Sydney FC 2-2 Melbourne City
by Emma Burke (1/11/25)
Above: Leticia McKenna (dark uniform) and Sarah Hunter (light blue uniform) battle for the ball at Leichardt Oval yesterday. Photo: via A-Leagues
Melbourne City have come back from behind twice to rescue a draw against Sydney FC in the opening round of the Ninja Women’s A-League at Leichhardt Oval.
Both sides had new faces in their line ups, Sydney FC choosing to debut the yongest player in the league’s history in Willa Pearson, who is only 14 and 312 days old, as well as Sarah Hunter who returns to the club from a stint overseas with Paris FC. City started their new signing Aideen Keane who they brought in from Canberra United.
Sydney FC opened the scoring from a corner kick that looked to have come off the American import Madison Ayson given her celebration, but on later review was attributed as an own goal to Melbourne City’s captain Rebekah Stott.
City fought back to find an equaliser which came in the last minute of time added on at the end of the first half.
Leticia McKenna’s long ranged effort hit the underside of the bar before bouncing back out. Thankfully for City, Shelby McMahon was waiting in the wings to head the ball back across the line.
In the second half, the physicality turned up a notch, which culminated in a penalty being awarded to Sydney FC.
Mackenzie Hawkesby made use of all of her experience when Aideen Keane made contact with her in the box, leading referee Molly Godsell to point directly to the spot.
Hawkesby made no mistake and delivered her penalty kick to the bottom left corner, with City keeper Malena Mieres diving in the wrong direction.
Keane made up for her error later in the game saving the draw for City when she teamed up with Holly McNamara to score.
The one-two pass up between the two worked to free up Keane and have her slot the ball into the bottom right corner, right out of Tiahna Robertson’s reach.
The sides leave the game with a point a piece and will look to round two to find their first wins for the season.
Sydney FC will travel to Adelaide to play Adelaide United on Saturday 8th November at 4pm, while City will host Central Coast Mariners at home, also on Saturday with kick-off slated for 3pm.
Teams: SYDNEY FC (4-3-3): Robertson, Tumeth, Ayson, Pearson, Fenton, Galic, Hunter, Hawkesby (Moise 86′), Cassar (Caspers 73′), Luchtmeijer (Ulkekul 58′), Tanner (Talon-Henniker 58′)
Scorers: Stott 20′ (OG), Hawkesby 62′ (pen)
MELBOURNE CITY FC (4-4-2): Mieres, Turner, Stott, Otto, Apostolakis , McMahon, McKenna (Butrus 87′), Hughes, Davidson (Uchendu 67′), McNamara, Keane
Scorers: McMahon 45+1′, Keane 74′
Referee: Molly Godsell
Attendance: 3,013
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