Tara Murray
Bundoora United’s fairy tale run in the Nike F.C Cup has continued with the club through to the final four of the competition.
Bundoora faced fellow Victorian Premier League Women’s side Keilor Park on Wednesday night in the quarter finals of the competition.
Keilor Park had knocked out Calder United, which had won the past six cups, in the previous round.
Bundoora coach Jonathan Barrientos said they were pretty excited about the result.
He said having played Keilor Park during the season they had a bit of an idea what to expect.
“We’ve encountered them throughout the season,” he said. “We had a really big loss last time we played them, it wasn’t a true reflection of our team on that day.
“We lost to them 9-1 at home. We had a big build up knowing that last result, but we didn’t think too much about it.
“We had momentum going into the game having been undefeated in our last four games.”
Barrientos said they wanted to show some of the play that had held them in such good stead the past two years.
He said there was a really good vibe in the changerooms beforehand with their leaders leading from the front.
Bundoora would come away with a 2-1 win.
“Keilor put us under pressure early on and credit to them they scored a goal in the eighth minute,” Barrientos said.
“After that we released that is all they have. We were pretty fortunate to score twice in the first half.
“The message at half time was that if it stays like this we win.”
Barrientos said the message at half time was to keep playing the “Bundy” and continue to press on.
He said they made their first sub with about 10 minutes to go and started to shut it down then.
Bundoora will face either Spring Hills or Preston Lions in the semi finals,
“Spring Hills is the strongest team in the VPL,” he said.” Preston is an NPL [National Premier League] side.
“Either side will be tough competition. Regardless of the season form to you there and whatever happens, happens and it’ll be whoever plays the best football on the night.”
Bundoora sits sixth on the ladder after 11 rounds.
Barrientos said they had really built into the season.
“The higher level took some of the girls by surprise,” he said. “I was really confident going into the season they were good enough to match it with any one.
“Mental belief let us down early as they didn’t realise how good they were.
“The last four weeks and last night we’ve shown we’re confident moving into the second half of the season.
“There’s 11 games to go and we want to win them all.”
