Canberra United 1-1 Melbourne City
by Alyce Collett (1/3/25)
Above: Canberra United’s Bethany Gordon (white shirt) looks to make the pass under the watchful eye of Melbourne City’s Rebekah Stott today. Photo: Canberra United.
A fascinating match in the nation’s capital has seen Canberra United and Melbourne City play out a one-all draw.
A Taylor Otto first half header saw City initially take the lead before it was cancelled out by a well-timed Aideen Keane strike in the second half.
The result sees Melbourne City equal a competition record for the longest undefeated run, but crucially for Canberra it also means it is now level with sixth placed Central Coast Mariners on the ladder, which may become important in the race to the finals.
Melbourne City’s intent on the ball was evident from the get go, and as such had the Canberra defence under immense pressure early despite Canberra being the ones to kick off the match.
However, it only took a couple of minutes for things to settle and a fluid back and forth nature settled over the game.
For City it was the likes of Lourdes Bosch causing havoc in attack, but thanks to some stellar keeping from Sally James, City could not find the back of the net.
Meanwhile, for the home side, it was obvious that the plan was to really utilise Keane’s speed on the wing and drive a lot of attack through her, but the former Perth Glory player was unable to navigate past the brick wall that was Karly Røstbakken at left back.
Although Canberra had its opportunities in attack, City were the more dominant side, continuing to pepper the home goal at a higher rate than the home side was peppering theirs. The visitors went within inches of finding the opener, but thanks to a resolute Canberra defence they continued to be denied.
The likes of Mariana Speckmaier and Jynaya dos Santos continued to threaten for their respective sides, but in the end neither side were able to get a goal on the board in the first half.
The halftime stats told an interesting story, one that showed a less even game than it felt like while watching it.
City had 16% more possession and four more shots on goal than United, but crucially the visitors had the only three shots that were on target in the first half.
Although both sides had chances early in the second half, it did not take too long for City to finally get some reward for effort and get a goal on the board after Otto was able to navigate the end of a corner past a box full of defenders and into the back of the net.
Even though Canberra United did concede the home goal, it did not seem to take the wind out of their sails, instead perhaps doing the opposite and giving them a boost of energy and intent. They were the ones doing all of the attacking, with the likes of Maja Markovski proving to be particularly hard working.
It took a while, but eventually Canberra got some reward for effort with about 10 minutes to go when Keane capitalised on a poor back pass from the City defenders, chipped City keeper Malena Mieres, worked her way past Otto and slotted the ball in the back of the net.
Both sides continued to pepper their respective goals as the minutes ticked down, with both sides going within inches of adding to their goal tallies.
However, thanks to some resolute defending from both teams, the match remained at a one all scoreline at the full-time whistle.
Teams: CANBERRA UNITED (4-3-3): James, Anton, Murray, Ayson, Dos Santos, Taylor-Young, Christopherson, Markovski, Keane, Gordon, Malone. Substitutes: Majstorovic, Bertolissio, Stanic-Floody, McKenzie, Nathan.
Scorer: Keane 81’.
MELBOURNE CITY (4-4-2): Mieres, Apostolakis, Stott, Otto, Roestbakken, Hughes, Davidson, McKenna, Speckmaier, Bosch, Henry. Substitutes: Barbieri, Murray, Pollicina, McMahon, Harvey.
Scorer: Otto 52’.
Referee: Rachael Mitchenson.
Attendance: 919.
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