It was a good thing that the sun made an appearance for the first half of the Round 11 ACT NPL (Capital Football) game between sixth-placed ANU and ladder leaders Canberra Olympic. The temperature dropped markedly as the sun retreated in the second half.
Other Round 11 games were:
West Canberra Wanderers vs Belconnen United
Canberra United Academy vs Gungahlin United
Canberra Croatia vs Tuggeranong United
For an alternate review of the round, check out Jeremy Magan’s article for Capital Football.
Match of the Round: ANU vs Canberra Olympic (Bar TV)
A piece of Madison Cachia magic was all that separated the two teams at a chilly, bouncy ANU South Oval. The fourteen-year-old has put in some eye-catching performances since earning her first start for Canberra Olympic against the ANU just a month ago in a midweek catch-up game. On that occasion, Olympic prevailed 2-0.
While ANU were without the services of captain Roxie Swart and centre-back Ailish McDonagh, it was good to see Anneliese Grove back in the NPL, lining up here in McDonagh’s place. This was Grove’s second appearance this season since returning from College football. For Olympic, Jaz Zabel was sidelined wearing a moon boot, her place in the starting lineup taken by Anna Vandenbroucke.
A game between the first-placed team and the sixth in an eight-team competition perhaps wouldn’t be expected to be as close as this game was, but ANU has shown all season that they are more than willing competitors. On this unforgiving surface, it would be whichever team could keep the ball on the deck that would likely come out on top.
Both teams had their first sights on goal in the 8th minute. Nicole Jalocha’s inside ball to Maddy Whittall from the byline wasn’t met cleanly, and then at the other end, Sheridan McGelligott attempted a shot from distance after an Olympic defensive layback didn’t have enough on it.
ANU keeper Claire Joseph did well to get a hand to Olivia Gurney’s blistering shot midway through the half, a shot that was bound for the top right corner. Just after the half-hour mark, Joseph’s centre-back Grove came off the field as a precaution after doing well to intercept Cachia’s dart forward, perhaps sustaining some contact in the challenge. Emma Douglas-Oliveira joined the game up front for ANU, with Alex Serras dropping back to defend.
Olympic were consistently accumulating corners so it wasn’t entirely a surprise when, with four minutes left in the half, Cachia outmuscled her defender on the end of Janet King’s clearance, then sublimely chipped Joseph from the left side of the ANU area to take the lead.
Brittany Fiorese entered the game at halftime in the striker role for Olympic, replacing Vandenbroucke. ANU was to use up all three substitution windows in a fifteen-minute period leading up to the 80th minute in an attempt to throw different challenges Olympic’s way. The home side wasn’t without their chances in the half, with a McGelligott free kick careering off the crossbar early on; Douglas-Oliveira’s toed 75th-minute effort forcing a fully stretched King save; and substitute Liliana Azara’s headed down effort also touched away by King as it threatened to bounce over her and into the goal. King was later chosen as Olympic’s player of the match.
For the visitors, Gurney had perhaps the best attempt on goal in the second half, just before being replaced. Turning her defender on the left side of the ANU area, her shot sailed narrowly over the right post.
In a tight match of few chances, ANU did well to claw back the corner statistics in the second half, and there were periods where they looked the more threatening. They were unable, however, to get that vital breakthrough to send the match level, but can be satisfied with their competitive response to conceding at the end of the first half.
>>> Full match timeline and team line-ups can be found here <<<
Final score:
ANU 0
Canberra Olympic 1 (Madison Cachia 41′)
Around The Grounds:
Ladder:
Next Round:
