Canberra United 0-5 Western United
by Ryan Miller-Woods (28/1/23)
Above: Western United celebrate after yet another goal at McKellar Park today. Photo: Keep Up
Western United put on a truly dominant performance against Canberra United at McKellar Park to send the home team to their second 5-0 defeat in as many matches.
A brace by A-League Women Golden Boot leader Hannah Keane as well as goals from Danielle Steer, Melissa Taranto, and Sydney Cummings all in the first half put the match to bed before the second half had even begun.
For Canberra, it was a day to forget for them as they have now conceded 10 goals in two matches. While they had a few moments in the game that may have amounted to something more, they were never really in the contest.
The scoring opened after just four minutes when Angie Beard out-challenged Canberra’s Sasha Grove from the ball allowing Western United’s new arrival to cross into the box for Danielle Steer to head the ball into the bottom left corner for her first goal in the A-League Women.
Within eight minutes, the visitors doubled their lead when Keane’s cross found Steer. She chested the ball down directly towards the path of Melissa Taranto in the box who controlled the ball and slotted it into the back of the net to double Western United’s lead in the match.
It got worse just before the half-hour mark as Canberra’s Sasha Grove misguided her backpass that was intended for goalkeeper Chloe Lincoln but instead went to Hannah Keane who with Lincoln well off her line and away from goal, was gifted a golden opportunity to lift the ball over Lincoln for 3-0.
Shortly afterwards, Canberra had their best chance of the match as Chengsu Wu provided a pass for Michelle Heyman who controlled the ball with the outside of her boot before running into the box with her eventual shot at goal being saved by Western keeper Hillary Beall and out for a corner.
Six minutes before the break, Melissa Taranto played a beautiful through ball from around halfway for Keane who outmuscled Ellie Brush on the outside of the box to advance and hit a shot going under the legs of Lincoln and into the back of the net.
Directly from a Western corner by Adriana Taranto, the ball was passed to Tyla-Jay Vlajnic who then crossed the ball into the box which seemingly crossed the line but wasn’t awarded. However, not long after that in the same sequence, Western United had better luck as Sydney Cummings’ close-range shot went into the bottom left corner for Western’s fifth goal of the match in the 42nd minute.
There were far fewer chances after the break. Western was very close to having scored a sixth goal with a great play by them allowed for an open goal with Vlajnic’s shot on an angle subsequently hitting the side netting in the 62nd minute.
Canberra had a rare opportunity with 20 minutes to go when Vlajnic’s failed clearance allowed for the ball to go up in the air and when it came back down found first found Heyman and then Vesna Milivojevic with her shot at goal was saved by Beall.
Teams: CANBERRA UNITED (4-4-2): Lincoln, Ilijoski, Hughes, Brush, Grove, Maher, Taylor-Young, Faulknor, Milivojevic, Heyman. Substitutes: Murray, Jale, Christopherson, Middleton, Segavcic.
WESTERN UNITED (4-1-4-1): Beall, Medwin, Cummings, Cerne, Beard, Sawicki, M. Taranto, A. Taranto, Steer, Keane, Vlajnic. Substitutes: Dall’Oste, Dakic, Robers, Johnson, Sinclair
Scorers: Steer 4’, M. Taranto 13’, Keane 28’,39’. Cummings 42’
Referee: Rebecca Durcau.
Attendance: 970.
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