Brisbane Roar 2–1 Wellington Phoenix
By Ben Carey 7/1/24
Above: Brisbane Roar players celebrate after scoring a goal against Wellinton Phoenix. Photo: Wellington Phoenix.
Brisbane Roar staged a magnificent comeback against a ferocious Wellington Phoenix in front of a spirited home crowd of almost 2,000. To the delight of the local fans, the 2-1 win ended Brisbane’s eight match winless streak. It was also the perfect revenge against the Phoenix who beat the Roar 2-1 last November. The crowd played a big part in the match, making their voices heard, especially during the big moments.
The first five minutes were all Brisbane Roar, they really came out swinging. They had a lot of good build up play, but the missing piece of the puzzle – the finish – was missing.Eventually, Wellington Phoenix fought their way into the match and started creating chances of their own down the other end. In the 17th minute, the Roar defenders made some mistakes trying to play out from the back and coughed the ball up to Annalie Longo, who took an excellent strike on goals, but Roar goalkeeper, Jordan Silkowitz, pulled out a sensational diving save to deny Longo and bail her team out.
A few minutes later, after a slew of Wellington corners, Michaela Foster whipped in the perfect ball to find the head of Isabel Cox who smashed it home. It was her first ever A-League Women’s goal, and it happened during her first start for the Phoenix.
Around the half hour mark, Brisbane managed to wrestle back control of the match after a high press paid off big time. Mia Corbin was putting pressure on Phoenix keeper, Rylee Foster, and forced a sloppy pass, which rolled straight to Matildas legend, Tameka Yallop, who took a first time shot on the goals and scored to equalise the match. The Roar had a number of dangerous chances, including a series of corners, but they were unable to add to their tally before half time.
Wellington Phoenix started off the second half in an extremely cheeky fashion, with Macey Fraser attempting one of her signature long range goals (from almost halfway) just after kick-off. It backfired big time though because after Silkowitz saved the ball the Roar were able to pass the ball quickly through Yallop in the midfield to Sharn Freier on the left flank. Freierran into the box, outfoxing her defender, and hit an exquisite cross into the box, which was put away by Kijah Stephenson to give Brisbane Roar the lead after just 30 seconds.
Just before the hour mark there was a very questionable challenge on Freier in the box, which drew numerous penalty shouts from the crowd, but nothing was given. The following 20 minutes saw both captain Ayesha Norrie and substitute Tamar Levin hit the crossbar, inches away from an insurance goal. The home crowd watched on with nervous excitement as the Roar fought tooth and nail to hold on to their precious one goal leadand close out the match with a win.
Both teams can take away a lot of positives from the match today. Despite not having the majority of possession, Wellington Phoenix were able to create a mountain of goal scoring opportunities, they just weren’t as clinical as they’d like to be. Still, Michaela Foster was a menace in the midfield and her set pieces always looked threatening. Mariana Speckmaier and Cox were dangerous up front and could prove to be an effective duo moving forward (pun intended).
Brisbane Roar played very well today. Ever since the heavy defeat to Canberra in December, Alex Smith has changed their style of play. They have been playing a more possession-based, quick passing, attacking football, not unlike Wellington Phoenix’s style of play under Paul Temple. This style of play saw them draw against last season’s champions, Sydney FC, and score three against league leaders, Melbourne City, but today all of the pieces finally seemed to fall into place. Silkowitz had a sensational game, making nine saves to keep her team in the match. Leah Scarpelli and Holly McQueen were phenomenal in the backline. Scarpelli singlehandedly shut down a handful of Phoenix attacks in the centre and McQueen was equally as active on the right flank. McQueen made an unbelievably good slide tackle in stoppage time to deny Phoenix their best chance of the second half. In the midfield, Norrie and Freier were excellent, Norrie with her physicality and positional awareness and Freier with her pace and footwork. Up front, Yallop and Corbin were a great pairing with aa goal and an assist between them.
Brisbane Roar and Wellington Phoenix will both play their matches in Sydney next week as a part of the highly anticipated Unite Round. The Phoenix will take on Central Coast Mariners next Friday while the Roar will face Newcastle Jets on Saturday.
Teams: BRISBANE ROAR (4-4-2): Silkowitz, Scarpelli, McCormick, McQueen, De La Harpe, Stephenson, Norrie, Palmer, Freier, Yallop, Corbin. Substitutes: Shuttleworth,Davies, Kirkup, Levin, Thompson.
Scorers: Yallop 34’, Stephenson 46’.
WELLINGTON PHOENIX (4–3–3): R. Foster, Davidson, Barry, Lake, McMeeken, Fraser, M. Foster, Longo, Cox, Speckmaier, Breslin. Substitutes: Brown, Edwards, Jaber, Robertson, Whinham.
Scorers: Cox 20’.
Referee: Caitlin Williams.
Attendance: 1,955
impetusfootball.org 