Who'll finish atop the table is the question being asked of week seven, 2010's ultimate W-League round. Sydney have briefly reclaimed the spot after beating the luckless Lady Reds 4-0 in Adelaide on Saturday, while Perth consolidated their fourth-placed spot with a 1-0 win over Melbourne. Now all eyes are on the Brisbane-Canberra match, which was rescheduled to Tuesday after recent poor weather left Brisbane's Perry Park pitch unplayable.
A win would see Brisbane again edge one point ahead of Sydney, while a loss would see third-placed Canberra leapfrog into second and relegate Brisbane to third. Both teams know that this season one grand final rematch will be played with finals-like fervor.
Former Melbourne midfielder Monnique Kofoed scored the lone, and match-deciding goal in the Melbourne-Perth match on Saturday to help Perth cement a top-four finish. With less than 10 minutes of regulation football to go and with the match deadlocked at 0-0, it looked as though Perth and Melbourne were each going to leave with one point but no goals. That is until second-half sub Kofoed snuck her shot past 15-year-old Melbourne goalkeeper Brianna Davey, who was stepping in for the rested captain Melissa Barbieri.
It was a good result for Perth, but an unlucky one for Melbourne, who'd withheld Perth's sustained attacks and issued some solid ones of their own. They now sit second last on the ladder with four points from five games, while Perth sit solidly in the top four.
To their geographic left in South Australia, Sydney defeated Adelaide 4-0 to move into first place as well as make it 24 matches without a win for the Lady Reds. The result, though, doesn't reflect the efforts of both teams, with Adelaide dominating the opening minutes of play and testing Sydney's defence throughout the match. Adelaide United goalkeeper Kristi Harvey proved her mettle, denying Sydney at least double the number of goals they eventually scored.
Teigan Allen put the ball on a platter for Leena Khamis at point-blank range in the 13th, but Khamis skewed the bread-and-butter shot wide in a head-in-hands moment where she, coach Allen Stajic, and fans figured that it would have been harder to miss that than bury it in the back of the goal. She made amends three minutes later, though, using her head instead of her feet to put Caitlin Foord's cross past the keeper. But Adelaide continued their strong build ups, putting together plays that barely missed the goal mouth.
Victoria Balomenos was left a little woozy shortly before half time after she slipped heading in for a challenge and Lydia Vandenburgh's boot clipped her head. Balomenos recovered well, though, and only missed a later shot by an agonisingly narrow margin. Sydney scored again when Khamis saved Allen's cross, which looked to have gone out, and Kyah Simon buried the ball in the back of the net. Kylie Ledbrook almost gave them a third just seconds before half time, when she pounced on a loose ball on the edge of the box.
Adelaide were denied again only by Sydney goalkeeper Dimi Poulos plucking the sailing-in ball from the air at the last moment. Sydney then scored on the fast break, with Ledbrook slotting the ball in at the near post. Khamis' 61st-minute header hit the upright and out but Simon's cross-goal shot made it in in the 77th to reach what is becoming Sydney's staple score of four. But Simon almost undid her good when she earned herself a yellow for a late, physical tackle on Vedrana Popovic, and for which she was lucky not to earn a red.
For Adelaide, the loss was doubly gutting as it followed a week where new Adelaide United club owner declared that, in order to tighten the club's financial belt, he wouldn't be supporting the W-League team in the coming 2011/12 season. Now, more than ever, is the time to get behind the Lady Reds.
So, with just one match remaining for both the round and the year-the season one grand final rematch between Brisbane and Canberra-the question is whether Brisbane will reclaim the league lead or if Canberra will defeat them, allowing Sydney to stay on top and for Canberra to move into a close second.
