Sydney FC has dominated Brisbane Roar to record their first win of the Ninja A-League season with a fantastic performance and a maiden goal from striker Faith Webber in a 1-0 win.
Sydney FC 1 (Webber 67’) def. Brisbane Roar FC 0
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
2’ | WEBBER GOES CLOSE – Great team passing move between the lines involving Price, Chessari, Corbett and Caspers allows the latter to feed Webber who takes it in her stride and fires a right foot shot which curls just wide of the far post.
25’ | COHN SHOOTS OVER – Fantastic work from Dulaney to skin her marker and deliver a cross to into Cohn in the penalty area who volleys just over on the run.
30’ | CASPERS SHOT SAVED – Dulaney intercepts a clearance and feeds Caspers in the right penalty box channel. She plays a one-two with Cohn and shoots from the edge of the six yard box but Lincoln denies her from close range.
39’ | GREAT PLAY CORBETT – The 16-year old slides Webber in behind the full back with a pass, but the American’s cross is cleared inside the six yard box for a corner. The delivery of which is flicked to Corbett by Price and her shot from the edge of the box is saved by the knees of Lincoln before the rebound header is also cleared.
58’ | WEBBER SHOT SAVED – Webber shoots toward the right corner from range but it’s saved by a full length stop from Lincoln.
64’ | GREAT BLOCK ROLING – The ball is fed wide to Agnew who belts a right foot shot toward the bottom left corner but a lunging block from Roling stops the ball finding the corner.
67’ | WEBBER GOAL – A brilliant tackle from future Matildas star Maddie Caspers wins the ball in central midfield and she feeds Webber in the channel and the striker hits it across Lincoln into the far corner right footed.
83’ | WEBBER SHOT – The on fire forward hits it right footed over the bar from inside the box following Dulaney’s cross.
MATCH REPORT
Sydney FC have beaten Brisbane Roar 1-0 in a dominant performance in Queensland which should have produced more goals but the single strike from US forward Faith Webber was enough to ensure a first three points of the Ninja A-League season.
The Sky Blues welcomed back Willa Pearson and Claire Corbett into the starting line-up fresh from their FIFA U17 World Cup adventure and it counted early on with Sydney FC settling in quickly and dominating possession.
Webber shot just wide on two minutes after a brilliantly worked move involving Price, Chessari, Corbett and Caspers who released the American forward with a defence splitting pass but her shot curled just wide.
Sydney FC were clearly the dominate force for most of the half with Cohn volleying over and Caspers having her shot saved from close range after some neat play and a press inside the box on the half hour.
Junior Matilda Corbett was in the thick of the action in the 39th minute when she fed Webber behind the left back, but her cross failed to find a Sydney FC body. From the resultant corner Price flicked the ball out to the 17-year old on the angle and her first time shot was saved by Lincoln’s legs.
And after a dominant first half with 68% possession and 15 shots to 3 with 141 final third touches to 49, the Sky Blues had to settled for a scoreless half time.
Brisbane began better in the second half but it was Webber who almost broke the deadlock with a right foot shot toward the bottom corner just before the hour before Roling’s lunging block prevented Agnew giving Roar the lead.
The Sky Blues did that a few minutes later and midway through the half when the excellent Caspers won the ball and fed Webber who drove into the box and unleashed the shot beyond the keeper right-footed into the far corner for her first A-League goal.
The US born forward had another chance to double the lead in the last ten minutes when a Dulaney cross fell to her inside the box but she hit it over and the Sky Blues had to settle for the single goal win.
WHAT THEY SAID: James Slaveski
“This is a really good group of footballers, a really good group of people, and I’m really happy with the performance today.
“I felt it should have been more than one, to be honest. So, really happy.
“We know Willa’s qualities. She’s an exceptional player, exceptional talent. Her aggressiveness without the ball is her weapon and her hallmark.
“But then I also look at someone like Claire Corbett, who just sees things and does things that not many players can do. She’s 16 years old, and it’s scary what she can become, to be honest.
“She added some real quality to us in there today, along with Maddie Caspers, who I thought was excellent, as were Amy (Chessari) and Liv (Price) as well.
“Everyone contributed today, to be honest, so really pleased.
“We take the three points, and four points from a possible nine with 15 or 16 unavailable in the first three games is a step forward.
“Goals change games, and we spoke about it at half-time.
“It hadn’t come yet, but we knew there was going to be a moment when it did, if we kept doing what we were doing in the first half.
“Obviously, it comes from Maddie winning the ball back and then a killer pass for Faith.
“Really pleased for Faith. It’s a great finish. Her quality is exceptional, to be honest. I think she’s got a very high ceiling, and we’ve got a really good one there.
“She’s got that monkey off her back now, and I think we’ll start to see what her quality really is, because she’ll start to score more and more at this level, definitely.”
Maddie Caspers:
“It feels unreal. I don’t think I’ve had a win in that long. Coming off last week’s 5-0 loss, I don’t think any of the girls dropped their heads. I think we built on that and it made us stronger as a team.
“I think it’s just about playing instinctively. The girls were moving well and everyone was playing together. Chloe made some unreal saves as well, so shout-out to her.
“I think Claire (Corbett) and I are really similar players, so I actually love playing with her. It’s really good that she’s back. We’ve been combining well in training and I think that showed today.
“We knew they’d come off two losses, so we knew they’d be fired up. Especially at half-time, we knew they’d be told to go out and do exactly what we did in the first half, and that they’d come out even harder.”
LINEUPS | SYDNEY FC
Starting XI | 30. Tiahna ROBERTSON (GK), 2. Faith WEBBER (Captain), 11. Kiley DULANEY, 13. Riley COHN, 14. Olivia PRICE (18. Amber LUCHTMEIJER 56’), 16. Willa PEARSON, 17. Claire CORBETT (23. Rubi SULLIVAN 87’), 19. Amy CHESSARI, 26. Maddie CASPERS, 27. Poppy CHANNING, 28. Kenzie ROLING.
Substitutes |20. Sophie AUNGLE, 22. Jada TAYLOR, 33. Abbie PUCKETT, 37. Annabelle CROLL (GK).
Yellow Cards | Dulaney 58’,
Red Cards | None
Head Coach | James SLAVESKI
LINEUPS | BRISBANE ROAR FC
Starting XI | 1. Chloe LINCOLN (GK), 2. Annabel MARTIN (24. Emily ROACH 85’), 3. Daisy BROWN (17. Maja MARKOVSKI 72’), 7. Murphy AGNEW, 14. Zara KRUGER, 15. Hali LONG, 16. Abigail SMOTHERS (19. Lily PUNCH 57’), 18. Amali KINSELLA, 21. Katrina GUILLOU, 22. Natalie TATHEM (Captain) (4. Kijah STEPHENSON 72’), 27. Rosie CURTIS.
Substitutes |5. Isabel HODGSON, 23. Isabela HOYOS, 12. Tahlia FRANCO (GK).
Yellow Cards | Tathem 60’,
Red Cards | None
Head Coach | Johnathan CLEMENTE
Referee | Bec MACKIE
Venue | Gioca Stadium
Kick-off | 2:00pm AEST (local)
