The Sydney FC Westfield’s W-League side have continued their surge of dominance over the league, extending their unbeaten streak to 14 games with a convincing 4-1 win over Adelaide United at WIN Stadium in Wollongong on Saturday evening.
The Sydney FC Westfield-s W-League side have continued their surge of dominance over the league, extending their unbeaten streak to 14 games with a convincing 4-1 win over Adelaide United at WIN Stadium in Wollongong on Saturday evening.
Leena Khamis opened the scoring for the home side on the 10 minute mark, but Adelaide hit back just before half time when Ashleigh Gunning scored from the penalty spot.
Sydney looked the stronger of the two sides when they returned for the second half, and they took a well earned lead after 59 minutes through Ledbrook. Substitutes Cannuli and Foord scored late in the match to secure the win for the Sky Blues.
The Sydney women continued their blistering form this season, taking their total goal-tally so far in this campaign to an impressive 16.
Adelaide started the game brightly thanks to a blistering length of the field run from Donna Cockayne, who-s shot forced a brave save from Dimi Poulos to deny Adelaide the opener after just a couple of minutes of play.
Sydney striker Leena Khamis wasn-t so wasteful with her first chance of the match, smartly placing the ball past Adelaide keeper Sian McLaren and into the back of the net after 10 minutes to give Sydney an early lead.
Fellow striker Kyah Simon missed a golden chance to double Sydney-s lead not long after when an unexpected ball fell to her inside the six yard box, but she failed to convert the chance.
Sydney continued to dominate inside the first twenty minutes, with a thunderous Lydia Vandenbergh free-kick narrowly flashing over the bar, before Khamis almost doubled her tally with a header that landed on the roof of the net.
Vandenberghs free-kicks looked to be a dangerous weapon as she curled another one just over the top corner after 35 minutes.
Sydney-s missed chances proved to be costly when Ashleigh Gunning scored Adelaide-s first goal of the season from the penalty spot after Alesha Clifford fouled Katrina Gorry with a ferocious slide tackle on 39 minutes. Gunning stepped up and comfortably placed the ball past Poulos to level the scores.
The first 45 concluded 1-1 in a slow paced half. Adelaide was happy to sit back and attack Sydney on the counter, punishing their unusually sloppy midfield. The Sky Blues looked to pass the ball around but failed to capitalise on any half-chances that eventuated from their patient build-up.
Khamis had a one on one chance to put Sydney back in the lead just a minute into the second half, but the ball sprayed off her bright pink boots and across the face of goal.
Sydney began the second half in a much faster pace and took the lead they were searching for when Kylie Ledbrook pulled off a spectacular diving header from a pin-point cross by Vandenbergh in the 59th minute.
Ledbrook put the ball in the back of the net again in the 72nd minute, only to be denied her second goal of the match by the assistant, who ruled her offside. A magnificent header from Khamis struck the bar and Ledbrook did fantastic to get the rebound into the net.
Sydney took a step closer to securing the three points in the 80th minute when substitute Catherine Cannuli superbly lobbed goalkeeper McLaren with her head to make it 3-1, doing well to get on the end of a cross from the Sky Blues captain Heather Garriock.
Caitlin Foord made it 4-1 in injury team with a storming run down field before rounding the goalkeeper outside the box and easily finishing.
It was a dominant performance from the Champions, who never looked in doubt of winning this match after taking the lead early in the second half.
