Thea Slatyer: Overcoming turbulence

It was a rocky start to the weekend when we boarded a flight to Adelaide for our round six game and had an encounter with a gentleman with a rather, shall I say, 'dated' point of view.

Turbulence for Slatyer on an away trip to Adelaide?

Upon seeing our team board the aircraft in our Sydney FC uniform he made a comment to which one of our girls explained we were playing Adelaide United at Hindmarsh Stadium. The fairly large man retorted that we should feel privileged to play on Hindmarsh and added- "you girls shouldn't be playing on that field, you'll cut it all up".

Surprised, another girl asked him if he thought we should be back in the kitchen instead. "That's right." he replied. A few heated tempers flaring now, we walked off and one girl couldn't help crudely pointing out that he needed to get OUT of the kitchen. It is incredible that you can still come across ignorant people like that - it's 2011!

Things went from strange to bizarre when Qantas lost my luggage. Out of all the other identical blue Sydney FC sports bags, mine just happened to go missing. So I was without my necessities and most importantly had no football boots to play with!

My first instinct was to call Nike who so generously support and supply me with amazing football boots and products. My weapon of choice are the CTRs or Tiempos, I currently wear purple CTRs which have now become my favorites. I spoke to my point of contact at Nike head quarters and within minutes a brand spanking new pair awaited me at the Nike shop in Adelaide. Even as a kid growing up it was always a dream of mine to be sponsored by Nike. Around 2006 just before the World Cup year I was overjoyed to sign a contract with Nike Australia. Now equipped with management from Komodo Group I am proud to be supported by a number of different entities including TW Steel, a Dutch watch company out of Amsterdam, and something that I am personally anticipating is starting some boxing training with the legendary Johnny Lewis. More to come on that soon.

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Back to the game, we beat Adelaide 4-1. As expected, Adelaide came out firing and we were tested at the back numerous times before they caught us off guard and put away the first goal around the 30th minute to lead 1-0. Big disappointment.

We then muscled away to respond with a goal after about 10 minutes. Big relief.

Half time came and we returned to the pitch a stronger force but still managed to get caught with balls hit over the top of our back four. Their striker was forcing our back line to sit deeper so I was deliberately trying to press high to give her less space to work with, although it bit us in the butt a few times.

Once the second goal came the others kept rolling in with the Adelaide 'keeper losing grip on the ball a few times. When we were awarded a penalty for a foul inside the box I thought it would really seal the deal but an unusual event happened next. Leddy (Kylie Ledbrook) missed a penalty. Hasn't happened in three years she revealed in disappointment after the game.

I nearly relived my glory of two weeks ago when I stood to the side of the goal and collected the ball which landed at my feet after a corner kick. With players rushing towards me in my peripheral vision I knew I only had a second to shoot. With a tough angle and defenders storming my way I hit it anyway and watched as it sailed high over the cross bar while my goal scoring bubble burst. In hindsight a better option might have been to drag it away and lay it off to someone sitting at the top or around the box, or even hitting it back into the mixer.

At the full time whistle we finished the game on a high which is a lot more than we could say for the lively Adelaide spectators who were animated throughout the entire game, heckling both the ref and our players.

At Monday's training Staj told us despite a good result he believed we were capable of achieving even more given the talent and potential the team possesses. This weekend will be the time to prove it. Tuesday was a heavy gym session - all legs - and Wednesday was an intense ten a side game against ourselves working on some of our flaws from the previous game.

I'm looking forward to the game this Saturday at Leichhardt Oval 7pm kick off... don't be late!

Key player for Westfield W-League side Sydney FC, Thea is also a current Matilda with a strong passion for womens football and the sport in general. Catch the W-League every week at your local ground or if you can't make the game watch it live on ABC1. Read Thea's other columns for The Football Sack.