Round seven of the NPL Capital Football women’s competition saw a first-up win for Tuggeranong United, a stunning result for West Canberra Wanderers over a traditional powerhouse, and a Michelle Heyman-less Gungahlin United coming within a goal of the ladder leaders.
Beyond 90 headed to the synthetic Hawker Enclosed pitch, where Canberra United Academy took on the rejuvenated Canberra Olympic.
Other Round 7 games held on the weekend included the following:
West Canberra vs Belconnen United
Wagga City vs Tuggeranong United
Gungahlin United vs Canberra Croatia
Match of the Round: Canberra United Academy vs Canberra Olympic
First things first: it was good to watch a game where both first-choice keepers were available! This has been a relative rarity lately and Beyond 90 wishes all the competition’s recovering goalkeepers well.
It’s likely that Canberra Olympic coach Nicole Begg will have paid little attention to the six point gap between fourth-placed West Canberra and fifth-placed Academy coming into this fixture. After finding their feet in the first couple of games, Sarah West’s Canberra United Academy side looks to be warming to their task.
This game happened four days after Njegosh Popovich was announced as the new Canberra United A-League Women coach. Perhaps it’s a little too soon for Popovich to sit on the bench beside West, but it will be interesting to see what future role he takes with the team.
Both sides fielded strong line-ups, with Sarah Johnston replacing Elke Aitolu in the Olympic central defence alongside Ally Cook, and Ashleigh Sykes making a welcome return to their starting eleven.
The pattern of both halves was to be Olympic coming hard at Academy and capitalising on early chances. Academy would then settle and look to pose attacking threats of their own, often via captain Sofia Christopherson.
Olympic right-winger Vanessa Ryan scored the first goal of the game in the 8th minute, positioning herself at the back post to receive Syke’s skimming ball from the left and passing it into the net.
Both sides were employing a high defensive line and with the fitness all around the park to maintain it, at times the game was played in a narrow midfield band.
The 14 minute mark saw the ever-threatening Sykes deliver a ball from the right edge of the Academy 18 yard box onto the unattended Michaela Thornton’s head at the far post, but the header was scuffed and not a threat to keeper Chloe Lincoln.
A strong 20 minute period for Academy followed. They took control of possession, finding wingers Alyssa Di Campli and Charli Gregson in attack, but looking most dangerous when the electric Christopherson took on the Olympic defence. Her lobbed attempt over keeper Janet King in the 24th minute was narrowly shy of the required elevation, and King was able to rein the ball in. Recognising the threat, Olympic used a physical approach in an attempt to throw Christopherson off her game.
Around the 35 minute mark, Olympic started reasserting themselves, with Lincoln saving in style from close range attempts by Ryan and then Nicole Jalocha. A fine defensive block by Nadia Zakman denied Sykes on 41 minutes, and the ensuing corner was half-volleyed high over the goal by Cook at the back post.
Olympic went into half-time one goal up.
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An early goalmouth skirmish in the first minute of the second half was a pointer to another torrid opening period for Academy. Olympic captain Victoria Jamieson pulled out all stops two minutes later to reach Sykes’ deflected ball near the Academy by-line, and Jalocha’s presence was enough to distract Lincoln from the ball, which unfortunately bounced off EJ Norris and into her own net.
In the 50th minute, Sykes lashed a fierce shot from outside the Academy area. As the ball careened off the crossbar, Ryan was on the spot to turn in her second goal of the night, giving Olympic a 3-0 lead.
A yellow card was shown to Academy’s Jaya Bowman seven minutes later for her challenge on Sykes, with the Academy team now displaying some physicality of their own. Three minutes later Christopherson bounded past Johnston into the Olympic box. Her scuffed pass was met by Latisha Babic’s shot, but Olympic fullback Renee Junna did well to get her body between the ball and the goal.
If Sykes running at defenders wasn’t enough to deal with, Thornton was coming more into the game. Thornton’s direct attacking style from midfield was proving to be a dangerous counterpoint to Sykes. Academy tried to put together a cohesive period as shown in the first half, but found maintaining that type of pressure more difficult, with Olympic working hard to deny Christopherson time on the ball.
Academy fullback Tayla Hampson cleared Cook’s flick off the goal-line with 20 minutes remaining, as her team defended three corners in quick succession.
Both coaches started ringing in the substitutions but something that didn’t change was Sykes beating defenders, sailing past three of them on 78 minutes, but for little reward. Sykes would be named Player of the Match by Olympic after the game.
Three minutes remained when Lincoln tipped an effort from Olympic substitute Isabella Wallace over the bar as the game wound down, ending with a 3-0 win for Canberra Olympic.
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It was a feast of entertainment for the crowd, and both sides can take positives from this performance. It will be particularly interesting to see if, in the coming weeks, Academy can close the gap to the top four, with the team below them on the ladder – Gungahlin United – also showing signs of being able to do so.
The Capital Football goal highlights package for the round can be found here, and Jeremy Magan’s round wrap for Capital Football can be found here.
Final score:
Canberra United Academy 0
Canberra Olympic 3 (Ryan 8′ 51′, Norris (og) 48′)
Teams:
Canberra United Academy – Coach: Sarah West
Chloe Lincoln, Tayla Hampson, Nadia Zakman, Luella Coleman, Eliza-Jane Norris, Alyssa Di-Campli, Isabella Hindmarsh, Latisha Babic, Jaya Bowman, Charli Gregson, Sofia Christopherson (c)
Subs: Angelina Jukic (80′ => Di-Campli), Caitlin Koch (80′ => Gregson), Eliza Evans, Natalie Chang, Riley McQueenie
Canberra Olympic – Coach: Nicole Begg
Janet King, Renee Junna, Ally Cook, Sarah Johnston, Victoria Jamieson (c), Tianah Miro, Meg Roden, Michaela Thornton, Vanessa Ryan, Nicole Jalocha, Ashleigh Sykes
Subs: Arusha Chew (74′ => Ryan), Brittany Fiorese (79′ => Jalocha), Isabella Wallace (83′ => Miro), Jaz Zabel (83′ => Junna), Katrina Peric (74′ => Roden)
Around The Grounds:
West Canberra 2-1 Belconnen United
Wagga City 0-5 Tuggeranong United
Gungahlin United 1-2 Canberra Croatia
Ladder:
Next week:
Round 8
- Belconnen United vs Tuggeranong United, McKellar Park, Saturday 28 May, 3:00pm
- West Canberra vs Gungahlin United, Melrose Synthetic, Sunday 29 May, 12:45pm
- Canberra Olympic vs Wagga City, O’Connor Enclosed, Sunday 29 May, 2:45pm
- Canberra United Academy vs Canberra Croatia, Hawker Enclosed, Sunday 29 May, 5:10pm
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