‘I dreamed you scored your first goal in 10 years,’ Sydney FC’s captain was told – and then Teresa Polias did exactly that. Tom Smithies reports in the latest in our series of A-Leagues moments, I Was There…
IT was, quite literally, a dream goal.
The first in a 10-year career for Sydney FC’s popular captain, one she struck from distance into the top corner. A goal that Teresa Polias had probably dreamed of. And a goal that, incredibly, one of her teammates had dreamed of, roughly 12 hours before.
Polias’s screamer was extraordinary enough for what happened at the time – a goal that sparked a comeback against Melbourne City and a first win of the season for Sydney after three opening losses. It was her first ever, after a decade of playing for the club. Fairy tale stuff.
Except it was actually a goal foretold, just before the pre-match warm-up – when Sydney substitute Julia Vignes, then just 15 years old, nervously told her captain about a dream she remembered from the night before the game.
“I often don’t remember my dreams, but this one was weirdly very visual and all I remembered was Teresa scoring from outside the box,” Vignes tells KEEPUP. “I just thought, that’s funny.
“But then we were walking from we were walking from the SCG change rooms to Allianz Stadium to warm up for the game against Melbourne City.
“We’d lost our first three games of that season and then the fourth game was against Melbourne City who obviously were a very strong team. We’re walking in a little group with Ante (Juric, Sydney’s head coach) and I turned to ‘T’ and said, ‘By the way, I had a dream that you scored a goal last night.’
“She was like, ‘Thanks, Jules… but are you sure it was me?’ And then Ante heard me say it, and he goes, ‘Julia, are you sure it was Theresa because, you know, she’s played 10 years and she’s never scored a goal.’
“But I stuck to my guns and told them it was definitely Teresa. I had two witnesses, Teresa knew and Ante knew, they just thought it was funny.
“I was on the bench during the game and she took a shot that went in. She ran over to the bench and she kind of pointed at me, and I was just like, ‘I can’t believe just happened!’ Then Ante turned to me and said, ‘What the heck just happened? That’s insane, you just predicted it.’
“After the game he’s like, ‘Lucky you told everyone because no one would have believed you’. Naturally I was taking all the credit for her goal, because it was all my doing!”
Even better was the fact that Polias’s goal changed Sydney’s season. “I ended up getting subbed on with Remy (Siemsen) and Prinny (Princess Ibini) and Remy ended up scoring the winning goal, and we won.
“We didn’t lose again for the whole of the season until the grand final. But still, it was awesome. That was our turning point, I think.
“But I’ve literally never had a dream like that again. So maybe I was seeing the future…”
