Sydney FC are poised to claim the W-League season three Premiership after Newcastle Jets held current leaders Roar Women to a 0-0 draw at Ballymore on Saturday.
Playing their last game for the season as they've drawn a bye in round 12, Brisbane needed both to win their final game and for Sydney to drop points in either round 11 or 12. But a scoreless draw with a determined Newcastle combined with Sydney's accomplished 3-0 victory over Canberra United have seen the Roar's premiership hopes virtually slip away. Barring a landslide defeat in round 12, Sydney will claim the Premiership and with it a home final.
They may have hoped for a triumphant return to Brisbane following the flood, but while their A-League counterparts collected flood donations from the crowd, Roar Women couldn't buy a goal. Both Captain Clare Polkinghorne and Elise Kellond-Knight were out with ankle injuries, but Jo Burgess, Lana Harch, Tameka Butt, and Lisa De Vanna got the ball forward to force Newcastle goalkeeper Alison Lipsher into heroic saves.
Burgess set De Vanna up, who put the ball squarely in front of the goal for Harch. But Lipsher denied her at point-blank range. Newcastle quickly countered, and Tara Andrews crossed in to an on-running Nicole Cross, whose header sailed narrowly over the crossbar. De Vanna continued to trouble the defence, before unselfishly passing off to Butt in front of the goal. The pass took a deflection but fell to Butt anyway. Then Butt was falconed by the clearance and hit the deck hard before showing her mettle and getting back up to play.
She sprayed a shot high in the 22nd and 39th minutes, which left the crowd gasping at what could have been. Burgess' shot took a deflection and earned the Roar a corner in the 24th, but Alleway's header from Burgess' curling corner just missed going in. De Vanna beat the keeper with a cross-goal shot just before half time, but the ball deflected agonisingly off the far post and out.
Roar's close-but-not-close-enough form continued in the second half as they dominated possession but couldn't steer the ball past the solid-in-defence Lipsher, whose safe hands even stopped an Emily Gielnik's piledriver of a shot. The Roar had grounds for appeals for a handball in the 89th when De Vanna's shot hit Thea Slatyer's arm, but the cries went unheeded and the match ended without a goal.
Both sides scored in Sydney, though, with Canberra first giving Sydney the lead courtesy of two own goals. Proving they didn't need the help, Sydney then scored one of their own, at the deft feet of current golden boot leader Kyah Simon, who now takes her season tally to 10.
With both teams chasing victory-Sydney to secure the premiership and Canberra to secure their spot in third-the opening sequences were hard and closely fought. Kylie Ledbrook almost scored in spectacular fashion with a first-touch on the ball, but Lydia Williams tipped the shot over the crossbar. Cian Maciejewski left the pitch with a suspected neck injury and was taken to hospital as a precaution. Canberra's second blow came shortly after when captain Ellie Brush attempted a volleyed clearance but ended up putting the ball into Canberra's own net.
Season two golden boot winner Michelle Heyman put Sydney goalkeeper Dimi Poulos to the test throughout the second half, but Poulos came out on top each time. Canberra extended Sydney's lead with a goal 14 minutes from full time before Simon volleyed in the ball at the far post in the 82nd.
The round's third match was equally fiercely contested and heart-stopping, with both Perth Glory and Melbourne Victory vying for their first finals berth. The outcome was a draw, with Elisa D'Ovidio putting Perth in the lead in the 40th, but Melbourne cancelling that out in the 47th. It means that both teams gain one point but their current spots on the ladder remain unchanged.
The weekend's results mean that the season is going to come down to the wire. All eyes will be on Sydney to see if they can snatch the premiership from the Roar, while the remaining two spots in the top four are anything but guaranteed. Expect grand final-like efforts and atmosphere in round 12 as third-placed Canberra takes on fourth-placed Perth, fifth-placed Melbourne hopes to leapfrog into fourth via a win over Adelaide, and Newcastle hope to upset Sydney's Premiership plans for the second time this season.
