KEEPUP followed along LIVE to bring you all the goals, highlights, up to date scores and biggest talking points from Melbourne Victory’s incredible 3-3 (1-4) penalty shootout win over Melbourne City in the Liberty A-League Semi Finals.
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MATCH REPORT: Dumont the hero as Victory trump City in penalty-shootout Semi Final win
‘My resilience speaks for itself’: How a hero emerged after surprise shootout move
Casey Dumont could not have picked a better time to pull out an individual performance for the ages, than in Melbourne Victory’s seismic 3-3 (1-4) penalty shootout win over bitter rivals Melbourne City in Saturday afternoon’s Liberty A-League Semi Final.
From minute one until the very end, the Victory goalkeeper was the showstopper. Dumont made a string of acrobatic saves to keep City at bay throughout regular time, including an 88th-minute penalty save to deny Holly McNamara an equaliser with her side leading 3-2.
City substitute Hannah Wilkinson would go on to score a dramatic equaliser in the 97th minute, and at three goals apiece, an additional 30 minutes of play ensued at Casey Fields.
In the dying embers of extra time, Dumont pulled off two stunning stops to prevent Leticia McKenna and Rhianna Pollicina from bagging City’s fourth of the afternoon.
Victory went first in the shootout, and it was Dumont who surprisingly planted the ball to dispatch the first spot kick. She sent City keeper Melissa Barbieri the wrong way to put her side a goal to the good.
Then, she produced a clutch save to deny City centre-back Katie Bowen. From there on, Victory had all the momentum. Wilkinson struck the bar late on in the shootout as Victory stormed home to notch a 3-3 (1-4) shootout win to stun their local rivals and book a spot in next weekend’s Preliminary Final.
“We practised it all week, that I was going to take (a penalty) for the team,” an ecstatic Dumont told Network 10 after her shootout heroics.
“Being a goalkeeper I kind of know where to pick the spots – and it also builds my momentum into the penalty shots as well.
“You’ve got to have the confidence because if you don’t believe in yourself, it’s not going to happen.
“The girls asked (me to shoot first), and I was like: ‘Yeah, no worries, I’ll do it’. We practised during the week as well: that always the first person that steps up sets the momentum. So I was like: ‘I’ll happily do that for the team if needed’.
“I think my resilience speaks for itself… you’ve just got to back yourself and do it. The team’s behind you so it doesn’t matter; you’ve just got to do it.”
“If you saw the celebrations earlier: that is the culture. No matter what, even if we have a bad training session, the girls get behind each other at the end, to be like: ‘We’re not walking off this pitch angry or upset’. It’s making sure we’re happy, and playing how we want to play. We make sure there’s no bad blood or negativity for the next session, then make sure we take that into the game.”
Attention now turns to Sunday’s Semi Final between Sydney FC and Western United. The winner of that game books a spot in the Grand Final. The loser takes on Victory in next weekend’s Preliminary Final.
Dumont concedes she may not find the time to watch Sunday’s Semi Final unfold: “I think the importance is to get an ice bath and massage!” she said.
“That was a massive game for all of us. We just need to get the recovery right, because no matter who we play, it’s a finals game. We’ve just got to get set and right for what we need to do, and make sure we fix what we did in this game wrong and get our bodies right.”
Victory coach Jeff Hopkins said this is nothing new for Dumont, having done something similar in year one of the competition while at Brisbane Roar.
“She was amazing. I think she has replicated what she did almost in the semi-final back in year one of the league, scoring the first penalty and saving the next one,” he said.
“She prides herself on her performance. She’s the most competitive person we’ve got at the club, including myself and she wasn’t going to give up.
“It’s not just what she did on the field. In the huddles, at half-time, she had a lot to say and she made sure that if anyone was just wavering a little bit there was no way that was gonna happen.
“I can’t speak highly enough of her and what she brings to this team.”
