A fine team performance from Perth Glory against last season’s Grand Finalists, Western United, gave the home side a thoroughly deserved 2-0 win with excellent goals from Susan Phonsongkham and NZ International Grace Jale in a game that many would have had Western United as favourites to get the three points.
Late Kick-Off Times
With the A-League finally conceding that 3 p.m. kick-off times in the summer are hazardous to player welfare, Perth Glory has scheduled most of their home games for a 7 p.m. kick-off. For away teams, this will mean the effective kick-off time can range from 9.00 p.m. for Brisbane Roar to midnight for Wellington Phoenix. Western United coach, Mark Torsaco, made mention of this during his post-match press conference as he suggested that his players were finding it hard to adjust to playing so late. He didn’t offer this as an excuse for the defeat, but it was noticeable how strongly Perth Glory finished the game compared to their opponents. Glory’s home form last season saw them lose three games and draw one, and the later kick-offs may help them improve that this season and turn Macedonia Park into a fortress that no team will relish coming to.
Defences Win Titles
When the halftime whistle blew, the score stood at 0-0 despite the shot count being 10 to 3 in favour of the visitors. Alyssa Dall’Oste in the Western United goal didn’t have a save to make whilst Morgan Aquino was called into action six times. Perth Glory also won twice the number of tackles as their opponents in that half (14 compared to 7) and came out on top with the duels won (31 as opposed to 22).
Whilst Aquino deserves the plaudits for her excellent performance, the hard work put in by Claudia Mihocic and Jessika Cowart in the centre of defence also merits praise, as they kept Hannah Keane goalless.
During the pre-season Glory coach Alex Epakis had preached that his team would be progressive and attacking but in this game, it was his defence that was the key to earning the three points.
As the game entered its final stages, and as if to emphasise the importance of keeping things tight, Epakis threw on central midfielders Sarah Cain and Sadie Lawrence to replace attacking players Sophia Sakalis and Susan Phonsongkham as he looked to close the game out at 2-0.
Grace Jale Is A Handful
Losing Cyera Hintzen from the team meant Perth Glory were robbed of their golden boot from the last two seasons and they needed a quality replacement to fill the hole left. Despite this being her first game in Glory colours, Jale quickly showed the home fans that she will be a massive asset to the team this season. Her fledging partnership with fellow debutant Mille Farrow up front shows enormous promise, and there are bound to be more goals from the NZ forward.
Her strike for her goal was ferocious, but she also showed clever movement to receive the ball and could have had a second but for a fine save by Dall’Oste late in the game. Jale is a big strong powerful player and with the likes of Sakalis and Phonsongkham making forward runs, her ability to hold the ball up and play others in will be of real value for the season.
WA Players Making A Comeback
One of the biggest criticisms levelled at Perth Glory by local fans since Epakis took over has been the lack of local players in the squad. The Glory coach has addressed this issue with his off-season recruitment bringing in Clara Hoarau, Georgia Cassidy, Grace Johnston, Mischa Anderson, Tanika Lala, and Tia Stonehill from the local NPLW, and they have augmented the existing WA players in the squad to bring the number of locals up to 12. By the end of the game, there were no less than seven WA players on the field, so it’s now impossible to suggest that locals are not being given a chance.
Crowd Numbers and Facilities
The much-anticipated opening round of the Liberty A-League certainly lived up to expectations in terms of crowd numbers with a record opening-round attendance figure of 26 247 for the six games, including 11 471 for Sydney Derby.
At Macedonia Park, however, there were just 1 114 in attendance. Granted this was above the 784 average for last season but it was more than 1400 fewer than the next lowest attendance of the round at Sky Stadium in NZ. Perth crowds are notoriously fickle and if the team gets a roll on then the attendance will undoubtedly increase, but any drop in performance and crowd numbers will dive again.
As well as the lowest attendance of the round, the physical state of the ground and the facilities there were not on par with games played at other venues. Last season when the men were playing evening games at Macedonia Park additional floodlighting was brought in to make TV pictures clearer, temporary covered dugouts with modern seating were in place and a partioned media area was installed. There was none of that on Saturday, although there were plenty of literal fireworks and pyrotechnics before during and after the game. Its to be hoped that the level of of investment shown by Glory for the men’s evening games last season will be matched for the women’s games for the remainder of this season.
The bigger issue though is the lack of a modern 5-10K rectangular stadium in Perth and with nothing coming on the horizon in that regard, the fans and players will have to continue to call grounds such as Macedonia Park home for the foreseeable future.
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