ALW Premiership race tightens as Victory complete season-sweep of Western
Melbourne Victory have completed a first-ever season sweep of rivals Western United in the ALW and, in doing so, drawn closer to Melbourne City in the race for the Premiers' Plate.
Coming into their Westgate Derby clash with Western United, Melbourne Victory boss Jeff Hopkins knew it represented a pivotal moment for his side’s premiership hopes. He didn’t want to dwell on it when it was put to him, and insisted it hadn’t been something that had been raised during his side’s preparations, but neither could he reject the reality and replace it with his own. In the wake of their 2-1 win at Ironbark Fields, however, combined with table-toppers Melbourne City being held to a 1-1 draw by Canberra, his side’s pursuit of the Premiers’ Plate remains in play.
Goals from Holly Furphy and skipper Kayla Morrison – both from corners – lifted Victory to an important three points in Melbourne’s west, cancelling out an own-goal from Emily Gielnik on the stroke of halftime that briefly brought the hosts back level. Aideen Keane’s 81st minute leveller ensuring that City would be forced to settle with taking a solitary point from the nation’s capital in the hours prior, it meant that, with the latter possessing a game in hand, the gap between first and second on the table closed to just five points.
All of a sudden, despite City levelling a record they themselves previously set in going 18 league games without defeat, footsteps continue to loom in the background of their pursuit for back-to-back premierships — the chase for the plate between Melbourne’s light and navy blue contingents growing tighter.
“We've just talked about it now, it's a week at a time,” Hopkins, emerging from his post-game huddle, said. “We've just chipped away a few points this week. All we can do is look after ourselves and put in the performances that are going to get us three points every week. We'll leave the rest up to fate. I've heard that Canberra had a good result with them today, so that's another couple of points closer we are. We'll tuck this one away, review it on Monday and look forward to next week.”
Unable to buy a win in the first two years of the rivalry with United, losing the first three meetings between the two by a combined score of seven to two, the result also secured Victory a season-sweep of their rivals from Tarneit, backing up a 4-1 triumph earlier in the season at the Home of the Matildas.
Needing a win to strengthen their hold on a top six spot, United hurled themselves forward in the wake of Morrison’s 47th minute header and ended up out-shooting the visitors 16 to eight. One of her side’s best, Adriana Taranto repeatedly threatened to bring the game back to parity as time ticked away, whizzing an effort just over the crossbar in the 70th minute. In her final game in Australia before she jetted off to join Canadian outfit the Calgary Wild, Khali Johnson was desperate in her attempts to send herself out with a bang, buzzing around before her withdrawal late in the game.
But ultimately, Kat Smith’s side was unable to find a way back into the contest, the vast majority of their shots the type of long-range effort that Victory weren’t all too unhappy about them settling for and only four of their attempts actually on target, compared to five from Victory. They remain in fourth – at least until Brisbane plays bottom-placed Sydney on Sunday – but have now slipped nine points back of the Vuck as their hopes of a top-two finish fade, and sit just three points clear of seventh-placed Canberra while having played one game more than the competitors surrounding them in the race for playoff positioning.
“I think we were in the game for a majority of it,” said Smith. “Conceding two goals at set pieces probably indicates where we fell short. But more so limiting their threats in open play, I think we had a good balance of the game and the better of the chances.
“What seems to be a little bit of a story of our season is, we know we'll create chances, but it's not being as clinical as we need to be in that final third. I felt there was something just a little bit off tonight. Obviously, we've had the international break. We had players coming in yesterday, the day before, but I thought we just needed someone to really step up and really take that game on. Because I thought it was there for us tonight.”
Initially appearing to have escaped an early deficit when Alyssa Dall’Oste reacted quickly to redirect an attempted clearance from Sasha Grove around her post, United fell behind in just the tenth minute when, on the second corner that came from that save, the ball fell to Furphy at the top of the penalty area, with the attacker afforded enough time to thread an effort through the sea of bodies in her way to put Victory ahead. Signed as an injury-replacement player for Paige Zois in January, the 21-year-old netted her second goal of the season in her first start.
United went level on the stroke of halftime when a series of defensive missteps from Victory saw them fail to clear a headed effort from Grace Maher and eventually put the ball into their own net via Emily Gielnik’s thigh. This parity, though, ended up lasting less than 120 seconds of the second half, Morrison rising to meet a corner from Alana Jancevski and bullet a header into the net.
“No one was really happy with a few aspects of the first half performance,” said Hopkins. “The pressure wasn't good enough, it wasn't consistent enough. We weren't compact enough as a team. And as a consequence, we gave him a bit too much time and space.
“You could sense that a goal was coming. Maybe it was good for us that it did come just before half time. It meant we could go in, we could talk about it, and we could put a few things into place. And we did. Second half pressure was much better, I think we looked much better organized. A great header from Kayla.
“Even the last 10 minutes of the game, I thought we managed that quite well. Not too many problems for us late in the game. Even though they had a good go to try and put some under pressure.”