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18Feb22
Game-Changing "Oggie" Helps Adelaide Down Wellington
by Jeremy Ruane
A quite unbelievable own goal by Wellington Phoenix fullback Zoe McMeeken played a key role in Adelaide United's 4-1 victory over their hosts at WIN Stadium on February 18, a Liberty A-League match which had been swiftly rearranged after a hailstorm and subsequent adverse weather forced the postponement of a match initially scheduled for the previous evening.
United were swiftly out of the blocks, and were rewarded for taking the initiative via a fifth minute goal. Emily Hodgson's free-kick was cleared to Georgia Beaumont, who spread play wide to Matilda McNamara.
Her low cross to the near post, targeting Fiona Wouts, was partially cleared, but straight into the stride of Chelsie Dawber, who hammered home a ten-yarder past Wellington goalkeeper Brianna Edwards to give the visitors the ideal start to proceedings.
The goal roused the home team, who worked their way back into the contest, and after Isabel Gomez and Alyssa Whinham chanced their arm with twenty-five yarders - the latter's attempt required saving by United goalkeeper Annalee Grove, the home spurned a glorious chance to equalise in the seventeenth minute.
Grace Jale's pressure on McNamara forced the defender to play the ball across the top of her penalty area, straight to the lurking figure of Ava Pritchard. She swiftly worked a one-two with Whinham before skipping past a defender in the penalty area and letting fly with a rising fifteen yard drive which soared over the bar, rather than under it - a real let-off for Adelaide.
A stray pass at the other end of the park from the otherwise outstanding stand-in captain Mackenzie Barry - with Lily Alfeld on Football Ferns duty and Kate Taylor injured, she was entrusted with the armband - invited Worts to unleash a first time drive which flew narrowly past Edwards' left-hand post, with the 'keeper scrambling across her goal in vain.
That 21st minute attempt was followed soon after by another United raid, with Japanese duo Nanako Sasaki and Reona Omiya - a fine performance - teaming up with Beaumont to present Dawber with a great chance to score.
Barry had other ideas, however, and after seeing off the striker's attempt quickly recovered to prevent Omiya making the most of the rebound - a brilliant piece of defending, which was rewarded at the other end of the park three minutes later.
Whinham and Pritchard combined on the right, with the latter greatly benefiting from Chloe Knott's off-the-ball run, which drew two defenders away from goal as Pritchard bent a cross into the penalty area.
Isabel Hodgson failed to deal with it, allowing the lurking figure of Jale to pounce, swivel and unleash a first time drive which arrowed into the far corner of the net from fifteen yards - Grove hadn't a prayer of stopping Wellington's equaliser.
That goal gave the home team momentum aplenty, which was briefly interrupted when Mona Walker's attempted clearance was charged down by Beaumont, who latched onto the rebound and set sail for goal, only for the covering figure of Barry to intervene once more.
The head of steam which Wellington was building evaporated in the 34th minute, as they were dealt a blow by one of their own from which they never recovered. Quite what was going through McMeeken's mind when she played the ball back towards Edwards some thirty-five yards away Lord alone knows, but it had nothing to do with the fundamentals of football!
The basic tenets of defending are threefold: Get it, give it; Never pass the ball across the face of your own goal; Never direct the ball towards your own goal, but to either side of it.
The number of occasions these golden rules of defending weren't fulfilled in this match - by players in both teams - beggared belief! But by far the worst offender was McMeeken, with this contender for "oggie" of the season - the worst possible breach of tenet number three!
Little wonder the luckless Edwards, making her first start twixt the sticks for Wellington, was giving her fullback daggers immediately afterwards - talk about if looks could kill! Her team-mates didn't know where to look, but this goal broke their spirit - you could see it in their individual and collective body language. From the 34th minute, this game was a case of by how many Adelaide would win - as a contest, it was done!
Before the interval, United carved out two chances to increase their unexpected advantage. A teasing cross-shot from Worts had Edwards scrambling as the ball drifted narrowly past the far post, while the goalkeeper was perfectly placed to deal with a shot on the turn from Beaumont in the 42nd minute.
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Within two minutes of the start of the second spell, both Worts and Sasaki had gone close to increasing Adelaide's lead with rising drives, while after Grove had grabbed a raking clearance from Barry which threatened to bounce into Adelaide's net, Wellington nearly snatched an unlikely equaliser through the guile of Whinham.
Gathering the ball on the left, she cleverly nutmegged McNamara with a pass which Knott received and laid back into the stride of her gifted young team-mate, who had dashed into the penalty area in pursuit of her pass.
Confronted by defenders, Whinham cheekily poked a shot goalwards which struck the retreating figure of Isabel Hodgson and was rolling agonisingly towards the net until Emily Hodgson came to her unrelated team-mate's rescue with a goal-line clearance.
Back came Adelaide, Worts capitalising on Gomez giving the ball away under pressure to forge her way in off the left and into the penalty area, where she drew a parried save from Edwards at her near post in the 52nd minute.
Seconds later, Omiya slipped a delightful pass into the stride of Dawber, who sent a shot blazing over the bar from twelve yards, with Edwards' spectacular drive not matched by her landing.
Thanks to Football Australia's dereliction of duty where player welfare is concerned, Wellington went into this match with only one recognised goalkeeper in their ranks, Edwards earning her first start due to Alfeld's international call-up.
Coach Gemma Lewis had to name scholarship player Charlotte Lancaster as the reserve goalkeeper, even though she's never played in that position, and hope like hell that Edwards didn't get injured during the match. So the sight of the 'keeper clutching her left leg after landing was not one anyone with Wellington affiliations wanted to see. Thankfully she was able to continue - a case of cramp, rather than anything more serious in nature.
Soon after recovering, Edwards was fishing the ball out of her net as Adelaide made it 3-1 in the 56th minute. Isabel Hodgson's ball forward picked out Dawber in the centre circle, and she promptly sent Worts surging through on goal, the striker getting the better of Barry before firing across Edwards and into the far corner of the net.
3-1 became 4-1 four minutes later, with Omiya having hit the bar with a cross-shot in between times. Isabel Hodgson and Dylan Holmes combined on this occasion, with Dawber the beneficiary of their activities.
She held off the challenge of Barry before directing a shot towards the target. The approaching figure of Edwards partially blocked the effort with her legs, but there was enough power in the shot to direct the ball goalwards, the sphere crossing the line with the help of Walker, as she desperately tried to execute a goal-line clearance.
After McNamara diverted a perfectly flighted Knott corner past her own post, a flurry of stoppages and substitutions helped to break up the flow of proceedings, one of which went unpunished by referee Kelly Jones, who had booked Talitha Kramer for a foul moments before.
When the player she fouled - Adelaide substitute Emilia Murray - raked the back of Kramer's ankle with a clumsy retaliatory challenge, the fullback went to ground, but no free-kick was forthcoming. Unfortunately for the referee, this was one foul Kramer couldn't shrug off - 'twas the end of her shift.
Both teams went close to scoring in the final ten minutes. McNamara eventually cleared her lines as Knott looked to find a yard of space six yards out from goal, while the effervescent Grace Wisnewski - she works her socks off for this team - only just failed to get on the end of Hannah Jones' lobbed ball into the danger zone, following a partially cleared Jordan Jasnos corner.
Adelaide responded in kind via Worts, who dispossessed Jones in midfield before engineering space for an angled cross which narrowly evaded both the incoming figure of Holmes and the far post six minutes from time. Meanwhile, substitute Meleri Mullan rattled the crossbar in stoppage time, the last act of a lively contest, the outcome of which was heavily influenced by a strong contender for "oggie" of the season.
Wellington: Edwards; McMeeken, Barry, Walker, Kramer (booked, 74) (Rue, 79); Wisnewski, Gomez (Jones, 62), Whinham; Pritchard (Vosper, 62), Knott (Jasnos, 85), Jale
Adelaide: Grove; I. Hodgson (booked, 38), Sharples, McNamara, E. Hodgson; Omiya (Tonkin, 82), Sasaki (Stanbury, 78), Holmes; Beaumont (Murray, 60), Dawber (Mullan, 78), Worts
Referee: Kelly Jones
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