It’s a ball for young Cougars

By Marc McGowan
TWELVE lucky Cardinia United Cougars Junior Soccer Club players will have the best view in the house at Telstra Dome on Saturday.
The players will form the ball squad for the second leg of Melbourne Victory’s A-League major semi-final against Adelaide United.
The group of 12 and 13-year-olds impressed Football Federation Victoria (FFV) officials when they had the same opportunity in the Victory’s clash with Perth Glory in October.
Four girls and eight boys will represent the Cougars on the weekend.
Cardinia United president Rob Hastings was overjoyed at the news.
“FFV sat and talked about it and, as a result of all the things we’ve been doing with them this year and the fact we’re a new club … they’ve chosen us to be the ball squad, which is a wonderful gesture,” he said.
“It will be an amazing night in their lives.
“Last time we went, there were 18,500 in the crowd for the Victory v Perth game and there will be 50,000-plus in the stadium on Saturday night.”
The Cougars will be evenly spread around the field and their job is to pass a spare ball to the referee as soon as one goes out of play to limit the delay to the match.
They will also form a guard of honour for the A-League players before and after the contest.
Cardinia United held its registration day for the 2009 season at Cardinia Road, Pakenham, on Sunday.
Training started yesterday (Tuesday) and the FFV season kicks off on 26 April.
Hastings said club officials were waiting to find out which region they would be competing in.
“Because of where Pakenham is, we could play in Gippsland, the eastern zone or the southern zone,” he said.
“We’ve actually applied to go in the southern zone with 12-and-under and 14-and-under teams.
“We have an opportunity to apply for more teams, but that closes at the end of February.
“We need people who want to play in Pakenham to show interest fairly soon.”
Younger competitors will play non-scoring small-sided games against other clubs.