Canberra United and Adelaide United match at Deakin Stadium was abandoned after 68 minutes with the pitch declared unplayable after a torrential rain burst midway through the second half, but not before the home team had scored four times without reply.
After 24 hours without rain it appeared as if the football gods had smiled on Canberra with the match getting underway with the sun blazing down and the crowd using their umbrellas for shade rather than the predicted rain.
And Canberra began as if on fire rattling up four goals inside the opening 21 minutes.
It didn’t take long for the home team to take the lead with the opening goal coming after only six minutes. Michelle Heyman picked her way through two tackles with the minimum of fuss and fed Caitlin Munoz who thrashed a low drive through the legs of the despairing Kristi Harvey in the Adelaide goal.
Much to the delight of the crowd of 576 the home team doubled their lead barely minutes later with a goal of sheer simplicity. Ellyse Perry collected a pass from Lydia Williams to play a wonderful pass behind the Adelaide defence for Heyman to collect. The striker kept her composure to race clear and round Harvey before slotting into the empty net.
Two became three in the 16th minute when Heyman struck again. This time the provider was Emily Van Egmond who threaded a beautiful cross into the heart of the Reds’ penalty area which Heyman anticipated to run onto and loop an unopposed header over Harvey and into the net.
If that was a dream start for Canberra it got even better five minutes later with goal number four. Perry’s corner initially appeared to be over hit but was recovered from out wide by Munoz whose return cross found co-captain and centre-back Ellie Brush stealing in unmarked on the far post to finish like a centre-forward with a diving header steered past Harvey into the bottom corner of the net.
With a convincing lead Canberra eased off and were lucky that Williams was on hand to tip over a long-range effort from Racheal Quigley to preserve a 4-0 half-time cushion.
The second half began in similar fashion with Canberra dominating, but shortly after Ray Junna introduced Grace Field into the fray for a Canberra United debut the heavens opened. With the pitch quickly resembling a swimming pool play became a lottery with passes not finding their mark and players slipping and sliding.
With puddles quickly forming referee Kiralee Gardner had no option but to abandon the match and award the points to Canberra United on the basis that enough time had elapsed for the result to stand.
Canberra United 4 (Caitlin Munoz 6′, Michelle Heyman 9′, 16′, Ellie Brush 21′)
Adelaide United 0
