Sydney FC have reached the Westfield W-League Finals Series for a record 11th successive season despite a 2-0 loss in the final round against Melbourne City at WIN Stadium, this evening.
Sydney FC 0 def by Melbourne City 2 (Kinga 66’, Butt 86’)
Sydney FC have reached the Westfield W-League Finals Series for a record 11th successive season despite a 2-0 loss in the final round against Melbourne City at WIN Stadium, this evening.
Moments That Mattered:
- Williams Save – 9’ – A quality counter attack from the Sky Blues is thwarted by a great save from Williams after Ibini found herself one-on-one with the Melbourne City shot-stopper.
- Penalty Miss – 14’ – A tough penalty decision goes against Colaprico and the home side, but Kinga sprays it wide and allows the Sky Blues to remain on level terms after quarter of an hour.
- Logarzo Tackle – 45’ – The away side looked certain to hit the lead just before the break as Kinga got herself in open space inside the area, but a fantastic tackle from Logarzo made sure it would remain level heading into the sheds.
- Kinga Goal – 66’ – The away side break the deadlock with a scrappy goal to Kinga, who converted after a cross in the six-yard box.
- Butt Goal – 86’ – City extend their lead to 2-0 after a counter attack down the right-hand side ends in a finish inside the box from Butt, putting the game out of Sydney FC’s reach.
Sydney FC are still the only club to have played in every Westfield W-League Finals Series to date after making sure of their qualification at WIN Stadium tonight.
Visitors Melbourne City needed to win by five goals to deny the Sky Blues a spot but could only manage the two in the second half from Yukari Kinga and Tameka Butt.
The Sky Blues created chances on the counter throughout the 90 minutes but couldn’t find the back of the net, before Kinga and Butt sealed Sydney FC’s fate with two close range finishes in the final half an hour.
Princess Ibini was dangerous throughout the match and found herself one-on-one with the keeper in the early stages but couldn’t get it past Lydia Williams.
Moments later City were awarded a penalty, only for Kinga to spray it wide from the spot.
Despite the chances created by the Sky Blues it wasn’t our night in Wollongong as Kinga made up for the earlier miss just after the hour mark, before Butt put it out of reach with less than five minutes remaining.
Sydney FC will now face an away Finals Series semi-final in either Melbourne, Brisbane or Perth next week depending on results from this weekend’s matches.
What They Said: Head Coach Ante Juric: “We made quite a few good runs but probably should have put a few away and it doesn’t help when there are penalty decisions at both ends go against us. Those things don’t help but at the same time we need to put our chances away.
“We always look to just play attacking football and I don’t think we get enough credit for being as good as we have. No teams have scored more goals than us this season, no teams have had as many chances as us. We deserve to be in this position, and while City are an excellent team they don’t deserve to be in the finals at our expense.
“Today we had that five-goal cushion in terms of finals which was nice, but we went out there to win and unfortunately couldn’t do that.”
Sydney FC: 1. Aubrey BLEDSOE (GK) 2. Teresa POLIAS © 5. Ally GREEN 6. Chloe LOGARZO 8. Amy HARRISON 9. Caitlin FOORD 10. Savannah MCCASKILL (11. Lisa DE VANNA 62’) 14. Alanna KENNEDY 20. Princess IBINI-ISEI (21. Julia VIGNES 82’) 22. Sofia HUERTA 23. Danielle COLAPRICO (17. Angelique HRISTODOULOU 69’)
SUBS NOT USED: 30. Trudy BURKE (GK)
Yellow Cards: Harrison 11’, Colaprico 14’, McCaskill 19’, Logarzo 64’.
Red Cards: None.
Melbourne City: 1. Lydia WILLIAMS (GK) 2. Yukari KINGA (15. Amy JACKSON 85’) 3. Lauren BARNES 5. Helen CACARES (11. Rhali DOBSON 67’) 7. Stephanie CATLEY © 8. Elise KELLOND-KNIGHT 13. Rebekah STOTT 22. Jasmyne SPENCER 26. Hailie MACE 31. Tameka BUTT 88. Theresa NIELSEN
SUBS NOT USED: 23. Melissa BARBIERI (GK) 12. Adriana JONES
Yellow Cards: Kellond-Knight 50’
Red Cards: None.
Ground: WIN Stadium
Attendance: 1,415
Referee: Lara Lee
