There were two highly anticipated semi-final matchups on Sunday afternoon, with the winners progressing to next Saturday’s Grand Final. Both were played back-to-back at a Deakin Stadium that had a crowd restriction of only 200 people.
There was a sense coming into these games that this could be a year where the old rivalry between Belconnen United and Canberra Croatia FC was toppled. As it transpired, the vast experience within these two teams was the deciding factor in their respective 4-1 wins, ensuring they will meet once again in the 2020 decider.
Semi-final 1: Belconnen United vs Gungahlin United
First up was Belconnen United vs Gungahlin United, a fixture which ended up as a draw in the regular season. In finishing second on the ladder, Belconnen have shown the occasional glimpse of vulnerability amongst the ‘business as usual’ dominance they have displayed in recent years. For their part, third placed Gungahlin United have had to adjust to injuries and absences in recent weeks, but showed enough against Canberra Croatia last week to suggest they should be well and truly in the mix for this semi-final.
And so it seemed for ten minutes. Inside the first minute, Gunners striker Elke Aitolu made Belconnen keeper Jess Giovinazzo’s eyes widen as a rocket undulated through the air towards her from distance, but she managed to keep her wits about her enough to repel the danger.
Just five minutes later, Gungahlin right winger Erika Pennyfield scored a goal to remember, starting and ending a movement by running onto an Aitolu through ball (from within her own half) and outpacing Mia McGovern to place her shot beautifully across Giovinazzo into the top left corner.
Belconnen’s reaction at one goal down told the story of the game. There was no panic and the experience in the team shone as they stroked the ball around the park, valuing ball retention more than their opponents despite this normally being a hallmark of the Gungahlin game.
It was evergreeen Katie Woodman who scored two goals before the half hour mark to ensure her team regained the ascendancy. She was ‘Katie on the spot’ for the first, capitalising on a delightful interchange between Nicole Jalocha and Samantha Price around the left side of the Gunners’ penalty box, with Vanessa Ryan also applying pressure on her defender in the six yard box as the ball came across and fell to Woodman, who made no mistake.
Jessie Rasschaert was the architect of Woodman’s second, chipping a perfectly weighted ball just over Woodman’s defender and testing Woodman’s heading technique, which was not found wanting. Her low header was perfectly placed beyond Gunners keeper Kailey Tonini’s outstretched right hand to make the score 2-1.
Half an hour in and it was evident that Gungahlin’s normally well oiled central midfield machine wasn’t quite as fluid as normal, with Tianah Miro struggling to get touches largely thanks to the commanding presence of captain Michaela Thornton. Belconnen central defensive pair Karen Clarke and Mia McGovern were content to defend deep now that their side had the lead, which made it difficult for the Gungahlin attack to gain any sort of foothold.
Pushing forward for a deadly Catherine Brown corner with six minutes to go in the half, Clarke had an easy tap-in after the ball floated just over Tonini’s hand to the back post and was unable to be cleared.
Belconnen coach Ahmed Ugool ensured there was no let up in pressure on the Gunners defence at the start of the second half, bringing in the energy of Maya Osmond and then Keira Bobbin. These proved to be effective tactical changes. Bobbin had an immediate impact, bursting onto the ball and firing with intent at Tonini, before Ryan was able to regather the ball and send it back in Bobbin’s direction. Gungahlin defender Alex Paterson was judged to have fouled Bobbin as the ball reached her, and Clarke tucked away the penalty with aplomb for a final scoreline of 4-1. From here the Blue Devils were content to close out the game.
Ugool praised his team’s response to the early goal and spoke to the experience in his team being the major factor in terms of not letting the occasion get to them. While the experience in the team was important, he also highlighted and was proud of his younger charges for coming on during the game and playing the way they did in a semi-final at this level.
Regarding Woodman’s contribution today, Ugool said ” … it was never going to be easy with the loss of Lexi Forner to injury, but with Katie Woodman, who has probably won 300 trophies – we are upset for Lexi of course, but also very happy that we have someone like Katie, who has been so professional throughout this season.”
Gungahlin coach Diego Iglesias was proud of his young team and their progression this season, conceding that perhaps the injury to Dhiaan Sidhu in central defence a few weeks ago – while showcasing Stefi Lejins’ ability in that position – had potentially affected the well-oiled midfield machine of the side, which had been so effective in the first half of the season.
“Obviously we want to have a balanced and settled backline. Stefi did a wonderful job coming into the middle and covering Dee. Dee is reliable, consistent, safe, and combines really well with Maddie [Perceval], and it was a big ask for Stef to go in and fill those shoes with no warning. It took Stef out of the midfield, and took that fight and drive out of the midfield. That said, while it changes the dynamic of the team, they’ve got to get used to playing with different balance and different combinations. It’s something we’ll continue to work on.
“Belconnen made us do a lot of defensive work today, which took the edge off us going forward. The penalty came at the wrong time, we were just settling and looking to get back into the game, so it was a big swing [against us].”
On the talent within his team, Iglesias remarked that ” … I’m hoping for years to come, people can enjoy this group, whether I’m here or not, it doesn’t matter.”
Final score:
Belconnen United 4 (Woodman 16′ 28′, Clarke 39′ 54′)
Gungahlin United 1 (Pennyfield 6′)
Teams:
Belconnen United – Coach: Ahmed Ugool
Jess Giovinazzo, Vanessa Ryan, Mia McGovern, Karen Clarke, Jessie Rasschaert, Catherine Brown, Michaela Thornton (c), Nicole Jalocha, Katie Woodman, Jas Maguire, Samantha Price
Subs: Keira Bobbin (51′ => Maguire), Maya Osmond (46′ => Jalocha), Leah Carnegie (63′ => Rasschaert), Maria Pachi (71′ => Price), Jayla Murphy (81′ => Giovinazzo)
Yellow cards: Rasschaert 59′
Gungahlin United – Coach: Diego Iglesias
Kailey Tonini, Alex Paterson, Stefi Lejins, Maddie Perceval (c), Brigitte Sander, Rachael Corbett, Stella De Marco, Tianah Miro, Jade Brown, Erika Pennyfield, Elke Aitolu
Subs: Ruby Gambale (69′ => Sander), Ayla Robertson (82′ => Miro), Dhiaan Sidhu (69′ => Corbett), Ella-Rose Brown (46′ => J. Brown)
Yellow cards: Nil
Semi-final 2: Canberra Croatia vs Canberra Olympic
The main question in today’s second semi-final was: which Canberra Olympic will fans see today? The Canberra Olympic that at 36 goals, scored as many goals as any other team this season (equal with Belconnen, for the record)? Or the Canberra Olympic that has leaked almost double the amount of any other top four team (at 15 goals) despite having one of the best centre back pairings in the competition?
With the leading goal-scorers of the competition on either side – in the form of Nicole Begg (Olympic) and Brittany Palombi (CCFC) – it was always likely that goals were in the offing.
When these two teams met back in Round 4, Canberra Croatia stunned Olympic with tactical nous and three goals in the first half before letting Olympic back into the game late, where eight goals were scored all up. One key difference between that game and the semi-final was that Ash Sykes was on the park for Olympic, and today she was sadly looking on from the stands, having not recovered in time from the injury sustained in training after their Round 7 game.
It was an eventful start by Olympic as Ally Cook received a yellow card in the second minute after cutting off a flying Lara Agnew down CCFC’s right wing. Not long after, Nicole Begg raced with the ball to the Canberra Croatia by-line and cut it back, only for CCFC keeper Ally Hinson’s feet to interject.
Shades of Round 4 then emerged. Two minutes of Brittany Palombi magic (minutes 5 and 7) saw an early two goal lead to the home side. Surrounded by several defenders just inside the Olympic box, captain Grace Gill managed to squeeze a ball out to Palombi on the left. A deft shuffle wrong-footed defender Sienna Farrar, and the shot to young Olympic keeper Abby Stanton’s right brushed the undersides of her gloves on the way in.
Farrar was again in the wars two minutes later, doing her utmost to get to a high bomb first outside her penalty area. The high bouncing ball defied her efforts and fell to Palombi, and that ever-impressive left foot this time gave Stanton no chance as her low volley found the right side of the net.
In the 18th minute Palombi turned provider, sending a pass into the Olympic penalty area for Gill to run onto and tuck into the right side of the net with her left foot, a devastating blow to Olympic’s chances in this game.
Olympic coach Andrew Woodman saw that something needed to change, and just before the half hour mark Emma Croker came on for Emma Guo, with Begg now in the striker role.
It has to be said that no matter what the scoreline is, and no matter the situation, Begg is a constant danger with her athleticism and speed. In one inspirational run just before the interval, Begg collected the ball well inside her own half, outran two defenders and swerved around another before sliding a shot into the bottom corner. It was as good an individual goal as you will ever see and gave her team some real impetus with the score now at 3-1.
In the second half, Olympic held firm to their structures, not shirking from either their resolve or their willingness to take the game back. Try as they might, however, Olympic were unable to replicate their late game potency from Round 4. Canberra Croatia’s defensive discipline held in the periods where Olympic threatened them, and penalty shouts in their box both went CCFC’s way in the second half. Indeed it was CCFC who were to score again as Palombi claimed a hat-trick in the 67th minute, beating two defenders on the edge of the Olympic box and slotting her team’s fourth goal.
Canberra Croatia coach Nik Brozinic will be impressing upon his team the need to maintain their intensity for longer periods in next week’s decider.
“I think it’s important that we have a 90 minute performance next week. I think we played well for the first 30 minutes but there were patches of 10 to 15 minutes throughout the rest of the game that we let momentum build up against us too much, and we can’t afford to do that against Belconnen next week. We’ll just be focused on making sure we do what we do well for 90 minutes next week.”
Olympic coach Andrew Woodman had praise for the strength in leadership and mentality in his group, having given the Canberra Croatia attacking line too much room early in the game.
“It says a lot about the group that we can come back and play that way until the end. Certainly we had some decisions which could have gone our way in the second half which, from a momentum point of view, could have given us even more wind under our sails. So really proud of the girls, but certainly the experience of the Canberra Croatia side … counts for a lot, and was really key for them to their credit right from the start of the game, but I’m certainly glad we made a really good game of it still, and showed what we’re about.
“Victoria, our captain, was one of the players who really stood up in the first half when it was tough, and the others drew from that a lot, as well as Nicole going through and scoring that fantastic goal. We knew at half time we were only two down against them … you never know when it comes to finals whether you’re going to be able to show the same mentality at that moment, and they did, which is great. Definitely proud of them.”
Final score:
Canberra Croatia 4 (Palombi 5′ 7′ 67′, Gill 18′)
Canberra Olympic 1 (Begg 41′)
Teams:
Canberra Croatia – Coach: Nik Brozinic
Ally Hinson, Alice Churchill, Amy McLachlan, Rhiannon Fensom, Lara Agnew, Krista Hagen, Jamie Berkeley, Grace Gill (c), Sharon Chao, Grace Field, Brittany Palombi
Subs: Jordan Ujdur (70′ => Chao), Cecilija Matic (73′ => Agnew), Christina Grauer-Kompos, Eisha Ratsch, Alexa Panagiotopoulos
Yellow cards: McLachlan 63′
Canberra Olympic – Coach: Andrew Woodman
Abby Stanton, Victoria Jamieson (c), Ella Hemmings, Alexandra Cook, Sienna Farrer, Eleanor Jones, Lara Burdett, Nicole Begg, Lily Dawson, Emma Guo, Louise Kockum
Subs: Angelica Pahina, Chloe Rudd (87′ => Kockum), Keeley Pasfield (91′ => Hemmings), Georgina Woodward (91′ => Jones), Emma Croker (29′ => Guo)
Yellow cards: Cook 2′
Next week: Grand Final
Canberra Croatia vs Belconnen United, Deakin Stadium, Saturday Sep 26th, 3pm
Ticketed entry only (contact either club), limited ticket availability.
Game will also be streamed by @BarTVSports
Around The Grounds: non-finalist playoffs
Wagga City (7th) 2 – 1 Tuggeranong United (8th)
Canberra United Academy (5th) 4 – 1 Woden-Weston FC (6th)
Follow all our ACT NPLW coverage here.
