Perth Glory 1-0 Adelaide United
by Ben Gilby (21/12/25)
Above: Want a goal? Call me! Rola Badawiya celebrates after hitting her third of the season for Perth Glory today. Image: Paramount+
Perth Glory earned their second straight victory with a clean sheet after condemning an Adelaide United side who dominated possession and territory to a fourth defeat in six matches.
Last weekend, the Western Australian outfit had to see off a Wellington Phoenix side who created a stack of goalscoring chances. This time round, despite Adelaide having over 70% of the ball for at times, Glory keeper Teresa Morrissey had very few shots to save.
Perth boss Stephen Peters made one change to his starting line-up with Onyi Zogg missing due to a quad injury, with Julia Sardo coming in. Tijan McKenna moved into centre back. The Western Australians also had the luxury of a bench stacked with attacking potential.
Adelaide United, whose midweek game at Melbourne City was postponed due to a flu outbreak made two changes from their starting XI from their last outing at Melbourne Victory last weekend as Matilda McNamara came in along with Emily Condon for Holly Murray and Isabel Hodgson out.
Despite what is, on paper, a team with gifted attacking weapons, the South Australians came into this game having scored only three goals all season – they would have been hopeful of improving this record against the league’s leakiest defence, but it never really worked out that way due to a combination of Glory’s set up and organisation and poor passing at times from the Reds.
Indeed, it was the visitors who created the first chance of the encounter as Adriana Taranto used dancing feet along the right to beat her defender and let fly with an angled shot that only just cleared the bar.
Perth looked to respond, and Rola Badawiya broke through just before the quarter hour mark and turned Zoe Tolland, but just as the former Central Coast Mariners hot-shot was about to pull the trigger, a combative tackle from Ella Tonkin slammed the door shut.
As the half advanced, whilst the visitors remained in command of the possession, they never really showed any likelihood of breaking through the Perth backline. Clear cut chances dried up as Adelaide’s passing accuracy dropped off as the Glory looked to up the ante on their press.
The home side needed to get their foot on the ball, and find time to get the creativity of Georgia Cassidy into the game, something which would be key to calling Claudia Jenkins into action. If truth be told, neither goalkeeper had much to do in the opening 35 minutes.
However, Adelaide paid the ultimate price for failing to turn their domination into a scoreboard lead. With 37 minutes played, Perth were awarded a free kick after Healy fouled Johnston on the right, almost 30 yards out.
Cassidy floated the ball in, it was initially cleared, but turned back in by Sardo on the left – again, the visitors couldn’t effectively get the ball away, allowing Bronte Trew to touch on for Badawiya at the back post slot home.
The visitors looked to hit back immediately as Healy broke through, but Morrissey made a superb save with her leg.
Just as they did last weekend, Perth sucked up all the pressure and made their opponents pay the price for failing to turn a colossal possession share of 70.7% into goals. The character and attacking potential in this Western Australian side is there to bite you on the backside when you least expect it.
Perth started the second half strongly as Trew burst through and fired a powerful shot just over the top. Whilst it was a confident effort, a combination of a touch taking her further away from goal and Badawiya unmarked to the left, a pass could have been a better option.
Adelaide struggled to get any true foothold in an attacking sense again. The closest they came was with 20 minutes remaining when Adriana Taranto’s low shot from outside the box was easily held by Morrissey.
Perth had a chance to double their lead with seven minutes remaining when substitute Susan Phonsongkham, the scoring hero in last week’s Distance Derby success over Wellington, raced up the right and curled a shot wide of the left-hand post.
Then, deep into the four minutes of stoppage time, a final chance for the visitors. Badawiya was adjudged to have brought down Healy a few yards outside of the box to the right – but Paige Zois’ free-kick flew over the top.
This was an exceptionally frustrating game for Adelaide. Despite the fact that they are recovering from a flu bug that ravaged the squad, the Reds had more than enough possession and territory to have put this game to bed comfortably. This and their poor scoring record means there is a lot to work on as we move towards 2026 with the South Australian side bottom of the ladder on goals scored from Western Sydney Wanderers.
Perth now move up in the top six, having recorded back-to-back wins without being anywhere near their potential best. It’s a big few months ahead for both these sides.
Teams: PERTH GLORY (4-3-3): Morrissey, McKenna, Anderson, Sardo, Johnston, Dalton, Cassidy, Westaway, Trew, Hollar, Badawiya. Substitutes: Skinner, Lincoln, O’Donoghue, Phonsongkham, Tovar, Wainwright.
Scorers: Badawiya 39′.
ADELAIDE UNITED (4-2-3-1): Jenkins, Tolland, McNamara, Tonkin, Hodgson, M. Taranto, Zois, A. Taranto, Healy, Condon, Dawber. Substitutes: Bowler, Dewey, Gooch, Melegh, Murray, Rossi.
Scorers:
Referee: Sophie Allum.
Attendance: TBC.
Follow Impetus on social media:
@ImpetusFootball on X, Instagram and TikTok.
impetusfootball.org 