Malta

D'Agostino wants maiden Malta win

Rebecca D'Agostino will be leading Malta in this month's UEFA European Women's Championship preliminary round after helping them secure their first competitive point earlier this year, and believes they can secure a debut victory.

EURO bid
The 1-1 draw with Bosnia-Herzegovina in their final FIFA Women's World Cup game in Corradino in June ended a run of 13 defeats since making their competitive bow in UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2005™ qualifying. Their second EURO campaign starts on Saturday in Group 3 against Lithuania before facing mini-tournament hosts Luxembourg and Slovakia with one place in the qualifying group stage on offer. And Melita FC defender D'Agostino, named best female player in the 2004/05 and 2005/06 Maltese Football Awards, believe the islanders could make progress.

Time to win
D'Agostino told uefa.com: "I reckon Slovakia are the strongest side in our group. I believe though that our national team has improved very much in recent matches, and if we play as a unit we can even notch up a good result against Slovakia themselves. I believe the time for our first competitive win is near."

Father's influence
A veteran of all 14 of Malta's previous competition fixtures, the 24-year-old developed her skills in street football, playing with boys. There was family encouragement too. "My father, Alfred also had a big influence," D'Agostino said. "Being very much involved in youth football he encouraged me to take up the sport. I used to go everywhere with him and thus my love for football grew to the extent that I took on football as my number one sport."

Facilities needed
However, D'Agostino believes progress still needs to be made. "Improvement in the local female game should come from having the right facilities," she said. "Unfortunately the right facilities are not currently as we would like them to be. If facilities are not there, I think that we will lose young girls who are interested in developing their football skills. I must also mention, though, the backing we have had from the local Football Association."

Signs of growth
D'Agostino's Malta and Melita team-mate Natasha Pace emphasised that there are signs of growth. "Four new girls' football nurseries were introduced recently - Pembroke Athleta, Hibernians, Birkirkara and Valletta - and this confirms the interest in women's football on the island," Pace said.

©uefa.com

I bet Cookie knows a bit about this

Yeah I set this thread up for her
so she can let us know more about the team (hopefully)

Come on Cookie - tell us what you're up to

Hey, sorry I was away playing for the National Team and I couldn't post a reply.

To tell you the truth I didn't know anything about it until I was with the team and they were talking about it. So I hardly know anything about it.

All I can talk about is our performances this week, which were like this; 1st game; Great game. 2nd game; Good first half, really bad second half. 3rd game; Poor 15minutes, ok until the whistle of the first half, not so bad in the second half but really bad GK errors. (which is still our weekest point and it's a shame because we didn't deserve to be beaten so heavily, but I still can't take away any credit from Slovakia who were so much better and truly deserved their win, I still enjoyed playing with them players. Probably the best the we ever played against)
1st game against Lithuania was really good, our defence was in top form and rarely let a ball go loose, it is because of the defence we managed to get a draw, which in the end was a fair result.
2nd game against Luxembourg, who I feel are nothing better than us but as I said, because the defence played good in the first game we drew, this time was the other way round, the defence was nowhere and it wasn't just one player. Noneless every player gave her heart out, it just wasn't meant to be. I felt we were cruising with 16minutes gone, 2-0 up. Still I felt as normal as ever. Never in the game I thought we were going to get beaten. But that's football and the tables turned, our defence was nowhere near the form it showed in previous games. So that was it, it was a sour defeat. Which I still can't take and I can't wait till we play them again. Hopefully.
Our last game was against the best team in the group, we knew that of course. Our aim was not to get beaten heavily and score a goal. In the first 15minutes, they showed their class, scored two goals and pinned us in our own half but as the time was pressing on, we started getting better and were attacking them a bit. End of the 1st half, we were happy with the final 30minutes. The rain never really stopped and the pitch was like a swimming pool, we were never able to run with the ball, dribble or give short passes because you'd either forget the ball behind you or be embarressed about it. 3rd goal was a classy one, then our GK started having trouble and she never really tried to do much about the other goals. It was a funny match, silly sliding tackles and passes. I still can't understand why the ref didn't abonden the match because really, it was like a swimming pool. I was frustrated, but I still enjoyed playing unlike the other game against Lux. It was deserved that the Slovakians won the group, but their adventure ended on a sour note as well, we were at the same Hotel and they got stolen by some *beep* people. It was really sad and frustrating. I hope they sorted out everything now.

Thanks for the reports Cookie Sorry to hear about the losses but at least you can gather what you did wrong and see what you have to do to compete with the better teams out there It's difficult to compete when you aren't playing in the best conditions and you know your up against the best!

What was stolen in the Hotel? I don't think I understood.

The rooms in which the Slovakia players were staying in the hotel where all broken and money, phones, cameras. Whatever they had in the room was stolen when we were playing.

That's terrible - did they sue the hotel?
Where was the security - this shouldn't have happened.

As for your games, I was checking the scores as they were coming in
and I'm sorry especially about the last game

I really wish I could see you play one day though

That's awful! Weren't the Hotel aware of the people going in?

Like you say hope they have got it sorted. Not a nice thing to happen

We have no idea what happened as we left early in the morning from the Hotel, so I can't say. The Hotel didn't have a security guard and I didn't see any security cameras either.



It's football eh, to tell you the truth I'd rather be beaten that heavily again by Slovakia than Luxembourg, because they really are good.

Hehe maybe one day we'll draw Wales or Nothern Ireland, or a friendly or so... We'll see then

No no no, you leave Wales alone, I want to see Jayne Ludlow win win win

But if you did play Wales, perhaps I'd be able to go and see you

And they will probably do but it'd be good playing against a good team again. As I said before I'd love the chance to play in the UK someday

Cheers for the info cookie always nice to see how you and Malta are doing

Sad news about the things getting stolen though

Maybe you'll get a chance to play Wales in a friendly - in Rhyl hopefully
We won't be upset about any result if there's nothing at stake

23 Feb 2007:

Malta 0-0 Switzerland

International Friendly

(Hibs Ground)

Malta: N. Dimech, L.A. Galea, N. Pace, R. D'Agostino,
D. Theuma, Y. Carabott, M. Deguara, R. Gatt,
M. Azzopardi, K. Agius Pace, C. Camilleri.
Subs used: R. Cuschieri, K. Saliba, S. Farrugia, J. Coates.

Cookie didn't score?

No one scored

That's what I mean

Anyone know if that was the full Swizz team? If so it was a impreeive Maltese result.

Hey guys,
Thank you Agent Smith for the report...

This is what maltasport.com had to say about the game

Malta women’s national team and Switzerland played out a 0-0 draw in an international friendly match at Hibernians Ground, Corradino on Friday.

The Maltese girls, under the charge of coach Pierre Brincat and his assistant Alfred Zammit, gave quite a good account of themselves considering they were facing a team with a better international pedigree.

The Swiss displayed a superior passing rate and had more scoring opportunities, also hitting the upright late in the game through Desiree Grundbacher.

But Malta’s grit never allowed their opponents to press home their territorial edge.

On the other hand, the team had, arguably, the best chance of the match when speedster Ylenia Carabott came face to face with the Swiss goalkeeper Marisa Brunner but hit weakly and straight at the extreme defender.

In the second half there was a slight improvement in Malta’s play but scoring opportunities were at a premium.

Pierre Brincat took the opportunity to introduce some new faces in his squad which will be involved in international competition in the forthcoming months.

Switzerland were here on a training camp and the match also served as preparation, in the run up to their future commitments.

Having been eliminated from the preliminary round of the UEFA Women’s Championship last November when our team suffered defeats to Luxembourg and group winners Slovakia following a goalless draw with Lithuania, Malta have now earned themselves a tonic for further improvement.

MALTA: Dimech, Galea, Pace, D'Agostino, Theuma, Carabott (82 Cuschieri), Deguara, Gatt (46 Saliba), Azzopardi (88 Farrugia), Agius Pace (46 Coates), Camilleri.

SWITZERLAND:Brunner, Scharer, Betschart (67 Zurny), Graf, Datwyler, Bernauer (67 Tamagni), Mandly, Steinegger, Zahno, Abbe (81 Sarrasin), Schapper (67 Grundbacher).

As you can see I had the best chance of the game and I'm dissapoined not to have taken it because I know I should have. Other than that, I was happy with my game and with everyone cause we played really really well as a team. It was a great result considering they are ranked 29th in we're down to 113th