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18Feb24
Western Take League Lead With Wellington Win
by Jeremy Ruane
Western United took over at the top of the Liberty A-League table with five rounds still to play on 18 February, comfortably overcoming a makeshift Wellington Phoenix combination 3-0 in front of 638 fans at the City Vista Recreation Reserve as they set their sights on the silverware.
The locals dominated from the outset against a side which was severely depleted in strength due to having five players on international duty, plus another handful of players sidelined by injury, forcing the hand of coach Paul Temple as he sought to stave off a seventh successive defeat on the road with the limited resources at his disposal.
The return from suspension of Rylee Foster was a plus for the Wellingtonians, the goalkeeper first being called into action in the fourteenth minute to deal with Keiwa Hieda's attempt after Hannah Keane and Tyla Jay Vlajnic had worked a neat one-two on the left.
That was United's best chance in the opening twenty-five minutes, a combination of stray passes and the resolute defending of the outstanding Rebecca Lake, Hailey Davidson and Tiana Jaber restricting Western to that solitary opportunity.
Indeed, so impressive was Wellington's defensive effort that it was the visitors who came closest to opening the scoring during this period. Alyssa Whinham and Isabel Cox combined to send Emma Main motoring down the right, where she showed Vlajnic a clean pair of heels before drawing a save from Hillary Beall at her near post in the 23rd minute.
Western responded to this threat by taking the lead on the half-hour. Hieda took full advantage of the gap left by the out-of-position Zoe McMeeken, storming through the inside right channel before threading a pass into the stride of Keane, whose first-time drive crashed against the crossbar. Chloe Logarzo, following in, headed home the rebound to the delight of her team-mates - 1-0.
But for Lake's timely intervention, Keane could have doubled Western's lead three minutes later, Hieda and Logarzo having combined on the right for the benefit of last season's Golden Boot winner.
A further three minutes had elapsed when Vlajnic and Logarzo combined to set up their captain, Jaclyn Sawicki, but her twenty-yarder was grabbed by Foster, who looked on with relief in the shadows of the half-time whistle as Keane lashed a volley narrowly past the post after Wellington had failed to deal with another cross from Hieda - weak attempts to head clear by Daisy Brazendale and Main didn't aid the visitors' cause.
Wellington had mounted a rare attack just prior to Keane's latest attempt on goal, with Whinham weaving her wizardry to create an opening for Cox, who skipped past Grace Maher only to find the retreating Adriana Taranto blocking her way to goal.
Two minutes into the second half, the brilliantly gifted Wellington playmaker - Whinham would dazzle again later on with some spellbinding footwork to evade three challenges inside as many yards - surged forward from midfield before inviting Main to let fly once more. As before, Beall, playing her final match for Western before her transfer to NWSL club San Diego Wave, proved equal to the task, the only time she would be tested in the second spell.
For Western restricted their opponents to crumbs from the rich man's table throughout the remainder of a half dominated by the home team, their first goal threat materialising in the 52nd minute when Foster dashed out to save at the feet of Sawicki, foiling a raid which included contributions from Alana Cerne, Maher, Vlajnic and Logarzo.
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Just shy of the hour mark, Western finally breached Wellington's resolute defensive efforts via Maher's angled ball in behind the defence. Keane was the beneficiary, only for the striker to see her deft lob of Foster strike the bar - a real let-off for the visitors, whose reliance on the rock-like figure of Lake was to the fore again in the 63rd minute as the stand-in skipper once again averted the danger, this time after Hieda and Sawicki had combined through the inside right channel.
Twenty minutes from time, a flying save to her left by Foster prevented Logarzo's angled drive from finding the far corner of the net, but from the resulting corner, United doubled their lead, Maher scoring direct from the set-piece, the near post run of Kahli Johnson putting off Wellington's defence and allowing the ball unrestricted passage towards the far corner of the net.
That was the straw which broke the camel's back from Wellington's perspective, and with Lake having been withdrawn from the fray after this concession, United piled on the pressure in search of more goals.
McMeeken cleared off the line after another Maher corner was spilled by Foster, who redeemed herself by blocking another Keane drive, this chance set up by Maher's ball through the inside right channel.
The striker wasn't to be denied her goal, and in the 78th minute was celebrating with her team-mates after deftly volleying the ball home to cap off a slick move in which Cerne and overlapping substitute Aimee Medwin had done the lion's share of the work.
At 3-0, Western eased off a touch, but continued to carve out openings in which they could have added to their advantage. Six minutes from time, Cerne and Sawicki teamed up with the speedy Medwin, who played the ball inside to Keane. She worked a one-two with Sawicki before directing a rising drive over the bar.
Sixty seconds later, an under-hit back-pass by Davidson was pounced on by Keane, who set up Adriana Taranto, only for the midfielder to see her shot deflected to safety. And in stoppage time, Foster was right behind a long-range effort from Maher as the defender looked to add to her "Olympico" in more conventional fashion before the final whistle sounded to leave Wellington to mull on their biggest defeat of the season, one endured in extremely challenging circumstances.
There is a strong argument that this game should have been rescheduled, given convention decrees that teams who have three or more players called up for international duty are entitled to dispensation.
Wellington were able to apply this for last week's scheduled Adelaide United fixture - now taking place in mid-March, but rearranging the Western fixture proved impossible. Perhaps the Oceania Football Confederation should have made more of an effort to align the OFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament closer to FIFA's international window - the last week of February - rather than in a date range (Feb 7-19) which didn't aid the cause of the Confederation's lone professional outfit …
Western: Beall; Papadopoulos, Cerne, Maher; Hieda (Medwin, 73), M. Taranto, Sawicki, A. Taranto, Vlajnic (Johnson, 61); Keane, Logarzo (Prakash, 83)
Wellington: Foster; Davidson, Jaber, Lake (McMillan, 73), McMeeken; Breslin, Brazendale (Errington, 69), Whinham, Robertson (Elliott, 62); Main (Brown, 62), Cox
Referee: Casey Reibelt
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