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29Dec23
Sydney's Table Climb Continues At Wellington's Expense
by Jeremy Ruane
Sydney FC edged Wellington Phoenix 1-0 in front of 4866 fans at the Allianz Stadium on December 29 to close to within two points of the beaten side with two Liberty A-League games in hand following their AFC Women's Champions League excursions earlier in the season.
The early exchanges were fairly even, with both teams going close to breaking the deadlock in the third minute. Macey Fraser picked out Hailey Davidson on the right, the fullback charging into the penalty before inviting Annalie Longo to let fly.
Her shot on the turn was blocked, with the ball ricocheting kindly to Cortnee Vine, who set sail through the inside left channel at a great rate of knots before playing in Aideen Keane. Mackenzie Barry stepped in to avert the danger, but the warning signs were there for the visitors.
Sydney gradually got on top of proceedings, and really started to ask questions of Wellington's defence around the quarter hour mark. Mackenzie Hawkesby picked out Vine on the right, and the winger's return pass invited the midfielder to attempt to mark her return to A-League action with a goal.
Rebecca Lake had other ideas, however, blocking the shot. Within seconds, Keane secured possession for the home team and looked to slip in Vine outside Michaela Foster. Brianna Edwards, recalled to the starting line-up in place of the concussed Rylee Foster, wasn't for being beaten, however, and saved at the speedster's feet.
Keane was causing Wellington problems with her habit of dropping deep to secure possession then releasing Sydney's flank players at pace down the wings before arriving late to support the attack. On this occasion, Hawkesby was the beneficiary of the pivotal player's promptings, and eventually unleashed a rising drive which flashed over the bar.
In the seventeenth minute, Kirsty Fenton - very effective in the attacking fullback role - swooped on a stray pass and surged through the inside left channel before letting fly, only for Lake to block her shot to safety. Zara Kruger's resulting corner to the near post found Fenton flying in to meet it, but she couldn't direct her header on target.
Sydney went desperately close to opening the scoring in the twentieth minute. Princess Ibini found Fenton storming up inside her and duly rewarded the fullback's marauding run with a pass which saw Fenton get to the by-line before pulling the ball back to Keane. Her low drive was cleared off the line by Foster.
Three minutes later, Fraser fired a twenty yard snapshot which troubled Jada Whyman little, after which normal service - Sydney superiority - resumed. Fenton won the ball off Longo in central midfield and charged towards the penalty area, where the retreating figure of Kate Taylor got in a timely tackle to thwart a shooting chance. The ball broke towards Hawkesby, but Edwards reacted quickly to save at her feet.
An audacious thirty yard lob by Ibini, just after the half-hour mark, had Edwards scrambling towards her goal, but Sydney's captain's effort lacked accuracy, as did an attempt by Hawkesby two minutes later, Keane and Vine again causing problems before the midfielder fired wide from eight yards under pressure from Lake.
Sydney's coach, Ante Juric, was booked by referee Bec Mackie nine minutes before half-time for taking umbrage at the way Mariana Speckmaier was giving as good as she got from the Sydney players when the opportunity availed itself.
The West Islanders certainly don't like it when someone does unto them what they do unto others with monotonous regularity, so when Speckmaier retaliated at being nudged off the ball, in doing so taking out two opponents in subtle fashion, Sydney's players bemoaned the referee, but only after watching Fraser, who benefited from the goings-on, drill a twenty-five yarder into the gloves of Whyman.
Referee Mackie wasn't interested in the home team's complaints, so Sydney set about capturing the official's attention in the preferred manner inside the final five minutes of the half.
Vine and Keane combined neatly to play in Hawkesby, whose curling attempt was blocked by the retreating figure of Foster. Soon after, superb
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defending by Lake - she has taken to this competition like a duck to water, which shouldn't surprise anyone who saw this top quality defender playing in New Zealand's National Women's League in recent seasons - forced Keane into firing tamely after Hawkesby and Vine had engineered the opening.
Wellington were struggling to get their combinations going in the attacking third in this contest, but that all changed with the half-time introduction of Isabel Cox, who was instantly released down the left by Kate Taylor.
She powered into the penalty area before fizzing in a low cross which invited Taylor, who had stayed up in support after releasing her team-mate, to let fly, just fourteen seconds after the kick-off. Her shot ricocheted off a defender through to Whyman.
Four minutes later, Longo picked out Cox on the left, from where she skipped past an opponent in the penalty area and got to the edge of the goal area. Instead of shooting from an acute angle, however, she opted unsuccessfully to try and set up Speckmaier - bad choice! Should have pulled the trigger and tried to beat Whyman at her near post, at worst forcing a parried save which creates another opportunity from the rebound …
Sydney weathered this early storm, and responded via a thirty yard free-kick from Ibini just shy of the hour mark, one which should never have been awarded - a poor decision by referee Mackie. Justice was served, however, with Ibini's effort directed straight at Edwards.
In the 61st minute, Hailey Davidson went to ground following a clash of heads, and the medical team was unable to stem the flow of blood from the fullback's nose. She was eventually replaced, but it took a good fifteen minutes before the quality of the game picked up again following her enforced departure.
When it did, it was Sydney who were in the ascendancy. Fenton got the better of Speckmaier in the 77th minute and fed substitute Taylor Ray, whose beautifully flighted ball over the defence allowed Vine to get in behind before rounding Edwards, who forced the winger wide of the target - a critical intervention, as Vine promptly fired into the side-netting from an acute angle with Barry and Lake racing back to cover the untended goal.
Said goal was graced by the ball sixty seconds later, with Ray again the architect of the opening. This time, she fashioned a cross which invited fellow substitute Jynana Dos Santos to beat Zoe McMeeken in the air and head home from six yards - her maiden Liberty A-League goal in just her second appearance for Sydney, her debut having been made some fifteen months ago!
Now trailing, Wellington stepped up the pressure in search of an equaliser, and they should have realised their objective. Cox wriggled through three challenges before seeing her fifteen-yard drive turned away by Whyman in the eightieth minute, while the goalkeeper thwarted Longo nine minutes later after she had worked an opening with Alyssa Whinham and Cox, this despite Fraser having been taken out of play, temporarily reducing the visitors to ten.
Early in stoppage time, Wellington should have equalised. Cox got the better of Charlotte McLean before picking out Speckmaier five yards out from goal. With Whyman beaten, and the goal at her mercy, she somehow headed the ball over the bar - a glorious chance spurned.
Still they pressed, McMeeken chancing her arm before Cox sent an eighteen-yarder sizzling over the bar, while Fraser evaded two challenges prior to letting fly from the edge of the penalty area, only for Whyman to maintain her clean sheet. That proved crucial, as when the final whistle sounded seconds later, Sydney were confirmed 1-0 winners over a Wellington team which should have returned home with a point to their name.
Sydney: Whyman; Tumeth (booked, 90), Thompson (booked, 26), McLean, Fenton (booked, 57); Hawkesby, Hollman, Kruger (Ray, 55); Vine (I. Dos Santos, 90), Keane (J. Dos Santos, 72), Ibini
Wellington: Edwards; Davidson (McMeeken, 68), Barry, Lake (Whinham, 88), M. Foster; Longo, Taylor, Fraser; Main (booked, 52 (Elliott, 62 (booked, 90))), Speckmaier, Breslin (Cox, 46)
Referee: Bec Mackie
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