These are the key talking points from Round 10 in the Liberty A-League.
Melbourne City maintained their spot atop the Liberty A-League ladder in a thrilling 5-3 victory over Brisbane Roar, which showcased the side’s new-found resilience.
A Sydney FC star’s return sparked the Sky Blues to an important win over Wellington Phoenix and Millie Farrow’s red-hot form helped rejuvenate Perth Glory’s attack in their victory over Central Coast Mariners.
Meanwhile, Western Sydney Wanderers have unearthed another young gun and a competition stalwart played her 150th game.
With a lot to dissect, here are the key talking points from Round 10 of the Liberty A-League.
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City showcase resilience in win over Brisbane
Melbourne City head into the new year as the Liberty A-League pacesetters after a thrilling 5-3 win over Brisbane Roar.
City answered every challenge Brisbane threw at them throughout the game, battling back from an early deficit to take a 3-1 lead at half-time, before responding twice after Roar cut the margin to a single goal in the second-half.
It’s a sign of City’s improved resilience and mentality, having left points on the table in some crucial games last season when faced with mounting pressure. Namely, the 4-3 loss to Perth Glory and 3-3 draw with Canberra United in the last two games of last season, where they coughed up late leads.
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City coach Dario Vidosic was pleased with how they bounced back, taking specific note of the way midfielder Laura Hughes reacted after she made a mistake en route to Mia Corbin’s second goal of the game.
“I think just learning, they’re young and you learn from mistakes,” Vidosic said.
“One thing that I was proud of, even with Hughesy (Laura Hughes) she had a mistake that led to a goal and then straight away, wanting the ball again in that exact same situation and then and then correcting that and still playing out.
“I think there’s a bravery now… it’s ok like it’s it’s not the end of the world to make mistakes and I tell them all the time like you watch Lionel Messi when he was at his prime. Arguably the greatest footballer ever, loses the ball 30 times a game, so he makes mistakes. So it’s normal.
“It’s all about mistakes, but it’s about trying to correct mistakes not giving the ball away and and we gave them a lot of chances today and whether it was last ditch defending or a great save or maybe not being as clinical from their part maybe saved us a bit.
“But it’s something that we need to learn… we need to improve going forward.”
Champion’s immediate impact on Sydney FC return
Sydney FC welcomed back a member of their 2022-23 Championship-winning squad on Saturday – and just hours after announcing her return, Mackenzie Hawkesby was back dominating for the Sky Blues against Wellington Phoenix at Allianz Stadium in Round 10.
Hawkesby returned to Sydney FC after a stint at Women’s Super League side Brighton and Hove Albion; the attacking midfielder scored six goals and notched five assists last season, and despite failing to score or assist against Wellington, she was the creator-in-chief for the Sky Blues.
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“She made an immediate impact,” said Sydney coach Ante Juric post-game.
“It’s what we needed. I don’t think we’ve been bad, it’s just experience. Even though she’s quite young, she just worked everywhere. Someone like Zara (Kruger) can watch her, Indi (Dos Santos) can watch her, just her movement and sharpness.
“It’s the experience, and she was excellent today. She’s made me really happy, to be honest, to have her back.
“She’s played with us, so this is where it’s tough for the new players. We’ve been together for a long time, we’ve won everything, we have this machine where it’s simple and everyone knows each other, so that’s what we’re trying to get again, and we (saw) glimpses of it today.”
Glory star helps Perth return to winning ways in clinical performance
Perth Glory returned to winning ways over the weekend with their first-ever victory against Central Coast Mariners, thanks to a brace from Millie Farrow.
The English attacker is putting together an eye-catching start to life in Perth, scoring six goals from her first 10 games in the Liberty A-League, which has bettered ever best ever league return, having previously scored five goals in 19 matches for Crystal Palace in 2021-22.
It was a much needed clinical performance from the Glory star after Perth went back-to-back games without scoring a goal in their 0-0 draw with Sydney FC and 1-0 loss to Western United.
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Perth once again struggled to create chances against Central Coast, registering only four shots to 22, with an expected goals (xG) of 0.55 to 1.02, but Farrow’s ruthlessness in front of goal proved to be the difference between the two sides.
Glory haven’t registered an xG higher than 1.0 since their 3-1 win against Melbourne City – tallying a score of 0.58 (from six shots) against Sydney and 0.84 (from eight shots) against Western.
This would be of concern to coach Alex Epakis, but along with Farrow, they have the firepower to turn things around including the likes of Susan Phonsongkham, Grace Jale and Hana Lowry, as shown in the early part of the season, where they scored 14 goals in their opening seven matches.
But most importantly, they claimed what mattered most on Saturday and that was three points heading into 2024.
Stalwart becomes 6th member of exclusive Liberty A-League club
In the 85th minute of Newcastle’s win over Adelaide, a former Matilda claimed a place in an exclusive six-player Liberty A-League club.
Gema Simon came off the bench as a late substitute in what was the Matilda’s 150th Liberty A-League appearance. Only five players had reached that figure prior: Kim Carroll, Michelle Heyman, Teresa Polias, Clare Polkinghorne and Caitlin Cooper.
Former Newcastle player Rhali Dobson spent a significant portion of her career playing alongside Simon at the Jets, and was on commentary duty as the special moment unfolded.
Dobson took the opportunity to sum up the significance of the achievement as Jets captain Cassidy Davis handed Simon the armband for the remaining minutes of her 150th league appearance.
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“No one really understands how hard it is to get to 150 games,” Dobson said on Paramount+.
“When the Liberty A-League, or the W-League as it was called, first started there was only eight games in the regular season. One game for semis was the ninth game, and the 10th was the Grand Final. And it was like that for a long time. Now you see, we’ve (got) full home-and-away, we’ve got a lot more games.
“For Gema Simon to make this (milestone), and join such an exclusive club, it is emotional, it is fantastic and good on her.”
Important result ahead of huge week for Canberra
The next seven days could be season defining for Canberra United.
Canberra sit bottom of the Liberty A-League standings heading into the new year, nine points behind sixth-placed Western United – albeit with two games in hand – after their 1-1 draw with last season’s runners-up on the weekend.
The side from the capital were forced to dig deep to hang onto a point, despite leading in the first-half thanks to Michelle Heyman’s opener.
Coach Njegosh Popovich, however, believes the result was an important step forward heading into a huge week where they will face Sydney FC on Wednesday and Newcastle Jets on Saturday.
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“It’s a heavy schedule going forward. We’ve got Sydney midweek and Newcastle on Saturday,” Canberra coach Njegosh Popovich said on Saturday.
“It was important for us to start with a result today and start building some momentum going into those two games.”
Getting points in the next two games is integral to any hope Canberra have of closing the gap on the sides above them, given the clash against Sydney is also the first of their catchup matches.
A win over the reigning Liberty A-League champions and against Newcastle will go a long way to turning the tide on their season, but, conversely, two losses would be a hammer blow to their finals chances.
The Wanderers unearth yet another breakout star
Western Sydney Wanderers continue to unearth some of the Liberty A-League’s most exciting players this season.
First, it was Sophie Harding, who has scored six goals in her opening nine games of the season.
Now, it’s Holly Caspers.
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The Wanderers attacking midfielder put together one of her best performances to date in Western Sydney’s impressive 2-0 win over Melbourne Victory on Saturday evening.
Caspers was everywhere, teeing up another of their young stars Alexia Apostolakis for their second goal of the game, to wrap up their first win over Victory since November 2015.
Her performances over the last month, however, have seemingly flown under the radar, tallying all four of her assists her last five matches – starting on November 25 when they beat Western United.
In fact, the 23-year-old hadn’t started a game all season until their 3-0 win against Central Coast Mariners a week after the victory over Western, and has since partnered the likes of Harding, Rue and Maliah Morris as part of their fleet-footed attack.
Incredibly, her assist against Victory took her top of the assists charts in the entire competition, edging ahead of Melbourne Victory’s Alana Murphy, Matildas star Emily van Egmond, Western United duo Hannah Keane and Melissa Taranto and Perth Glory’s Millie Farrow.
