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22Jan23
Five-Star Wellington Hand Canberra Capital Punishment
by Jeremy Ruane
Wellington Phoenix ignited their Liberty A-League season in considerable style at Sky Stadium on 22 January, thrashing Canberra United 5-0 in the "Capital City Derby" in front of 2044 fans to record their first win of the season and their first triumph on home soil in their brief history.
It was a long-awaited and very welcome for coach Natalie Lawrence in her first season at the helm, having been the team's assistant coach in their inaugural campaign. And the tweaks she made to the set-up of her side for this match finally unlocked the winning formula which she has been seeking.
Five of her starting line-up - Mackenzie Barry, Brianna Edwards, Betsy Hassett, Paige Satchell and Grace Wisnewski - have spent the bulk of the week in camp with the Football Ferns as the nation played the reigning world champions, Team USA, in a two-match series in which Canberra's Grace Jale was also heavily involved.
Of the Wellington quartet, Hassett was only available for the first fixture, and it was she whose positional change - to a more advanced role, in effect swapping with captain Chloe Knott - gave the home team the edge in this match, as they dominated opponents who inflicted a 3-0 defeat upon the Kiwis in Australia's capital six weeks ago.
Wellington signalled their intentions just six minutes into the contest, Michaela Foster clipping the top of the crossbar with an inswinging corner, the first of many which gave Canberra goalkeeper Chloe Lincoln nightmares throughout this match.
Three minutes later, United responded via Michelle Heyman, who sent Jale storming down the right at pace. The Football Fern was backing up from playing 106 minutes against the USA during the week, 45 of them less than twenty hours previously.
Yet she played the entire match for Canberra - a Herculean effort, on this occasion getting a yard on Foster before firing in a cross which found the gap between Edwards and her near post before swerving across the face of goal.
Two minutes later, Knott headed a Vesna Milivojevic free-kick to safety as the visitors sought an early goal against the competition cellar-dwellers, but over twenty minutes would elapse before Canberra next mounted an attack of note.
For Wellington started to gain the ascendancy through their adjusted line-up. Hassett, in her advanced role, found herself near the left-hand by-line, where she went down under the challenge of Sasha Grove.
Referee Anna-Marie Keighley awarded a corner in the aftermath of this clash, which allowed Foster to deliver another of her set-piece specials, this one landing at the feet of Marisa van der Meer inside the six-yard box. She's a defender, so we'll forgive her for not displaying a striker's instincts in these circumstances, but suffice to see, United cleared their lines.
One of the other tweaks coach Lawrence made to Wellington's line-up was the introduction of Milly Clegg. In the 24th minute, she cut in from the left at the top of the box but didn't get adequate purchase on her shot, affording Lincoln a comfortable save. Little did the 'keeper know that this was a warning shot across Canberra's bows, for the age-grade international was soon to play a pivotal role in the demise of United's "Green Machine".
Not before the visitors carved out another opening, however, another Milivojevic corner which Edwards punched off the head of Jale at her near post in the 32nd minute, to which Wellington responded two minutes later with an opening from which they should have taken the lead.
Clegg sent Ava Pritchard haring through the middle of the park, and she swept round the approaching figure of Lincoln without batting an eyelid to leave herself with that welcome sight every striker covets - an open goal.
Quite what went through Pritchard's mind at this point only she will know, but composure certainly wasn't part of the equation. Instead of taking a couple of touches to steady herself before rolling the ball into the gaping net, she lashed a shot on the run over the bar from the edge of the area - an unbelievable miss!!
Thankfully from Wellington's perspective, it didn't prove costly. Within a minute, Clegg had surged down the right and set up Hassett for a chance which Lincoln turned round her near post, to which United responded with another opportunity to break the deadlock.
Hayley Taylor-Young fizzed in a cross from the left which Heyman flicked on into the path of Milivojevic, whose shot was parried by Edwards at close quarters as the striker looked to lift the ball over the fast-approaching 'keeper, who clearly benefited from being part of the Football Ferns environment - this was her best game yet for Wellington, make no mistake!
Back came the home team, forcing another corner which Foster delivered right under the crossbar. Lincoln managed to punch the ball out on this occasion, but from the resulting Foster corner, Wellington took the lead in the 42nd minute.
Satchell was the recipient of another tantalising delivery by the fullback, her header in for all money until Taylor-Young rose to head it off the line. The ball only went as far as Clegg, however, and from six yards out, she sent a searing volley through a cluster of bodies and into the back of the net - 1-0, to the undisguised delight of the scorer and her team-mates.
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They were celebrating again two minutes later, as they doubled their advantage. Barry pinged a ball down the right from deep, allowing Pritchard to latch onto it and hold it up to allow the cavalry to arrive.
Clegg led the charge, her unchecked run from deep rewarded by Pritchard's measured pass into her stride, allowing the goalscorer to unleash a fierce angled drive which Lincoln parried across goal … straight into the path of the incoming figure of Hassett on the far post - 2-0!
Canberra went to the dressing rooms reeling from this double-blow, whereas Wellington were cock-a-hoop - and rightly! They were still in that mood when they kicked off the second half and killed off the contest within a minute of play resuming.
This was a superb goal, particularly in its conception. As the USA showed against the Football Ferns at Eden Park when scoring their opening goal, first-time passes are nigh on impossible to defend, and Canberra discovered that the hard way on this occasion.
Clegg rode a challenge near halfway and promptly fed Knott in the centre circle. The skipper instantly unleashed a "Chloe Special" - a sumptuous, raking first time forty yard pass towards the left flank, down which Foster was motoring at pace.
Without breaking stride, the overlapping fullback fired in a pinpoint first-time cross which found Pritchard arriving on cue at the near post, where she deftly flicked the ball past Lincoln to crown a splendid move in fine style - 3-0.
There was no way back for Canberra following this blow, especially against a Wellington team with their tails up. Lincoln was forced to punch another Foster corner out from beneath her crossbar just shy of the hour mark, while after a couple of Michaela Robertson raids had caused problems for the visitors, a Foster cross caused consternation twixt Lincoln and Kennedy Faulknor - not ideal with Pritchard looking to get in on the act also.
Canberra held their nerve on this occasion, went up the park and were awarded a penalty in the 64th minute after a slick raid culminated in the ball striking Knott's hand in the area - a case of ball to hand, but one which afforded the visitors a lifeline.
Edwards came to her captain's aid, however, plunging to her right to turn Milivojevic's penalty to safety in splendid fashion. In an instant, Wellington were on the attack again, Hassett swooping on an Ellie Brush blunder before forcing her way past Faulknor, only to be denied by Lincoln's save at her feet near the penalty spot.
Heyman suffered a similar fate after sweeping past Barry into the area soon afterwards, Edwards standing her ground well before denying the prolific goalscorer on the edge of the goal area.
Back came Wellington, Hassett leading the charge down the left before feeding the overlapping figure of Charlotte Lancaster, whose first time delivery afforded Pritchard the time to control the ball before picking her spot. As with her earlier miss, however, everything was rushed, Pritchard opting for a first-time header which flew wide of the target.
This was a game in which Pritchard could - and should - have scored a hat-trick. But these glaring misses, allied to her repeated failure to look across the line and stay onside, which foiled many a promising attack, emphasised the fact that while she wears the number nine shirt, an out-and-out striker she is not. Put her on the flank, she does a great job, but so far this season, it's fair to say Pritchard's qualities and strengths haven't been best utilised by Wellington.
Despite being 3-0 down, Canberra were still chasing a goal, but after Laura Hughes had blazed over from twenty yards under pressure from the tracking figure of Hassett, and Jale had sent a twenty-yard volley flashing over the bar, Wellington struck a fourth goal seven minutes from time.
The substitutes were integral to this move, Robertson winning possession before feeding Isabel Gomez, whose Roberto Firmino-like no-look reverse pass sent Hassett surging into the penalty area, from where she beat Lincoln all ends up - a terrific finish from one of New Zealand's most capped players of all time.
Straight from the kick-off, United rampaged down the right, with Grove firing in a cross which Milivojevic volleyed narrowly over the bar from close range. The same player forced Edwards to turn her corner round the post in the dying stages of the contest, but by the time that happened, Wellington had gone nap.
A Foster corner had paved the way for the first goal of the afternoon, and it was also the catalyst for the coup de grace. The delivery picked out the diminutive figure of Robertson, whose goalbound header was blocked on the line by Emma Ilijoski.
But in attempting to clear the sphere, the defender kicked the ball against her standing leg, off which it ricocheted into the net - an "oggie", which wrapped up a five-star performance by Wellington, winners in the 2022-3 Liberty A-League at last!
Wellington: Edwards; van der Meer, Barry (Vosper, 72), Taylor, Foster; Knott, Hassett, Wisnewski (Gomez, 58); Satchell (Robertson, 51), Pritchard, Clegg (Lancaster, 72)
Canberra: Lincoln; Grove, Gett (Christopherson, 67), Brush, Taylor-Young (Ilijoski, 46); Jale, Wu (Murray, 83), Hughes, Flannery (Faulknor, 56); Heyman, Milivojevic
Referee: Anna-Marie Keighley
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