It was 1 vs 2 in a rare Saturday Capital Football NPLW fixture at a damp McKellar Park between the only two undefeated teams, Belconnen United and Canberra Olympic. 

Other games from this round that can be viewed include:
West Canberra Wanderers vs Tuggeranong United (full stream)
Canberra Croatia vs ANU (full stream)

For an alternate review of the round, check out the Capital Football article from Jeremy Magan.

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Match of the Round: Belconnen United vs Canberra Olympic (Bar TV) 

There were several player milestones to celebrate in this key game, with Leah Carnegie (150 games, most of them for the Blue Devils but now in her second season with Canberra Olympic), and Izzy Hindmarsh, Lauren Preston, Sienna Birnie, and Bessie Riethmuller (all 50 games) recognised by Capital Football.

Perhaps partly due to the return of Maddy Whittall from A-League Women duties, Olympic set up for this one with a slightly more attacking 3-4-3 formation, compared to the 4-4-2 of the home side. Blue Devils vice captain Keira Bobbin returned to their matchday squad, sitting on the bench after a month spent overseas.

As befits a quality top-of-the-table clash, there was little between the sides in the first half thanks to tight marking and little available time on the ball. (Significantly, Canberra Olympic was later to name defensive holding midfielder Jaya Bowman as their player of the match). Olympic grafted away, shading the possession and corner kicks stats, as Ailish McDonagh played an uncompromising defensive game for the home side paired with controlled distribution (i.e. exactly what you want from your centre-back).

Despite Olympic’s possession, the Blue Devils had the better of first-half chances. Alyssa Di Campli toed an early chance wide under pressure from Carnegie, and later in the half broke away from her defender and unsuccessfully attempted a chip over Janet King. King was again in action in the 21st minute, diving but not reaching Lauren Preston’s just-wide attempt. McDonagh also zinged a low-flying bullet of a shot from distance wide after half an hour.

Tianah Miro had Olympic’s best chance of the half with Monique Pinkiewicz off her line and Miro with time on the ball, only to see her shot dip over the bar.

Blue Devils coach Scott Conlon asked for more from his players at the break, and they responded with a lift in intensity. A minute into the half Preston, who is loving life out of defence in her wide midfield role, curled a left-foot shot towards the left post. A diving King managed to feather-touch the ball out for a corner. Punching away Izzy Hindmarsh’s corner delivery, a back-pedalling King could only watch on as a wonderful strike by Blue Devils midfielder Sofia Palywoda sailed over her head for the first goal – not the first time we’ve seen Palywoda do this.

Olympic coach Frank Cachia rang the changes immediately, with Whittall and Jane Vanzino replaced by Ella-Rose Brown and Tehya Aspland. In less than ten minutes, Brown delivered a well-weighted ball for her fellow game-changer in space down the left, but Aspland’s low shot across Pinkiewicz steered wide of goal. Pinkiewicz was also to deny an advancing Madison Cachia just moments later.

Conlon made two attacking substitutions with 25 minutes remaining – Bobbin and the in-form Pascale La Hei came in for Reilly Yuen and Di Campli. La Hei’s first touch was a layoff in the Olympic area to Preston, who took a touch and buried the ball for her first NPL goal,  doubling her team’s lead.

Coach Cachia made similar attacking substitutions with 19 minutes to go, as Riethmuller and Liana Alves replaced Miro and captain Victoria Jamieson. The game had opened up a little by this stage, with chances notably falling the way of Bronte Pyke for Belconnen with 15 minutes left, and Birnie for Olympic with nine minutes remaining on the clock.

2-0 for the Blue Devils at home was how the game finished up; a highly watchable contest with Conlon’s ability to energize his charges at the break – as well as turning the tables in the second-half midfield battle – seemingly the difference. The teams meet twice more in the regular season and if the calibre of this game is any indication, those two fixtures will be unmissable.

       >>> Full match timeline and team line-ups can be found here <<<

Final score:

Belconnen United 2 (Sofia Palywoda 47′, Lauren Preston 65′)
Canberra Olympic 0  

Around The Grounds:

West Canberra Wanderers 1-0 Tuggeranong United
Canberra Croatia 3-2 ANU

Federation Cup semi-finals (midweek)
West Canberra Wanderers 0-5 Belconnen United
Gungahlin United 1-2 Canberra Croatia

Ladder:

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