IN the most contested age division of the Kanga Cup, the u12 boys played brilliantly to finish second in their pool against four other first division sides.

The u12 boys' division is easily the most contested of all age divisions in the Kanga Cup with 38 teams from Australia and the brilliant Korean team which entered.

The boys played in the second and third division in the Canberra competition and were faced with three other first division sides and a representative side from Shoalhaven in their pool, despite entering the Plate competition and not the Cup.

The first game against Belnorth was an exciting and entertaining game with the lead changing a number of times.

Cooma held a 3-2 lead with about five minutes to go when they conceded a soft goal to finish with a 3-3 draw.

Jackson Barry, who was carried off with a bad knee injury, played an inspiring game.

In the second game against Belsouth the boys started off brilliantly, scoring three unanswered goals in the first 10 minutes.

A few substitutions affected the flow of the team and allowed Belsouth back into the game at 3-2 with 10 minutes to go.

The boys rallied and finished the game with a 4-2 victory.

The third game against Sydney team Lindfield saw the u12 boys suffer a 5-1 loss, however the score didn't really reflect the match.

The last game in the pool was against Shoalhaven. It was a very physical game but the team played the best game of the tournament.

Being 1-1 with about five minutes to go, the Tigers pushed forward to try to secure a win.

A lovely goal saw us go to a 2-1 lead, however Shoalhaven answered swiftly, equalising at 2-2.

The Tigers pushed forward yet again with about a minute to Ben Clarke scored the best goal of the tournament.

The brilliant victory put the u12s in the Cup rather than the Plate, which saw them take on Adelaide City.

Cooma was down 3-0 at half time, but continued to push forward in the second half.

Although the result was still a very convincing win to Adelaide City, Cooma proved that with work on its defence it could be competitive against the strongest teams in the competition.

The under 12 boys were brilliant, well done.