Week 2 of the Capital Football NPLW Finals series saw Canberra Olympic take on Canberra Croatia at Riverside Stadium, for the right to play in the Grand Final against Belconnen United.
For an alternate review of the game, check out the Capital Football article from Jeremy Magan.
Preliminary Final: Canberra Olympic vs Canberra Croatia (Bar TV)
Canberra Croatia saved their best league performance for last week’s elimination final and were coming into this game with plenty of excitement. Meanwhile, reigning champs Canberra Olympic had been out-enthused by Belconnen United despite their late efforts (read about both games here). If momentum coming into this game was anything to go by, this preliminary final was going to be quite the contest.
Elke Aitolu returned to the starting Olympic lineup at centre-back, pushing Jaya Bowman into the holding midfield role for the unavailable Jane Vanzino. Canberra Croatia fielded the same team as last week.
While Michaela Thornton was busy for Olympic in the opening minutes, it was Tatum Mazis’ energy that exemplified Canberra Croatia’s endeavour in the opening half hour. Fellow attacker Arusha Chew opened the scoring in the 12th minute, however, with a left foot strike she’ll long remember. Coming onto Dianne Wilson’s cutback, Chew met the ball sweetly as it fired unerringly into the top left corner of Janet King’s net.
The half-hour mark crept up as Mazis nearly reached Brittany Palombi’s centred delivery ahead of King, To this point the Canberra Olympic attack had hardly rated a mention in the game, but Nicole Jalocha would change that with a one-on-one opportunity that custodian Ellie Summers did well to clear with her feet. There would be another one-on-one against Summers for Jalocha five minutes later, with the same result. Otherwise, the half belonged to the team in red, as illustrated by Mazis finding King’s crossbar after some fine lead-up work from Nadia Zakman.
While the end of the first half had seen positive signs by Olympic, coach Frank Cachia’s half-time talk finally unlocked the required sense of finals urgency in his charges. The momentum pendulum began to swing back towards them in the second stanza.
The higher-tempo Olympic outfit dominated the opening minutes of the half. Yet it would be Canberra Croatia’s Mazis who was rewarded for effort in the 50th minute, reaching a speculative Palombi long ball and firing her team into a 2-0 lead. A rare miscommunication between King and Aitolu gifted Mazis a stroll into the Olympic goal.
To their credit, Olympic doubled down on their higher tempo game, led by the irrepressible Maddy Whittall. Under pressure from Eliza-Jane Norris, Whittall ran onto Jalocha’s through ball and snuck a shot past Summers to make it 2-1 in the 55th minute.
Three minutes later, Whittall was on the spot again to equalise. Leah Carnegie’s free-kick from the halfway line found Whittall at the far end of the penalty area, and her first-time volley could only be deflected by Summers into the net.
The team in blue now had their tails up and, perhaps having studied Palombi’s influence at the end of the Elimination Final, managed to dampen her impact in the remainder of this game. Canberra Croatia defensive lynchpin Rhiannon Fensom was by now in constant discomfort with an aggravation of an arm injury sustained last week, and battled on bravely.
Jaya Bowman scored Olympic’s winner in the 68th minute, tip-toeing through the Canberra Croatia box after a delightful first touch and wrong-footing Summers with the tight angle of her shot.
Canberra Croatia tried to lift as the minutes wore down but not even Megan Castle’s entry into the game could inspire her team to a late comeback this time, with Olympic taking the spoils and the Grand Final ticket.
This was a classic “game of two halves” for the spectators to enjoy, and if Canberra Olympic can bring their second-half intensity into their season-ender with the Blue Devils then it promises to be an unmissable event.
>>> Full match timeline and team line-ups can be found here <<<
Final score:
Canberra Olympic 3 (Maddy Whittall 55′ 58′, Jaya Bowman 68′)
Canberra Croatia 2 (Arusha Chew 12′, Tatum Mazis 50′)
Next week:
Finals week 3 – Grand Final
