Perth Glory Women have come up empty handed from their Round 1 clash against Melbourne Victory, going down 2-0 at Etihad Stadium.
Goals from Victory midfielder Enza Barilla and striker Katie Thorlakson in each half sealed the win in a match where the Glory struggled to get a foot in the contest.
Glory and Western Australian Institute of Sport football head coach John Gibson was disappointed with the result but only had praise for his troops who came up against some physical opposition.
“We weren’t good enough on the night. The Victory are a physical side with some mature bodies and they played well, and we didn’t play to our best” said Gibson.
“We were a bit conservative away from home with the opposition and surroundings, the girls defended well but some lapses in concentration and a lack of quality on the night cost us.”
Melbourne raced out of the blocks early, immediately asserting its dominance on the game and creating two half-chances in the opening minutes.
Perth striker Lisa De Vanna looked the most likely to score for the visitors, but despite a number of menacing runs, she lacked support and Victory keeper Melissa Barbieri was rarely tested in the opening half.
The closest the Glory came to scoring was early on when De Vanna attempted to latch onto a through ball, only to see Barbieri race off her line and arrive at the same time with the ball ricocheting out for a goal kick much to the relief of the Victory players.
The goal finally came for the home side in the 34th minute when a poor pass out of defence allowed Thorlakson to collect the loose ball. She then sent it out wide to Sitch, who showed great poise before delivering a perfect pass to the onrushing Barilla, who calmly slotted the ball into the bottom left-hand corner of Wirkus’ goals.
The goal seemed to spring the Glory into action with midfielder Shannon May hitting their first shot on target, although it failed to test Barbieri, as the sides headed into half-time with Melbourne deserving its lead.
The Victory didn’t slow down in the second half with forward Kara Mowbray almost scoring right from the kick off. After a brilliant run down the left flank, Mowbray attacked the box but tried to cross instead of taking the shot.
Melbourne eventually got the second goal it deserved in the 71st minute when Thorlakson capped off a fine team move. Right-back Vedrana Popovic won the ball in the midfield before playing a fine one-two pass with Kurulay and then delivering a perfect cross along the ground for Thorlakson to easily finish.
The Glory threatened the goals in the final 10 minutes when midfielder Samantha Kerr unleashed a shot from outside the penalty area, but it lacked venom and Barbieri was easily able to gather.
Victory midfielder Selin Kuralay was sent off late for a second bookable offence but it was too late for the Glory to take advantage of.
Gibson said the Glory dressing room was already looking forward to their first home match next week in what is already a vital match for the Perth side in the 10-week season.
“The team is focused next week on getting a result on the board against the Jets. We need to keep working hard, every game is crucial in this league” he said.
“Being a short season next week is vital and we need to make sure we are challenging for the three points.”
– Football West
