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21Jan22
Adelaide Hand Wellington Another Tough Defeat
by Jeremy Ruane
Adelaide United edged Wellington Phoenix 1-0 in their Liberty A-League encounter at Coopers Stadium on January 21 to strengthen their bid for a top four finish in the competition, while condemning the bottom-placed side to their seventh successive defeat.
The home team threatened early doors, Lily Alfeld forced to produce a flying save to her left in just the second minute to keep out a well-struck effort from Nanano Sasaki after Fiona Worts' corner had only been partially cleared.
The resulting corner from Worts this time went to the far post, where Kayla Sharples soared above all-comers to head the ball goalwards from six yards. Once again, Alfeld came to Wellington's rescue, saving well with Chelsie Dawber in close attendance.
The visitors weathered this early storm, and after Isabel Gomez and Zoe McMeeken went close with long-range efforts, and the first of four drinks breaks - essential for a match played in 34C heat - took place on the quarter hour, it was Wellington's turn to shine.
But not before Sharples' raking ball forward had been missed by Talitha Kramer, allowing Worts to latch onto a 23rd minute opening which culminated in her setting up Dawber for a twenty yard strike. Alfeld was right behind it, and the visitors breathed again.
Straight away, they counter-attacked, Grace Jale leading the charge. She linked with Gomez, whose cross-field ball invited Ava Pritchard to get in beyond the last defender on Wellington's right and slip in a cross to the near post, where the effervescent Chloe Knott was lurking with intent.
She held the ball up well, but no one in yellow was running off her, so Knott had to engineer an opening of her own, one she did via a sharp turn and shot. Sharples was policing the situation, however, and blocked the effort for a corner.
It turned out to be the first of three successive deliveries by Knott. The first picked out the head of Jale, whose header was diverted over the bar by Matilda McNamara. Knott's next delivery picked out the head of Kate Taylor, whose effort was blocked on the line by Sasaki.
She conceded another corner, which Knott delivered beyond the far post. McMeeken nodded it down, and Gomez beat the covering defender before drilling a low cross into the goalmouth. Annalee Grove parried it, and McNamara completed the clearance before Pritchard could pounce in the 26th minute.
While Wellington continued to press, they also continued to endure defensive issues, with Kramer, complete with heavily strapped left thigh, giving cause for concern on the half-hour when under-hitting a back-pass to Alfeld, who had to scramble off her line to clear the danger as Dawber bore down on the loose ball.
That clearance resulted in another opportunity for the visitors, the Knott-inspired raid culminating in a twenty yard curling effort from Jale which crept narrowly over the top far corner of Grove's goal.
Dawber, after Sharples and Emily Condon had combined neatly, and Pritchard, the beneficiary of a
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delightful slide-rule pass from Gomez, exchanged efforts on goal around five minutes before the interval, the latter shooter unable to shrug off the attentions of Emily Hodgson before pulling the trigger.
Wellington endured a genuine scare three minutes before half-time when Taylor, who found herself in a challenging position as Adelaide counter-attacked, lunged in wrong-footed on Dylan Holmes and immediately cried out in anguish as her right leg bore the brunt of the challenge.
As Condon fired her shot over the bar, Wellington's vice-captain, an integral part of the team despite her tender years, was prone and hadn't moved in the seconds following the incident, leaving team-mates, coaching staff and fans of the visiting team fearing the worst.
Thankfully, she was able to continue after treatment, but one suspects Taylor was playing through the pain barrier throughout the second spell, partly out of necessity. With fellow central defensive lynchpin Mackenzie Barry sidelined through injury, and fullback Saskia Vosper not yet fully recovered from a groin injury, to lose another of their leading defenders would likely be a blow from which Wellington's already wafer-thin squad would struggle to recover.
Adelaide emerged the stronger side at the start of the second half, and only Kramer's vital tackle prevented them from taking the lead in the 49th minute, after Sasaki had intercepted a McMeeken pass and linked with Worts and Dawber, who was poised to pull the trigger when the defender denied her on the edge of the penalty area.
Five minutes later, a fabulously timed tackle by last defender Gomez denied Worts in full flight, while Taylor blocked an acrobatic volley from the striker in the 57th minute, the rebound from which was fired wildly over the top by Holmes.
A combination of water breaks, the heat, fouls made by tiring players and substitutions meant the final half-hour of the match lacked any real flow, but it did produce its most decisive moment in the 68th minute.
Dawber and Worts worked an opening with their overlapping captain, Isabel Hodgson, whose fiftieth appearance for the team this was. Her angled ball in behind the defence invited Hayward to steal in front of McMeeken and fire home what proved to be the winner from six yards.
Wellington pressed hard for an equaliser, with another Knott corner in the 76th minute being punched out by Grove to McMeeken, whose volley flashed narrowly past the post. Soon after, Jale headed past the upright on receipt of a cross from substitute Saskia Vosper, but their failure to test Grove throughout the course of the contest ultimately proved critical in the final outcome, another close defeat for Gemma Lewis' side in their debut W-League season.
Adelaide: Grove; I. Hodgson, McNamara, Sharples, E. Hodgson; Condon (Omiya, 46), Sasaki (Tonkin, 90), Holmes; Dawber (Beaumont, 86), Worts, Hayward (Murray, 72)
Wellington: Alfeld; McMeeken, Walker, Taylor, Kramer (Vosper, 78); Whinham (Jasnos, 67), Gomez (Jones, 78), Wisnewski; Pritchard, Knott, Jale
Referee: Caitlin Williams
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