W-League: Sydney FC 0-1 Brisbane Roar

An extremely warm day at Campbelltown was the venue to host this season’s top of the table clash between Sydney FC and Brisbane Roar in the W-League. In fact it was so hot the game was nearly postponed, instead drink breaks were given as relief for the girls during the game.

The battle between two teams chocker with current and former Matilda’s was always going to be tight and the first half sure proved this. There were numerous battles taking place on the field particularly as each side tried to exert their authority on the pitch; the midfield was awash with sweat and tears.

Each team had a few 50/50 chances but to no avail and it did get a bit kicky as the teams endeavored to get better field position in the hot conditions. In the end it was a scoreless draw for the first half.

The second half saw the introduction of the quality bench. For Sydney this was injured Captain Heather Garriock returning. But despite her best efforts, in the 50th minute a break from Brisbane found Clare Polkinghorne shooting from within the 18yd box only to ricochet off of a Sydney defenders foot back to Aivi Luik to also have a dig but again to rebounding this time back to Jo Burgess who calmly had her turn. Her attempt was on the ground, going past two Sydney defenders and their Keeper to score the only goal of the game. Undoubtedly though, there should have been more goals for Brisbane with the injection of Internationals Lisa DeVanna and Kennya Cordner.

In the 60th minute Lisa was pulled down in the 18yd box after making a break past Servet Uzunlar. Danielle Brogan was red carded for this infringement and a penalty was awarded. The US trained Keeper for Sydney, Dimi Poulos, correctly chose the side to dive and the shot was too high by Lisa and thus saved by Dimi.

Lisa went on to have a number of shots on goal. Some of these were very good including beating the Keeper a few times only to find the post or a defender on the line. Just plain unlucky for Lisa not to have scored, but it was all good work for her team as she was busy placing pressure on Sydney. Sydney themselves were not able to have quality time on the ball to really worry the Roar too much.

At game’s end it was seventeen shots on goal to five from the two teams, and a 1-0 win to Brisbane with the Queenslanders dominating the second half. This cements Brisbane Roar at top of the table with two games remaining for them. Sydney now has to place hope on Melbourne or Newcastle to get a result against the Roar to have any chance of reclaiming the top position.

The other game was a 1-0 win to the young Melbourne Victory side over a Newcastle Jets side that just cannot score.