Western Sydney Wanderers recorded their first home win of the season, and first win in eight weeks, with a gutsy 2-1 win over Brisbane Roar under threatening skies at Wanderers Park, handing Roar their fourth loss from their past five games.
The signs were there early that Wanderers were keen to atone for their heavy loss last week as they brought an improved energy and pressure to start the game. They had their opening shot at goal within the first 60 seconds through Sienna Saveska, but a counter attack saw Matilda veteran Tameka Yallop have a long range shot for the visitors at the other end just a minute later.
The first genuine chance came after four minutes when a defensive error from the Roar backline saw Brontë Trew in open space with only Roar keeper Sekany to best. Rather than take the ball closer to goal, Trew, perhaps put off by perceived prsssure coming from behind, took her shot from distance but it lacked any real power.
However just a couple of minutes later, Saveska and the Wanderers would get a do-over after another lapse at the back from Brisbane, and this time made no mistake, giving the home crowd something to cheer about.
An entertaining first half saw the ball move from end to end. Another Wanderers shot on target in the 10th minute forced Sekany into an excellent save diving to her right, and then minutes later Roar had no less than three chances to poke the ball home after a corner but to no avail.
Playing with the assistance of a breeze in the first half, Brisbane started to take hold of momentum, but their execution and precision with some final passes was lacking, leaving captain Yallop seemingly a little frustrated. To their credit, Wanderers were defending well, playing particularly close attention to newly-selected Matilda squad member Laini Freier.
The sides went to the break with the home side holding to a 1-0 lead.
The second half started with neither side able to generate any real fluency or clear opportunities in attack. A half chance presented itself for Brisbane in the 54th minute when teen sensation Grace Kuilamu was unable to get a boot to a lovely ball with an open goal begging.
The longer the second half went, the better Brisbane looked, especially with Yallop playing more on the ball as a distributor rather than the first half where she was more inclined to be the recipient of the work in the midfield.
The Matilda star’s skillset - sometimes threatening to shoot, other times bringing her teammates into the game - put doubt in the mind of Wanderers’ defence, and halfway through the second half the reward came when Young Matilda Zara Kruger unleashed a shot from range which curled so far into the top right corner of the net, that it appeared that only a deflection could have caused such deception in the air.
Kruger was swamped by teammates after her first goal for the club, and ended up under a pile of teammates on the ground as they celebrated. The teams took a hot weather drinks break after the goal, however Brisbane possibly wish they hadn’t, having leveled the score and seemingly with momentum.
The Wanderers needed to wrestle back that momentum, and the introduction of classy teen Talia Younis did so immediately. Her first touch was a perfectly weighted through ball which set up an aattacking opportunity which she herself almost scored from. Moments later a corner kick from Wanderers fell in the lap of captain Amy Harrison who thought she had found the go-ahead goal, but the skipper was correctly called offside.
Minutes later Holly Caspers came on for her first minutes in over two months, having been injured within minutes of returning from a previous injury. The appreciative home crowd welcomed Caspers back, and like Younis, immediately added to the Wanderers’ energy. Then in the 87th minute, good friend Danika Matos put through a nice ball for Caspers, who found herself with just the Roar keeper in front of her. Caspers used a deft touch to trickle the ball around Sekany and into the net, setting the diehard Wanderers crowd into a frenzy as the Western Sydney players rushed to their returning teammate.
The home side negotiated some late nervous moments to record a special win for the young side. After the game, HER WAY caught up with Holly Caspers to ask about how she approached the game, knowing her recent run of back luck with injuries:
“If we exclude the Melbourne City game, it’s been about 11 months since I’ve played a football game, so it’s been incredible to come back and get some minutes in, but also to get a goal has been really really nice.
Today I wasn’t actually nervous at all. The only time I got nervous was just before I went on, and I think that’s when you know you’re going to have a good game and get stuck in.”
Despite the tough season for the Wanderers, a good crowd came out to the game even though there was a threat of rain and thunderstorm (which never really eventuated under gloomy skies), and Holly believes the win was just reward:
“I think we needed it for ourselves, we needed it for the fans, and it’s just a really great feeling that we want to keep chasing.”
As for Brisbane, the loss sees them slip to 5th, only ahead of the Mariners on goal difference. Just a few weeks ago they sat second on the table. Captain Tameka Yallop was left to rue some missed opportunities when they had momentum:
“We put ourselves under the pump from quite early on, but in saying that we had a lot of chances in the first half that we should’ve finished, and it could’ve been a different game.”
Things don’t get easier for the Roar, who will be missing Matildas star Sharn Freier for the rest of the season, after an ankle injury suffered in a recent game. Yallop, who is also on the Football Players Association executive, was firm in what she believes about player unavailability in the league:
“I think there’s a lot of players in the league getting injured at the moment, and I think we probably need a little bit more protection on that. It’s not just our team losing players on the pitch from tackles.”
