Western United 1-0 Perth Glory
by Ben Gilby (22/12/23)
Above: Chloe Logarzo (centre) celebrates her birthday goal by blowing a kiss. Photo: Liberty A-League.
Western United put in a hugely impressive performance in both defence and attack to record an excellent victory over A-League Women leaders Perth Glory at City Vista Recreation Reserve thanks to a goal from Chloe Logarzo, who was hugely impressive throughout.
Perth Glory welcomed back Grace Jale who missed last weekend’s home game with Sydney FC up front to renew her fruitful partnership with English attacker Millie Farrow.
It was the visitors who had the first opportunity as their high press yielded instant results. With six minutes played, Julia Sardo’s crossfield ball was snaffled up by Perth’s Susan Phonsongkham who advanced in on goal to feed Farrow who’s effort was pushed away by Hillary Beall in the Western United goal at the cost of a corner that was cleared.
The hosts settled and grew to dominate the chances and offensive possession for the half. Celebrating her 29th birthday, Matildas star Chloe Logarzo was on fire, and combining outstandingly with Hannah Keane. With eight minutes on the clock, Logarzo ran through on the left flank before squaring for Jaclyn Sawicki, stationed centrally on the edge of the box, but the shot went just wide of the right hand post.
Logarzo and Keane’s partnership cranked up even further shortly afterwards with the latter threading a glorious ball that dissected three Perth defenders to find Logarzo who was eventually covered brilliantly by Sadie Lawrence at the cost of a corner. Tyla-Jay Vlajnić’s flag kick curled in and bounced off of the bar.
Whilst Perth’s ability to get forward was being severely curtailed by Kat Smith’s side, they conjured up a great opportunity on the quarter hour mark. Farrow got between two defenders showing great strength to push off Vlajnić and get a shot away that Beall dealt with excellently.
Just three minutes later, the Logarzo show was responsible for the game’s opening goal as Mel Taranto skipped between two defenders and squared the ball back to the Matildas star positioned centrally on the edge of the box to hit a powerful shot into the net for a birthday goal.
Just after the 20 minute mark, Logarzo was back at her creative best once more as she found Keane on the edge of the box for the American striker to fire a shot between Lawrence and Jessika Cowart that went wide of the left hand post with Morgan Aquino at full stretch in the Perth goal.
United were now rampant in attack. Grace Maher hit a powerful shot from the edge of the box that Aquino pushed out to the left with Keane’s follow up cannoning off of the post and out.
Just before the interval, Keane shot from picked up the ball outside the box on the left and saw her shot awkwardly pushed out for a corner on the right by Aquino. The set piece came in from Vlajnić for Adriana Taranto to send a header goalwards only to se the effort come back off of the bar.
United’s faster movement of the ball, high press and rapid interplay was a persistent threat on the league leaders’ goal in the opening half. Half-time would be an opportunity for Glory head coach Alex Epakis to tighten things up at the back whilst looking to increase the pace of Perth’s forward movement of the ball as United were having plenty of time to re-establish their defensive system and maintain a high press on Glory’s attackers when the visitors were in possession.
Sofia Sakalis, Jale, and Phonsongkham were being starved of possession, and with it reduced the creative opportunities for Perth offensively. Three changes were made early in the second period, and the Western Australian side were more compact in the defensive line, with the result that Western United had fewer shots on goal and limited chances to extend their lead. However, the second part of the puzzle that Epakis and his team needed to solve proved harder to rectify.
The Glory were not able to mount rapid fire attacks as United still kept Phonsongkham tied up. Farrow continued to work supremly hard – but with reduced rapidity in her side’s build up allied with the home side’s rapid defensive press, the visitors had hardly any opportunities to equalise. A golden one came two minutes into stoppage time.
Farrow got away from Alana Cerne on the left. The ball came to Hana Lowry for a follow up that was covered excellently by Stacey Papadopoulos. The hosts could have settled the result shortly afterwards as substitute Keiwa Hieda broke through, but couldn’t find a finish.
It’s now advantage to the Melbourne clubs ahead of their big derby tomorrow in the race to be league leaders at Christmas. A win for City would put them two points clear of Perth at the A-League Women summit. Success for Melbourne Victory would see Jeff Hopkins’ side equal on points with both Perth and their cross city rivals.
Teams: WESTERN UNITED (4-4-2): Beall, Sardo, Maher, Papadopoulos, A. Taranto, Sawicki, M. Taranto, Vlajnić, Keane, Logarzo. Substitutes: Dakic, Dall’Oste (GK), Hieda, Prakash, Robers.
Scorer: Logarzo 18′.
PERTH GLORY (4-1-3-2): Aquino, Anton, Cowart, Lawrence, Rigby, Cassidy, Sakalis, Lowry, Phonsongkham, Jale, Farrow. Substitutes: Quezada, Dalton, James (GK), Johnston, Mihocic.
Referee: Rebecca Durcau.
Attendance: 1,900.
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