When Wellington Phoenix look back – with pride – on their debut Liberty A-League fixture, goalkeeper Lily Alfeld will take plaudits, in particular for a near-post save in the 51st minute to deny Wanderers’ Erica Halloway.
But that moment told a wider story about a Phoenix team in its first outing, with eight 18-year-olds in the starting line-up. Phoenix were actually breaking upfield, and committing numbers forward, when Caitlin Cooper stole the ball back for Western Sydney in her own half and began a lightning counterraid.
Crucially though, by the time Alfeld palmed the ball away, Wellington had eight players back in their own box, with a ninth arriving a nanosecond later. That freeze frame says a lot about a team that only came into being in the past few weeks but is clearly determined to be a competitive force in its inaugural campaign.
“We really worked hard,” said vice-captain Kate Taylor afterwards. “A lot of the girls started getting cramp towards the end as everybody saw, it sort of went through the whole team, even the substitutes who came on were working so hard.
“It took a lot of effort, and a goal would have been nice, but we’ll take the point.”
The fear for all new teams is that the inevitable settling-in period can hobble the whole first season, and it’s probably inevitable with such a young team that there will be dispiriting periods in the campaign to come.
But there were signs from Phoenix – and, interestingly, in other games – that no team will find any game straightforward, and that the league table may be rather closer this season than last.
By the end of the last campaign, Premiers Sydney had more than twice as many points as the side finishing sixth, Western Sydney, and even the gap between fourth and fifth was a steepling nine points. In what was a 12-game regular season, that’s quite a differential.
READ: New era begins: Your comprehensive Liberty A-League season guide
The burr of one cicada, of course, does not herald an entire summer, and it’s foolhardy to read too much into one round.
But at Macedona Park in Perth, that competitive theme was also unfolding, as Perth Glory won a game of football for the first time since February 2020.
A team that secured one single, miserly point last year suddenly has three times that from one game, suitably enough with Christmas on the horizon.
While Glory’s winning goal was itself a generous gift from Brisbane keeper Georgina Worth, somehow allowing a tame back pass to slip over her foot and roll in, the win was instant vindication for the wholesale recruitment drive Glory coach Alex Epakis went on in the off-season, flying up and down the east coast to persuade players in person to join him at Perth.
Even more pleasing for Epakis was the fact that Brisbane had gone ahead through Anna Margraf’s first-half strike but Perth didn’t just keep a hold in the game, they seemed to get stronger as it went on.
Gemma Craine’s 86th minute challenge to win the ball and sprint to race down the right exemplified that, before her low cross was scrambled in by Susan Phonsongkham for the equaliser.
Melbourne City proved their own point after the disappointment of last year, securing a 1-0 win over Canerra at Viking Park thanks to a stylish 80th minute curler from Holly McNamara.
Of course competitiveness cuts both ways, and the opening wins for last season’s grand finallists, Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory, were definitive statements of intent.
For all that Newcastle look well-organised there is already a formidable feel to Sydney FC’s attack as last year’s Premiers aim to go one better and take the championship.
Cortnee Vine was the star of the show as the Sky Blues rolled the Jets aside with what was ultimately a comfortable 3-1 win at Jubilee Oval.
After the Jets withstood a first-half onslaught from the Sky Blues, Vine, 23, set up two goals after the halftime break for Remy Siemsen and Princess Ibini before grabbing one of her own.
Victory, meanwhile, went even better and put five past Adelaide – though the first half at least scarcely suggested that it would turn into a rout.
Star signing Lynn Williams was sitting in the stands, as her international clearance hadn’t come through in time, but the United States forward would surely have liked what she saw as Victory made light work of the Reds.
The only black cloud for Victory was the moment when captain Kayla Morrison limped off in some distress with a knee injury. Coach Jeff Hopkin will await the results of the inevitable scans with some trepidation.
