Sunday afternoon saw the first leg of the A-League Women’s inaugural home-and-away semifinals take place, with the Central Coast Mariners hosting Sydney FC, while Premiership winners Melbourne City travelled to Newcastle to take on the Jets.
While one game is teetering on a knife-edge coming into the final leg next weekend, another may already be over before it’s begun.
Here are the five main talking points from across the two games.
1. Sydney FC bounces back, but the battle isn’t over yet
Three weeks is a long time for any team to go without football during a title charge, but for Sydney FC, those three weeks must have stretched into eternity.
After falling at the final regular-season hurdle with two consecutive losses to Canberra and Melbourne Victory, which saw the Premiership trophy slip from its fingers and into the hands of Melbourne City, the Sky Blues then had almost a month to stew in the mistakes and ruminate in the regret of what could have been.
A scrappy draw here, an avoidable loss there: pretty soon, those games started to add up to real danger for the reigning double-winners, who were pipped to the Plate by just two points in the end.
Central Coast Mariners were one of the culprits. They were one of just four teams that Sydney hadn’t beaten all season long, with a shock loss to the side in mid-January signalling that maybe this wasn’t Sydney’s year after all.
But on Sunday, the Sky Blues showed the resilience and finals fortitude that they’ve become known for, defeating a motivated Mariners side 1-0 in front of a raucous Gosford crowd.
A single goal to stand-out midfielder Mackenzie Hawkesby in the 53rd minute was enough to give Sydney the edge coming into the final leg of the tie at home next Sunday, but the Mariners didn’t go down without a fight.
The stats by full-time favoured the home side, with the Central Coast registering more shots, possession, and passes than its opponents, while a flurry of attacks in the final 20 minutes of the game saw three huge chances go begging, including a strike from Chinese international Wurigumula that clanged off the crossbar.
Head coach Emma Husband said afterwards that this is just “half-time” in the overall semifinal tie, but with Sydney now a nose in front, the Mariners will have to deliver an even bigger performance away from home if they’re to make their first-ever grand final.
2. Key injuries could affect finals-bound sides
It’s kind of remarkable that Sydney FC has made it to this point at all considering the epidemic of injuries that tore through the team this season.
It began in the very first match when captain Natalie Tobin ruptured her ACL in the Sydney Derby against the Western Sydney Wanderers, which was followed by a series of injuries to strikers Fiona Worts and Shea Connors, while star full-back Kirsty Fenton also joined the ACL club towards the back end of the regular season.
Now, the dark cloud of injury has returned, taking down Tobin’s stand-in captain Princess Ibini, who dislocated her shoulder in the first half against the Mariners and was forced to come off at half-time.
While it hasn’t been a stellar season by the 24-year-old’s own standards, her leadership on the field and work-rate off the ball have been important in getting the Sky Blues to the cusp of potentially a seventh consecutive grand final, but now she may not be able to see it through depending on how she recovers from what is her third shoulder dislocation in her career.
But Sydney wasn’t the only side to cop an injury to a key player on the weekend.
Melbourne City, who defeated the Newcastle Jets 3-0, was forced to play the majority of its match without former Matildas defender Karly Roestbakken, who limped off in the 21st minute following an awkward collision with Jets winger Lara Gooch.
The full-back, who has struggled with lower-leg injuries for the past two years, was in tears on the turf as she was assessed by the physio, and had to be helped off the pitch by teammates.
On the other side of the pitch, key midfielder MelindaJ Barbieri suffered a knock in the 40th minute of Newcastle’s match against City and had to be substituted early in the second half. As one of the team’s key creative forces, the Jets will sorely miss the former Victory player if the knock keeps her out of the rematch next Sunday.
3. A moment of recognition for the midfield maestros
While attackers, defenders, and goalkeepers are the players who most often make the highlights reels, this past weekend’s games were a shining example of some of the brilliant midfielders currently working in the A-League Women.
Sydney FC’s Mackenzie Hawkesby touched just about every blade of grass against the Mariners, and her winning goal was just reward for a tireless effort as the Sky Blues’ central driving force, covering the space between both boxes as well as taking almost every set piece they won.
