possession. Green Island dominated and created many corners and shots on goal.
Halfway through, Matt Milton received a pass near the halfway line, ran at the defence and found himself oneonone with the keeper.
His wellhit shot rebounded off the post and Lewis Wall, following up, headed in the winning goal.
SAMARA, Russia: England defied almost three decades of disappointment to move confidently into the World Cup semifinals for the first time since 1990, as headers from Harry Maguire and Dele Alli downed a dogged but toothless Sweden 20 yesterday.
Far more fancied England sides had failed to reach the last four in the past but Gareth Southgate’s young squad powered on as it continued to make a mockery of dampened pretournament expectations with another impressive display in Russia.
England was set on its way when Maguire rose imperiously to head home from a corner and Alli added the killer blow after the break, as England showed it is not entirely dependent on the tournament’s leading scorer Harry Kane for goals.
If anything, England’s hero on the day was to be found at the other end of the pitch, as keeper Jordan Pickford produced three superb saves to shut out the workmanlike Swedes.
‘‘We had to withstand a lot of physical pressure,’’ England coach Gareth Southgate said.
‘‘The resilience of the team and togetherness of the team today was crucial. Today our spirit was as good as theirs and our quality a little bit better.’’
The fans who serenaded their side at the Samara Arena stayed long after fulltime to herald the achievement, knowing that with so many of the favourites having departed, England has arguably its best chance of global glory in more than half a century.
While England’s victory, only its third quarterfinal success in nine attempts, was largely a onesided affair, it was certainly not straightforward.
Sweden had reached the quarterfinals by making life hard for supposedly superior opposition and it was easy to see why, after a dour opening when England looked incapable of stringing passes together against its hardworking opponent.
It was predictable in many ways, therefore, that the dead lock was broken from a set piece.
England had laboured without reward before Ashley Young lined up a corner on the left and his curled effort was met by Maguire charging forward with conviction and barging Emil Forsberg out of his way to power a header down into the net.
England was almost made to pay straight after the interval and would have been pegged back if Pickford had not produced a topdrawer save to keep out a Marcus Berg header.
His contribution was swiftly underlined when England doubled its lead in the 59th minute as Jesse Lingard’s teasing cross was met by Alli, unmarked at the far post, to head powerfully past Olsen.
‘‘I wasn’t born the last time England reached a World Cup semifinal,’’ Pickford (24) said.