The Bulleen Lions have stars across all lines and will believe they have the firepower to dethrone Calder United to claim the 2023 Nike F.C. Cup.
In 2022, Bulleen was defeated by Calder United in the Semi-Final of the Nike F.C. Cup, going down 1-0 after conceding an 80th-minute goal.
Bulleen Lions Head Coach Caitlin Friend is “extremely confident” her side has what it takes to prevent Calder United from winning six Nike F.C. Cups in a row.
“We are a different side compared to what we have been in the last couple of years,” Friend explained.
“We are absolutely confident in our team right now and we are going into this final in a way better place than we were going into the Semi-Final last year.
“I think the result in the semi last year was 100% deserved, Calder was by far the better team.
“I think Calder will be very scared and intimated by the Bulleen they are going to face this year.”
In the first round of this year's campaign, the Lions drew State League 1 side Bundoora United who posed a bigger challenge than first anticipated.
“When the draw came out, I was a bit nervous because obviously, we have quite a few A-League players, and just so happened to be a week when a couple of our core non-A-League players were also unavailable,” Friend recalled.
“We were drawn against Bundoora United, and I thought it wasn’t a bad result given we were also playing at home, but little did I know they were a very organised and strong State League 1 team.”
After a tense first 30 minutes, the underdogs opened the scoring; sending shockwaves through the Bulleen playing group.
Audrey Oastler squared the ledger on the brink of half-time before midfielder Alana Burn sent Bulleen into the second round of the competition with an 82nd-minute free-kick.
“When they went up I was very stressed out because I knew we had to win that match because we would get players back for the next game and it wouldn’t be an issue,” Friend said.
“It was for me the biggest match of the Nike F.C. Cup and our set-up game.”
In Round 5 of the Cup, Bulleen defeated NPLW ladder-leaders Boroondara 4-1in their biggest scalp of the tournament so far.
The Lions' cream rose to the top, with A-League players Maja Markovski and Alana Jancevski both scoring a brace in the impressive 4-1 victory.
“Boroondara has been a bit of a wow factor this year, they have an absolute dynamite striker,” Friend explained.
“They have a couple of good players in the midfield who are supplying her very well, but I wasn’t too worried about drawing them because I knew we had our group back and I was confident in our group's abilities.
“I was weirdly confident going into that game, whereas going into the Bundoora game I was really nervous.”
In the Quarter-Final Bulleen defeated fellow NPLW side Box Hill United 2-0, finding the back of the net either side of half-time.
“Box Hill hasn’t quite got into their form of late, so I was pretty happy with that, but we were still lucky to come away with a two-goal victory,” Friend said.
“I think the goalkeeper just made some errors that gave us the win, it was a hard win, the main thing was that we got through unscathed.”
In their Semi-Final encounter, Bulleen defeated VPLW side Casey Comets in a clinical display.
“The match was away which was annoying because playing out there isn’t the Veneto Club, that’s for sure,” Friend explained.
“We definitely didn’t underestimate them because we knew how much they cared and how excited they were to be there; we knew they were going to come out hard.
“We scored early and quickly which I think killed the game which was good for us because it could have gone the other way if they got any sort of momentum. Then our class and quality came through with the rest of our goals
“It was a good win in the end, now we prepare to take on the defending Champions.”