Leichhardt girls kicking the goals

9 Jul 10 @ 10:01am by Mark Gertskis


The area’s biggest soccer club has had a 23 per cent boost in player registrations, with girls and women credited as the main drivers of the growth.

“The World Cup year has had a bit of an influence but the women’s and girls’ teams have increased significantly,” APIA Leichhardt chairman Tony Monticiollo said.

“Within the next 10 years the girls will be 50-50 with the boys. It’s an extraordinary growth in women’s football. Quite astonishing.”

One such new Apia recruit is 11-year-old goalkeeper from Leichhardt, Lydia McGlinchey, who has been playing soccer since she was six years old.

“She was playing for Balmain but last year decided to step up to representative soccer,” Lydia’s mother Karen McGlinchey said.

“When we first started they had trouble getting enough kids for a team and every year since then we’ve had to fight to get into a team. Girls’ soccer is absolutely huge.”

In the younger age groups, Monticiollo said, girls were just as good as the boys and predicted soccer to become the dominant women’s sport in Australia.

“Within the next five years women’s soccer will overtake netball, and comfortably,” he said.

“It’s just the world game. Every country in the world plays football. There’s no other sport that can match that.”

http://balmain-village-voice.whereilive.com.au/sport/story/girls-kick-the-goals/