Brisbane Roar 4–2 Adelaide United
By Kris Goman
We’re in Round 12 of the W-League and reaching the pointy end of the competition.
Brisbane and Adelaide are on the same points in the table, having nineteen each but Roar is above on goal difference. This is a critical game for both teams as the winner will be clear in second place and closer to guaranteeing a finals berth.
Roar have come on in Polkinghorne 150 games t-shirts during warm-up and many in the crowd have the same t-shirt. Adelaide are in their away kit which resembles a McDonalds uniform.
Mallory Webber has assumed the role of captain for Adelaide and Worth is back in as keeper for Roar replacing Aquino in goal.
Brisbane kick off. There is a huge crowd at Lions Stadium and the Roar Corps are in fine voice and have their signs up around the field.
An early cross by Gielnik is skied by Hecher right in front of goal. Straight away afterwards, Webber sends a cross to Isobel Hodgson and she shoots but Worth has it under control. Looks like it’s going to be a pretty even match.
Another cross by Gielnik, not too long after, sees Fryer-McLaren grab it while Yallop jumps up like an energizer bunny behind her in anticipation of the ball that never arrived.
Gielnik sent a long shot from the side-line aiming for the top right corner that just misses. Little bit more spin and that would have been in.
A cross-field pass out to Hecher sees her twist under pressure to get a shot away but it’s wide and goes across the goal with no one to run onto it. Dalton takes a long range shot that also goes wide to the right. Torpey also takes a crack that skims the crossbar. Brisbane are applying plenty of pressure in the first 20 minutes.
At 21 minutes Hecher centres a ball to Gielnik who shoots. It’s straight to Fryer-McLaren but she can’t control it and it bounces back into the field of play. Hecher runs up and bangs it past her for Brisbane’s first goal of the match.
Adelaide launch a counter attack but can’t break through the Brisbane defence.
On 30 minutes there’s a nice move when Yallop gets a ball to Chance who passes to Gielnik but her shot is out to the left surprisingly as she was unmarked when she got the ball.
Hodgson gets to run a ball down the right and sends a cross towards goal but it can’t be picked up by Webber and goes wide. Immediately after, Hodgson gets the ball again and brings it down the centre. She sends the ball to the right to release Dawber. She steps around Polkinghorne and slams it into the left side of goal and at 34 minutes we’re level again at 1-1.
Just as the Brisbane goal seemed to energise Adelaide, the Adelaide goal has injected Brisbane with a bit more enthusiasm but no more goals eventuate before the half time whistle.
Brisbane come out swinging in the second half and launch a few unsuccessful attacks with a couple of shots by Gielnik foiled. A corner is punched away but Yallop brings it back in and her cross results in mayhem in front of goal before it goes safely out for another corner. The corner comes to naught. The ball is up and down the field a bit until Rojas gets a nice run down the middle avoiding both defenders but her shot is off target.
Shortly after, Gielnik is called offside and a ball put in by Yallop is disallowed. Worth clears a ball to Webber by mistake but she takes a rather weak shot that is easily gathered while Rojas is unmarked in the middle and clearly not happy about not getting the ball.
Hodgson takes a shot from out on the right wing that is caught by Worth. Not too long after, Torpey gets a good close range shot away that’s blocked by Emily Hodgson who was marking her closely.
The resulting corner bounces around in front of goal and Fryer-McLaren is unable to capture the ball. It comes out of the chaos to Gielnik who slams it in for a goal. At 61 minutes, Brisbane are back in the lead 2-1.
Adelaide are straight back on the attack and Dawber gets past a couple of Brisbane players to get a ball out to Hodgson on the right who’s in the clear. Worth comes right out and is able to block her shot in a goal saving move.
The corner comes direct to Waldus’ head and she pops up to send it towards goal but somehow Worth punches it away. It looked like a sure thing.
At 68 minutes, Gielnik brings the ball up the centre and sends a long one out to Hecher. She passes back in to Yallop who takes a lovely shot that goes just right, into the side net. Just off target but a very sweet shot and nice run of play.
At 70 minutes Brisbane get a free kick on the right side-line after a foul on Yallop. It bounces around for a while goes right back to Carroll who sends it back up field, more passes then out to Dalton, back in, back out to Dalton again who slips it to Gielnik to tap it low past Fryer-McLaren for her second goal of the night and eleventh of the season.
A break down the right side by Dawber sees her shot go well high. Another break by Grant is stopped by a tackle by Chance.
McKenna starts off a Brisbane attack by coming down the middle and sending a slow ball through to Gielnik. She gets around Waldus and finds Fryer-McLaren well off her line and is able to put the ball past her for a hat-trick at 80 minutes.
After Heatley gets entangled with Hecher and they both go down, a gap opens for Adelaide and Worts has the ball in midfield and clears it out to Dawber over on the right who is unmarked. She shoots it into the bottom right hand corner out of reach of Worth and suddenly things are interesting again. Adelaide have not given up by any stretch of the imagination and rush the ball back for the kick-off.
In stoppage time Gielnik gets another clear shot on goal but a diving save sends it out. At full time Brisbane emerge victorious and have won 4-2 in a pretty convincing effort in the end. It was pretty even in the first half but Brisbane ramped things up in the second half and, despite their best efforts, Adelaide couldn’t match them. Gielnik looked very good and was able to finish well and get a hat-trick which takes her well clear in the golden boot race. It also deservedly got her player of match.
Teams: BRISBANE ROAR: Worth, Heatley, Rankin, Carroll, Polkinghorne, Dalton, Chance, Hecher, Torpey, Gielnik, Yallop. Substitutes: Aquino (GK), Crummer, Horsey, McKenna, Freir.
Scorers: Hecher 22. Gielnik 62, 72, 80.
ADELAIDE UNITED: Fryer-McLaren, E.Hodgson, Grant, McNamara, Waldus, Hogg, Condon, Rojas, Dawber, I.Hodgson, Weber. Substitutes: Grove (GK), Johns, Kirkby, Worts, Mullan.
Scorers: Dawber 34, 87.
Referee: Isabella Blaess.
Attendance: 1,791.
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