Canberra boss Popovich sees auspucious omens from Western defeat.

Though still bottom of the A-League Women table after a 4-2 defeat to Western United, Canberra United boss Njegosh Popovich sees auspicious omens in their performance for the rest of the campaign.

In the aftermath of his side’s 4-2 loss to Western United on Friday evening, Canberra United coach Njegosh Popovich’s thoughts flashed back to last January, when Western had made the trip to McKellar Park and just went right ahead and put their boots on the couch: scoring five first-half goals on the way to a thumping win over the hosts. At first glance, it’s not the most auspicious of callbacks to make. But as he went further, one could see the reasoning behind it. 

On that scorching day in 2023, all of United’s goals had come in the first half of the contest, before Canberra staged a rearguard and stemmed the bleeding across the second stanza. On Friday, they were able to go one better, ‘winning’ the second half by scoring two goals to one and restoring the scoreline to some level of respectability after Western had raced to a 3-0 lead – Hannah Keane scoring the second-fastest goal in league history after fewer than 15 seconds before she and Chloe Logarzo added further goals before the 15-minute mark. 

Perhaps more pertinently for Popovich, whose side has six remaining games to if not close the nine-point gap between themselves and the finals places, at least drag themselves off the bottom of the table, that improved second-half last season augured an eight-game unbeaten run that just saw them miss the playoffs on goal difference.

 “The reality is that we probably were a little bit shell-shocked going into the start of the match,” said Popovich. “[Western] scored off the kickoff, basically, and a few of the heads dropped. But they'll grow from it. It's about that. The younger players have learned a lot of lessons today, I think. 

“But the pleasing thing for me was that the second half was amazing. It's almost reminiscent of last year, we copped five against Western United at home in the first half. In the second half, I said, 'You've got a challenge now that you need to beat him in the second half'. Consequently, we came out in the second half, we ended up drawing that second half. 

“From then on, we went up to eight undefeated results. So hopefully this could be the turning point for the next six matches.”

Kiwi striker Deven Jackson scored just four minutes after the halftime break, Canberra’s improved second 45 minute were inarguably boosted by the halftime additions of Vesna Milivojević, who represented Serbia over the international break, and Michelle Heyman, who scored five goals in two appearances for the Matildas in Olympic Qualifiers against Uzbekistan. 

Heyman’s goal to make it 4-2 in injury time extended her lead atop the competition’s Golden Boot race to 13 and she arguably could have another one with her four shots – more than double anyone else in the team. 

Canberra can’t be said to have been hard-done-by by the result, Logarzo skied a clear-cut chance in the second half as Western recorded 4.6 expected goals (xG) to 0.4 across the 90, but they at least have something to build on ahead of a busy period. 

“Vesna came in last night,” Popovich said post-game. “She didn't get to the hotel until about 1 am. Selfish me would have played her, the reality is that we've got three games next week. Western Sydney Wanderers on the weekend, Western Sydney Wanderers midweek, and then Central Coast Mariners away. So for us, it was very important to make sure that Vesna's fighting fit. What a great effort by her to come in the second half and do that. 

“Michelle, she was ready to start, she felt like she wanted to start, I just didn't feel comfortable. It's probably the same. I just wanted to make sure that she was right for the next three games. 

“And obviously, the second half performance, the 45 minutes that she put in, I think that she was a bit unlucky, possibly not to have got a penalty with a shirt tug. But you know what, that's football, you've just got to move on from it. I'm just waiting for the time when some of these decisions come our way.”