All roads lead to Lambert Park in Sydney’s inner west on Sunday for one of the traditional highlights of the Westfield W-League season as Sydney FC tackle Canberra United.
The pair have won four of the seven Westfield W-League championships between them, and have been regular title contenders throughout the life of the competition.
Recent times have seen a shift towards the nation’s capital with Canberra having won four straight matches against the Sky Blues. The most recent victory was just last month where a 3-0 scoreline in Canberra saw the Green Machine take the lead in the pair’s head-to-head record for the first time. They now have a 5-4 record across the 11 matches played to date.
Sydney FC coach Dan Barrett says this weekend in the Harbour City will be a very different contest. “Without giving too much away, I learnt a lot from our last match against them,” he says.
“The game last time around was difficult for us but we know the reasons why and we’ve worked on those areas during the past week.”
Indeed, a month is clearly a long time in football. Sydney has won the past two matches in succession to bounce back from a shocking opening to the season.
Canberra, in contrast, have somewhat surprisingly failed to earn a victory since that win over the Sky Blues leaving the champions second from bottom.
Much interest will focus on the Canberra attack who have been without New Zealander Emma Kete for the past fortnight due to injury, while star recruit Jodie Taylor failed to arrive for her gust stint due to a nagging knee complaint.
At the same end of the field the Sky Blues will be without two highly experienced defenders in Ellyse Perry (unavailable) and Renee Rollason (injury).
Sydney FC v Canberra United
Sunday 22 November 2015
Lambert Park, Leichhardt, Sydney
Local kick-off: 4pm
Join the conversation on Twitter using match hashtag #SYDvCBR
Sydney FC squad: 1. Michelle Betos (gk), 2. Elizabeth Ralston, 4. Sunny Franco, 5. Jasmyne Spencer, 6. Teresa Polias (c), 7. Nicola Bolger, 8. Amy Harrison, 9. Princess Ibini, 11. Natalie Tobin, 14. Alanna Kennedy, 15. Teigen Allen, 17. Kyah Simon, 18. Sham Khamis (gk), 19. Leena Khamis, 20. Lyndsay Kohlet, Hannah Bacon
Ins: Lyndsay Kohlet (promoted), Hannah Bacon (new signing)
Outs: Ellyse Perry (unavailable)
Unavailable: Olivia Price (ankle – indefinite), Renee Rollason (knee – 4 weeks)
Canberra United squad: 1. Lydia Williams, 3. Julia De Angelis, 4. Kendall Fletcher, 5. Jenna McCormick, 6. Caitlin Munoz, 7. Ellie Brush, 8. Meg McLaughlin, 11. Michelle Heyman, 13. Nicole Begg, 14. Ashleigh Sykes, 15. Emma Checker, 16. Tegan Riding, 17. Veronica Perez, 18. Rebecca Kiting, 20. Melissa Maizels (gk)
Ins: none
Outs: none
Unavailable: Emma Kete (2-3 weeks)
