Perth Glory made hard work of a grueling 90 minutes played in 35 degree heat, running out 2-1 winners against a resilient Adelaide United in Round 2 of the W-League.
Glory failed to capitalize on a host of chances throughout the match, particularly in the first half.
WAIS athlete Kate Gill went one-on-one with Adelaide keeper Kristi Harvey in the 12th after being played through by Glory captain Collette McCallum (WAIS), but Harvey closed down Gill quickly and got her body behind the ball.
Four minutes later Elisa D’Ovidio had a header from six yards cleared off the line. Marianna Tabain played a good cross from the left wing, with Harvey flapping at the ball creating the chance for the number 13.
There was a cloud of controversy in the 19th minute when assistant referee Jarrad Kennington ruled D’Ovidio offside after McCallum broke through the defence and scored; despite clearly not interfering with the run of play. McCallum’s goal was disallowed.
After the drinks break Adelaide were starting to break on the counter attack, fashioning more chances for themselves.
The deadlock eventually broke two minutes from half time with a sumptuous free kick by Ann Mayo of Adelaide from the right side of the box. The ball dipped and curled right onto the inside of the post leaving England International Carly Telford helpless.
Glory fought back though, and with the last kick of the half, Gill equalized after a smart pivot inside the box, stroking the ball past Harvey.
The second half started much the same as the first half with the home side dominating both the chances and possession.
The heat took its toll on both teams as the half wore on though, with chances rarer than in the first half.
Gill was wasteful on a few occasions as the home side were looking for the win with Adelaide happy to sit back and play on the counter.
The breakthrough finally came in the 88th minute when Telford managed to split the entire midfield, with D’Ovidio reacting first to spin away from her defender, run with the ball for 20 yards and place it into the bottom left corner.
After scoring the winner D’Ovidio spoke confidently about the result.
“It was a really tough game, we knew Adelaide would be tough especially in these conditions but it’s quite lucky I was able to run onto it (Telford’s through ball),” she said.
“Credit to Adelaide, they worked really hard and made it hard for us, but credit to our girls too, we worked really hard and just had to be patient and we got a bit of luck”
“After two home games we wanted to get 6 points so hopefully we can go away next week and improve on the things we need to improve on and hopefully we can go to Sydney and come back with three points.”
– Football West
