Melbourne City ready to blockade highflying Jets attack in A-League Women semifinals
In their quest for a double, newly crowned A-League Women premiers Melbourne City must ground the Newcastle Jets' high-flying attack. The plan, however, is quite simple. Deny them the ball.
A wry smile begins to develop across Melbourne City A-League Women coach Dario Vidošić’s face as the question unfolds. It’s the pre-match press conference before the first, away leg of his side’s semifinal against the Newcastle Jets and he’s being asked just how his side will go about tackling the significant task of containing the attacking prowess of Julie Dolan Medal frontrunner Sarina Bolden and, off the bench, the ruthless, striking play of Melina Ayres. Well, it turns out, the answer is a simple one. “By keeping the ball," he quips matter-of-factly.
There you go then, the answer to stopping Bolden, Ayres, and the rest of their Jets teammates is to deny them possession. It’s enough to make one, Hank Scorpio-esque, slap one’s forehead and ask why nobody’s thought of that yet. Probably because they have but that’s much easier said than done.
Only Matildas' attacker Michelle Heyman put the ball in the back of the net more than Bolden did this season, while the Canberra United talisman and Emily Gielnik were the only two players who scored at a higher rate than the Jets striker. Neither of those two players, however, assisted more or more often than Bolden, who is also third in the competition in expected goals per 90 minutes, sans penalties. She’s lethal. So, too, is Ayres, who has been dogged by injuries this season but who has returned to action in the past month and scored five goals in her last three appearances off the bench -- scoring the goals that helped secure the Jets wins over both Victory and Western United.
As a team, only Melbourne Victory scored more goals than the Jets this season, with Lauren Allen, Cassidy Davis, and Lorena Baumann combining to add 13 assists to Bolden's nine. They’re young, fit, and, given the ongoing existential crisis enveloping the broader circumstances of their club, eager to prove their worth and demonstrate the value of Novocastrian football.
Yet, if any team in the league was capable of retaining enough of the ball to blunt this edge, it would probably be this City one. And Vidošić, of course, elaborated on his ball denial mission statement.
"We know they're dangerous in transition,” he said. “[Bolden and Ayres] are two very good goalscorers, very dangerous threats.
“They're confident. They won their elimination final. They went to extra time, 120 minutes. I don't think that'll play much factor because I've had a long enough rest -- it's not like we're talking a three-day turnaround, they've had the full week.
“They're going home and I think it's predicted it'll be quite a large crowd, we know the Newcastle fans get behind their women's team, which is excellent. We anticipate maybe not a hostile but a fantastic atmosphere and it's going to really push their girls so we've got to be smart.
“But we always will always focus on ourselves, we know the opponent's strengths. And if we play our football, then we give ourselves a great chance to have a good start to this two-legged affair.”
Look at any meaningful possession stat from the A-League Women in 2023-24, and invariably City will be near the top. More often than not the top. And not infrequently by a lot. Despite losing arguably the competition’s best player Holly McNamara to an ACL early on in the season and subsequently seeing newly-capped Matilda Kaitlyn Torpey and starting goalkeeper Lysianne Proulx to San Diego Wave and Bay FC, respectively, City’s steadfast commitment to their coach’s principles saw them emerge as the best side across the longest A-League Women season in history this season – taking advantage of Sydney’s slip-up in back-to-back games against Canberra and Melbourne Victory to down Perth Glory on the final day of the season to be crowned premiers.
In his first full season as City boss, Vidošić’s side has averaged 61.9% of the ball throughout the season -- next best Adelaide clocks in at 52.5%. They're best in the league in passes attempted, completed, and the percentage of the two, as well as progressive passes and passes into the penalty area. They lead the league in take-ons attempted and completed and have almost 2000 more progressive carries than their nearest rivals -- 8702 to next-best Victory's 6715.
It’s important to note that they’re not imperious by any length of the imagination. At times this season play has veered towards possession for possession’s sake; that’s something that anyone with eyes could tell you, as well as some of the more advanced stats. Despite their significant lead in passes completed this season, both Sydney and Victory both played more balls that actually led to a shot. They’ve also proven maddeningly wasteful in front of goal at points: only Sydney and Western Sydney have underperformed their expected goals by more than their 6.1 this campaign -- compared to the Jets overperforming theirs by an astounding 9.3 – and no teams have underperformed their expected assists total than City’s 7 – the Jets, again, outstripping their expected totals by 7.7.
But City, at their best, are lethal. Jets coach Ryan Campbell acknowledged as much after his side’s win over Western United in the elimination final, remarking how keen he and his side were to test themselves and that “I think of all the teams in the league, Melbourne City is by far the best footballing team. The way they play football, I really respect [it]. My goal, as a club, is to play in a similar style to how they play.”
And as Vidošić noted, City’s approach is a style that has already received the only kind of validation that matters this season. Silverware. And heading into the chaotic crucible that is finals football, being able to foot on the ball and dictate how the storm will unfold – helped by having the supreme Rebekah Stott anchoring and pulling the strings from the back – is an incredibly valuable skill to have.
"It's already shown [how suited it is], over 22 rounds we were the best team,” he said. “We're the premier. So over a long period, it's shown to be the best for this season.
“It's gonna have to be calm within the chaos. It's going to be chaotic in finals but we play with calmness. So it's now us controlling emotions, controlling nerves, controlling the [environment] where probably it’s a little bit more pressurised.
“But we've been in that pressure cooker. We had to go to Perth, probably one of the hardest trips in the world. It's a long [trip and] three, four hours time difference. We knew an hour before kickoff we were playing for a premiership. So we've been in those pressure situations. We're fully prepared regardless of what sort of game it is. We don't, we don't mind too much.
“We believe, the girls believe in the way we play. They're very good at playing the way they play. So it's just another opportunity for us to try our football. It's a very good team that is in front of us. They'll come out to press us, to make it difficult. They'll want a positive result coming back to Melbourne.