Adelaide United 2-1 Melbourne Victory
by Ben Gilby (17/1/26)
Above: Adelaide United celebrate during their win over Melbourne Victory today. Photo: A-Leagues.
Adelaide United’s superb run of form has continued with Paige Zois scoring an Olimpico that ultimately ensured the win over her previous club Melbourne Victory in today’s Pride Cup encounter at Coopers Stadium.
The South Australian side have now won three of their last four matches, and have gone from being stuck around the bottom of the ladder to Finals contenders in the blink of an eye.
Confidence was all the Reds needed – and prior to their post Christmas game with Western Sydney Wanderers, Ella Tonkin told the media that her side were just “one game away from breaking things open.” Wanderers were defeated 5-2, and as Tonkin predicted, her team have not looked back since.
Both sides made one change to their starting line-up today from last weekend’s games. Adelaide brought back key striker Fiona Worts for Erin Healy. For Victory, Alana Jančevski replaced Rachel Lowe.
Victory conjured up the first real chance of the game in the ninth minute as Kennedy White on the right, cushioned a pass forward to Holly Furphy to drill a low ball into the box which Adelaide failed to clear further than Pollicina with play eventually recycling out to Jančevski, 25-yards out in a central position to fire a powerful shot that Ilona Melegh held.
The visitors profited along the right once more on the half hour when Sienna Saveska’s high ball in was met by the head of White, but the 25-year-old couldn’t get enough power on the ball to trouble Melegh.
Just seven minutes later, Adelaide would make Jeff Hopkins’ side pay the price for those misses as Adriana Taranto turned Jančevski and fed Worts just inside the box. The hot-shot English striker took a touch, turned away from White, and fired straight into the top left-hand corner of the net. A great move and a superb goal.
As the half approached the end of regulation time two errors at the back from the hosts combined to allow Furphy to get an effort away, but it didn’t have the power or direction to trouble Melegh.
But, Victory would have better luck deep into injury time when Jančevski’s long ball from inside her own half fell perfectly for White who beat Tonkin and hit a shot that Melegh repelled, but the ball bounced perfectly for the American striker to stroke home at the second attempt.
The visitors produced the first effort of the second half five minutes in when Melegh got a hand to Kayla Morrison’s header after Jančevski floated a long free-kick into the mix.
Six minutes later though, the Reds struck for a second time as starlet Zois bent in a corner from the left with a vicious curl on it that flew straight in at the back post.
Victory looked to respond with 20 minutes left when Ella O’Grady escaped down the left and delivered a low cross that was met first time by White, but Melegh produced an excellent save by getting down to her near post.
The visitors’ kept pushing, and White had two excellent opportunities in additional time. First, with 96 minutes played, Furphy fed Jess Young outside her on the right. The substitute pulled the ball over for White who saw her header come back off of the crossbar.
Shortly afterwards, Sienna Techera’s dangerous cross was cleared, for White to hit a shot from outside the box that Melegh got down well to.
Melbourne Victory created more than enough chances to have won this game, but they were denied by Ilona Melegh pulling off some big saves at vital times.
That’s now just one point in their last four games for Melbourne Victory – and the way the league is compacting up, next weekend’s home game with fellow under-performing side Sydney FC, is now looking huge.
This was an exceptionally pleasing result for Adelaide United – they took their chances when they came, and remained well organised in the face of a Melbourne Victory barrage in the closing stages.
Teams: ADELAIDE UNITED (4-2-3-1): Melegh, Tolland, Tonkin, McNamara, E. Hodgson, M. Taranto, Zois, A. Taranto, Condon, Dawber, Worts. Substitutes: Healy, I. Hodgson, Jenkins, Makris, Morgan, Murray.
Scorers: Worts 38′, Zois 56′.
MELBOURNE VICTORY (3-4-1-2): Newbon, Morrison, Bunge, Pickett. Jančevski, Saveska, Ray, Sakalis, Pollicina, White, Furphy. Substitutes: Blissett, Curtis, McKenzie, O’Grady, Techera, Young.
Scorer: White 45+4′.
Referee: Isabella Mossin.
Attendance: TBC.
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