This past weekend saw the new Florida United team show Atlanta that past games were simply that, in the past. The union of the Florida Redbacks and Fort Lauderdale Fighting Squids for 2008 finally took hold as they systematically thrashed the traveling Atlanta Kookaburras inflicting their biggest defeat in their ten year history.

With the mercury climbing to near 90F for the afternoon game the writing was on the wall early when Atlanta could barely muster enough players to play whilst the home team strutted out close to thirty players at their disposal for the game. The two Florida teams had spoken of this union for a while and whilst the trip to Atlanta in April only saw one Fort Lauderdale player attend with the Redbacks squad that day, today was to be a different story.

The game commenced with the ball moving from backline to backline with both teams having chances to score as they settled into the game. It was Florida though who drew first blood after a few minutes then the flood gates opened and didnt stop all afternoon. The combine kicked a tidy five goals straight in the following ten minutes all from strong play through the midfield. The Kookas answered with a goal right on the siren at quarter time but already there were big holes in the Kookas defenses and they didnt seem to have any answers for Florida's skill and fast running style of play. At quarter time the scores were Florida 5.1.31 to Atlanta 1.1.7

The second term was much the same as the Kookas stuggled to get the ball forward against a flukey breeze that didnt seem to know which way to blow. Florida however did what it pleased for most of the quarter however piling on six unanswered goals with great play from Mirakian, Mc Gettigan & Nicholson just to name a few.

The second half didnt get much better for the visiting Atlanta team, already down ten goals they were no match for the skills and running of the local Florida players. The third term saw another seven unanswered goals and then another six in the last quarter. The Florida team had winners on all lines all day, their backing up and support for each other was noteworthy as was their skills to pass the ball accurately down the field.

For Atlanta it was a game they would prefer to forget. After starting their year in promising fashion they were ripped apart by a far more talented and fitter team. Back to the drawing board for them and it will be interesting to see if this affects the rest of their season.

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