2021 NSW NPL Women’s Wrap – Round 11

Round 11 marks the midway point of the NSW NPL regular season. If the second half of the season is as entertaining as the first half has been, then spectators will truly be spoilt by the 12 talented teams that make up this competition.

This week, we covered league leaders Macarthur Rams as they attempted to maintain top spot against star-studded Sydney Olympic, who are one of many teams seeking to play a part in this year’s Premiership battle.

Macarthur Rams v Sydney Olympic

Sydney Olympic left it late, but George Beltsos’s side managed to sneak past Macarthur in a Sunday evening showdown at Lynwood Park, defeating the Rams 1-0. An unlucky own goal from Hayley Taylor-Young split the two teams, allowing Olympic to move into fourth place on the ladder.

Talismanic striker and Rams top scorer Leena Khamis was unavailable, so Laura Murtagh started at centre forward, flanked by the speedy pair of Taylor-Young and Rachael Goldstein. The other change made by Macarthur coach Stephen Peters saw Olivia Sloan replace Jasmine Limon in their starting lineup. Olympic also made two changes from their previous game – Jessica Frampton and Aimee Phillips moved back into the starting lineup in place of Kiara De Domizio and Georgia Manos.

Macarthur had the first notable chance on eight minutes. Murtagh played Taylor-Young’s cross into Bethany Gordon’s path, with the former Young Matilda testing Jada Whyman from 25 yards out. As for Olympic, their best opportunity of the early stages came in the 19th minute when Aimee Phillips dodged three challenges and found Teigan Collister, who was denied by Sham Khamis.

Intense pressing in midfield was part of the plan for both teams and a pattern developed: the two sets of centre backs and the goalkeepers would usually be allowed some time on the ball, but every other player on the field would have difficulty finding space.

On 35 minutes Murtagh got on the end of a Patty Charalambous corner and shot over, then two minutes later the visitors responded when Phillips raced down the right flank and crossed for Sarah Yatim, however her volley was off target. On the stroke of halftime, Rams skipper Renee Rollason headed a Charalambous free kick straight at Whyman.

With Collister being Olympic’s top scorer (six goals), it was natural that she would be involved in some of her side’s best moments. Nine minutes after the restart, the speedy winger intercepted a Khamis clearance and glided past two opponents, but the Rams goalkeeper was able to literally save her blushes by stopping the resulting shot.

Then on the hour mark, Macarthur halftime substitute Kylie Ledbrook displayed her usual deft touch and vision by releasing Holly Williams with a backheel, Williams forcing Whyman into a sharp save. A minute later the Rams constructed a flowing passing move on the left wing – Charalambous fired in a teasing cross which Whyman couldn’t reach, and Frampton did well to block Murtagh’s goalbound shot.

Scoring opportunities remained at a premium, and at times the game resembled a tug-of-war, with neither side willing to give an inch as they fought for control of the midfield. Both sides were able to maintain defensive pressure in the middle third and also play with a good deal of physicality, making it difficult for the creative players to exert any influence.

The contest began to open up in the final quarter of an hour. In the 78th minute, Lauren Keir found Rollason with a pinpoint free kick, but the header was wide. Olympic were then unable to take advantage of two great chances: on 82 minutes Collister blazed over after racing onto Yatim’s lovely dinked pass, and soon afterwards Yatim smacked a loose ball onto the post after Collister was dispossessed in the area.

However, Yatim would gain some reward for her tireless work on an evening where she seemingly covered every blade of synthetic turf at Lynwood Park. Four minutes from the end of normal time, the Olympic forward intercepted a pass and played the ball across the penalty area, with the unfortunate Taylor-Young slicing the ball into her own net under pressure from Collister.

In stoppage time, Charlotte Mclean performed defensive heroics twice in the space of 60 seconds to preserve Olympic’s lead: first getting enough of a touch on Rollason’s cross to keep it away from Goldstein, then blocking a Charalambous shot after a scramble in the penalty area.

Macarthur are now in second place, and will try to move back into the winner’s circle when they host North West Sydney Koalas next weekend. Olympic will go top if they win their Wednesday evening catchup game against Sydney University, and they are at home to Football NSW Institute on Sunday.

In the day’s other games, only the Spartans were successful in defending their home territory – Illawarra Stingrays, Sydney University, APIA Leichhardt and new league leaders Northern Tigers were all victorious on their travels.

Macarthur Rams 0
Sydney Olympic 1 (Hayley Taylor-Young og 86’)

Macarthur Rams: Sham Khamis, Lauren Keir, Holly Williams, Renee Rollason (c), Olivia Sloan (Kylie Ledbrook 46’), Bethany Gordon (Chloe Gordon 90’), Melissa Caceres, Patty Charalambous, Hayley Taylor-Young (Jasmine Limon 90+5’), Laura Murtagh (Chrystal Duggan 85’), Rachael Goldstein

Yellow cards: Renee Rollason 48’, Bethany Gordon 67’

Sydney Olympic: Jada Whyman, Angelique Hristodoulou (Kiara De Domizio 81’), Charlotte Mclean, Matilda McNamara, Jessica Frampton, Taylor Ray, Alexia Karrys-Stahl, Mackenzie Hawkesby (c), Teigan Collister, Sarah Yatim, Aimee Phillips

Around the Grounds
Bankstown City 0 Sydney University 4
Blacktown Spartans 2 Emerging Jets 0
FNSW Institute 0 Northern Tigers 1
Manly United 0 Illawarra Stingrays 1
NWS Koalas 2 APIA Leichhardt 3

Table

Read more Beyond 90 NSW NPL articles here.