It was a milestone moment in more ways than one as the Westfield W-League became Melbourne City’s first national championship in any competition for the club.
City collected a deserved 4-1 win over Sydney FC to finish their maiden Westfield W-League campaign in style.
And City coach Joe Montemurro said his side rediscovered their mojo on the big stage at AAMI Park, following a slightly erratic performance against Brisbane Roar six days earlier.
“The first ten minutes we couldn’t find our shape and our rhythm,” said Montemurro. “We made some errors I haven’t seen this year so I think that was nerves, and then we started to play our game.
“We won the premiership and then it took us a little bit of time to get back into finals football from a mental scenario. But the reality is we have players all over the park that can play finals football, and more importantly give us our structure and balance.”
Sunday’s victory was a first championship win for any Melbourne City team. The women’s side have notably been highly integrated within the club structure, with overlap in many areas alongside the Hyundai A-League side.
‘I’m immensely proud,” said Montemurro. “It breaks the shackles of what the organisation was previous to the City Group. We are proud of being part of a group.
“This team are a special bunch of players, and I’m immensely proud from a work and personal perspective.”
“It hasn’t sunk in,” added Montemurro. “The results, goals for, goals against… we train for it every day and it happened for us.”
Amid all City’s serious approach, player of the match Kim Little revealed her sparkling free-kick for the team’s second goal may not have happened. The Scot said she only took the free-kick after winning a ‘scissors, paper, rock’ contest with team-mate Jess Fishlock.
Little was named player of the match after scoring one goal and having a hand in all three others.
“We made things hard for ourselves last week,” said Little. “But we made up for it by putting in a very professional performance to win.”
