Western United 4-3 Canberra United
By Alyce Collett 13/3/25
Above: Keiwa Hieda (left) retains possession against Hayley Taylor-Young. Photo: Western United
Western United have picked up three crucial points in the race to secure an A-League Women’s finals berth after a 4-3 win over Canberra United tonight.
In an absolutely chaotic match, Western United fought back from being down three times, and with goals to Keiwa Hieda, Catherine Zimmerman, Sandra Ibarguen and an own goal from Sally James, ultimately nabbed the winner in the dying minutes of regulation time. Canberra United did put up a massive fight though. Bethany Gordon, Madison Ayson and Mary Stanic-Floody all scored and they really pushed the home side all night.
Western United were definitely the side to get on top early, spending a lot more time in attack and creating a lot more attacking play than their visitors were. The likes of Keiwa Hieda, Zimmerman and Chloe Logarzo were particularly lively.
However, despite all that attacking play it was Canberra United who scored first. It was completely against the run of play, and happened after Michelle Heyman set up Gordon who slotted it in the back of the net after catching out Chloe Lincoln.
The goal completely flipped the momentum, with Canberra starting to play as the more confident side and the home side seemed really rattled.
Western United did regroup and began to rack up the attacking play again, but no matter how close they got to scoring a goal, James and the rest of the Canberra defence stood tall and denied their hosts again and again and again.
The half time stats told a stark story, particularly for the home side.
The possession count was 61% to 39% in Western’s favour, and Western United had quadruple the number of shots on goal (eight to four), but both sides had one shot on target each.
The second half can only be described as chaotic.
Western United finally got some reward for all that attacking play they had created only a couple of minutes into the second half, when Adriana Taranto set up Hieda, who curled one past James in the Canberra goal to equalise proceedings.
Unfortunately the home side’s joy did not last long after Ayson brilliantly headed a cross home to give Canberra back the lead not even five minutes after Hieda’s goal.
Western United was not done though, as Zimmerman launched one into the top corner of the Canberra goal after pouncing on a poor Canberra pass, and the game was back level again.
In a case of déjà vu, Canberra did not take long to restore their lead after Stanic-Floody scored a goal up the other end that was just as impressive as Zimmerman’s.
Just as it looked like Canberra were going to hold their hosts out, with about 10 minutes to go Ibarguen snuck behind the Canberra defence to slot home Western United’s third goal of the evening and level up proceedings yet again.
Western kept attacking the goal, and were rewarded with a fourth goal in the penultimate minute of regular time after a Kiara De Domizio ball in was deflected into the back of the net off James’ glove.
Teams: WESTERN UNITED (4-4-2): Lincoln, Grove, Maher, Mihocic, Medwin, Hieda, Logarzo, Eggesvik,A.Taranto, Dehakiz, Zimmerman. Substitutes: Cerne,Ibarguen, Dall’Oste, de Domizio, M.Taranto.
Scorers: Hieda 50’, Zimmerman 63’, Ibarguen 82’, James[OG] 89’
CANBERRA UNITED (4-3-3): James, Anton, Ayson, Heyman, Gordon, Taylor-Young, Christopherson, Malone, Robers, Markovski, Keane. Substitutes: Bertolissio, Majstorovic, Murray, Stanic-Floody, Nathan.
Scorers: Gordon 12’, Ayson 53’, Stanic-Floody 65’.
Referee: Caitlin Williams.
Attendance: 503.
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