The A-League Women again defies predictability as Wanderers deny Victory

Melbourne Victory should have beaten Western Sydney. Any side at 4-2 up in the 87th minute should go on to win. But this is the A-League Women, where games like this end 4-4 and chaos abounds.

BUNDOORA, Melbourne — Heading into the weekend, one may have almost felt safe looking beyond the A-League Women fixtures on tap. While the league’s penchant for chaos is well known, the top three of Melbourne City, Brisbane Roar, and Melbourne Victory were all set to face off with sides sitting outside the top six across Saturday and Sunday, before both Victorian sides met the second-placed Queenslanders in the days that followed. This weekend, thus, was perhaps something of an appetiser, whetting the appetite before the really tasty stuff arrived across the coming week. Yet then the games happened and the footballing gods – as well as Canberra, Sydney, and Western Sydney – moved to dismiss any such hubristic notions.

First, Canberra upset the Roar at Perry Park on Saturday afternoon, scoring two goals in the final ten minutes to down the hosts 2-1 and put the brakes on the hype train of a side that had scored 14 goals in its previous two wins. The following day, Sydney, who even with their well-credentialled squad are still bottom of the league, held City to a 1-1 draw at Leichhardt Oval. And then finally, Western Sydney picked themselves back up off the canvas at the Home of the Matildas by erasing a late two-goal deficit to force a 4-4 draw. It became a weekend slate that reiterated that this is and always will be a game played on grass, not paper.

In what with hindsight can now be seen as an omen for the tempest to come, the Wanderers stunned the hosts by taking the lead after just four minutes; Sophie Harding picking the pocket of Claudia Bunge before advancing into the penalty area and depositing the ball inside the far post of Courtney Newbon.

It was the type of start that an underdog side heading out on the road dreams of, putting the visitors in a position of strength and forcing Victory to rapidly adjust. Afforded that early position of strength; showing how a side can be comfortable despite being out-possessed. Once able to work the ball into the attacking third with their 56% of the ball, which they were able to do pretty regularly, Victory all-too-often found themselves blunted against the well-organised defensive shape of the Wanderers and, as a result, found themselves sending speculative long-range efforts on goal that their opponents were mostly okay with having – six of their eight first-half attempts coming from outside the penalty area.

In the other direction, there was a clear emphasis on rapidly moving to get in behind and utilise the pace of Sophie Harding and company, something that had been identified as a danger by Victory boss Jeff Hopkins heading into the contest. Thrice, the Wanderers looked to have got in behind their opponents and broken the game open – even having the ball in the back of the net in the 27th minute – only for the offside flag to deny them. And while the defensive discipline of the Victory defence to step up played a role here there was also a decided sense that if the Wanderers players had just been able to pick their spots just a tad more, the lead would have been much greater heading towards halftime.

But as Victory is wont to do, they found a way to get themselves back into the contest, an unconvincing clearance of a Nikki Flannery cross leading to a corner on the stroke of halftime that Alex Chidiac somehow placed onto the head of Bunge amidst a sea of bodies. Five minutes into the second stanza it was 2-1 when too much space was afforded to Ellie Wilson to tee up a layoff from Rachel Lowe atop the penalty area and place an effort beyond Sham Khamis in the Wanderer goal – the 29-year-old’s furious remonstrations with her backline in the goal’s aftermath indicative of her views on the time the English defender had.

All of three minutes later, however, we were level again: Sienna Saveska adding yet another highlight to her burgeoning career when she weaved inside from the left flank and rocketed a ball into the back of the net. Back in Sydney’s west after winning a title with Sydney FC last season, the teenager now has five goals on the season – four against Western United and the aforementioned thunderbolt against Victory – which represents nearly half of her side’s total attacking output.

Then, as one would expect, came the counterpunch as Victory found a way back, with two of their high-end difference makers at the forefront. Inserted into the game as a second-half substitute – a move with her availability to start against Brisbane in mind – Emily Gielnik whipped a ball in from the right minute that Gemma Ferris inadvertently turned into her net to make it 3-2 in the 77th minute. Then ten minutes later, Chidiac pounced an Alana Murphy effort that bounced off the crossbar to net her first goal of the season and make it 4-2.

Most would have written the game off here. The game should have been written off at that point. Only it wasn’t. With just a minute of regulation remaining, two substitutes combined when Bronte Trew drove a low cross that was met by Talia Kapetanellis, her first ever A-League Women goal reducing the deficit to one just before the fourth official indicated a nervy six minutes of time awaited. But the Wanderers didn’t need all six, just two, to land another blow: Harding capitalising on Kayla Morrison’s attempted clearing header falling straight at her feet to shoot past the defender, who lost her footing in an attempt to recover, and the Newbon to make it 4-4.

Madness, chaos, and uproar had yet again come to the A-League Women. The Wanderers had used it to secure a point that kept them off the bottom of the table and, perhaps just as importantly for those of a red and black persuasion, kept Sydney down there. They had once again demonstrated that as challenging as this season has been for them, running out games is something that football tends to reward regardless of the calibre of the opponent.

For Victory, conversely, this was now the second straight game at the Home of the Matildas in which they had faded late to surrender a draw. Hopkins undoubtedly would have felt his side learned their lesson from that draw with Wellington but had now watched it all happen again. As much as we can talk about chaos, Victory is a side with the talent where seeing out games like this should be the expectation and if they’re to challenge for silverware this season, late-game fadeouts cannot be allowed to become a habit, particularly at home. Hopkins, however, lay a tackle or make a clearance for his side, meaning this is something that the players must take responsibility for, too.

Perhaps this is a rather glum tone to adopt fit a side that is now undefeated in seven games and still well placed for success. But had Victory seen the game out on Sunday, they’d be second right now and able to go top of the table with a win over the Roar on Wednesday. Instead, he and Alex Smith’s side will go into that meeting smarting from unexpected results, having not only become the latest cautionary tales in the history of the A-League Women’s unpredictability but also received a reminder of the work that still needs to be done.