Titleholders Brisbane Roar have made it two from two to start the new Westfield W-League season, but they were made to fight hard for the three points against Melbourne Victory at Epping on Saturday.
Kept at bay by a brilliant performance by Victory keeper Melissa Barbieri, Brisbane was outplayed for long periods before substitute Ellen Beaumont settled the result with a scrambled goal in the 83rd minute.
After a corner on the right for Brisbane, the ball was headed back across the face of goal, wrong-footing Barbieri, where Beaumont won a scramble for the ball to slide home the decider.
Up until that point, Barbieri had been impassable. Twice she saved certain goals with her legs when one-on-one with attackers and her ball handling was exemplary.
Coming off last week’s 3-0 victory over Canberra in the season opener, the visitors settled quickly and controlled the tempo in the opening minutes, but it was Melbourne which created the first scoring opportunity from a corner on the right.
Nine minutes in, Marlies Oostdam fired the ball to the far post where Maika Ruyter-Hooley met it sweetly.
Her header was aimed low to Casey Dumont’s right but the keeper managed to get a hand to it and the ball was cleared off the line.
That proved to be the home side’s best chance of the first half, but it was nowhere near as clear cut as the Roar’s six minutes later when Joanne Burgess beat the offside trap and careered towards goal.
One-on-one with Barbieri, Burgess could pick her spot, but Barbieri managed to spread her body and save brilliantly with her legs.
Barbieri was called into action three minutes later when she pulled off a fine diving save to a powerful shot from Elise Kellond-Knight.
Julianne Sitch was busy for the Victory down the left and, after a neat one-two with Katie Thorlakson, got in a cross to the far post where an unmarked Vedrana Popovic headed over the bar.
The game went into a holding pattern in the early stages of the second half before Melbourne created three useful chances – one each to Thorlakson, Sitch and Popovic – in a six-minute burst.
Brisbane striker Sasha McDonnell came closest to breaking the deadlock when put clear in the 70th minute, only to find Barbieri in the road once again.
With the clock ticking down, a draw seemed a fair and fitting result before Beaumont’s late intervention.
Melbourne Victory 0
Brisbane Roar 1 (Ellen Beaumont 83′)
