CAPITAL vs SOUTHERN UNITED

Things get pretty frantic in these short competitions, every game is massive when the entire thing is basically just a Champions League group stage. Especially in the women’s competition because by virtue of the extra round of fixtures they don’t have room for a grand final. It’s straight round robin, can’t just sneak into second place and then back yourself in a one-off final. Which... kinda feels like a cop out, why can’t we have a final the week after the men’s comp ends? Oh well.

These two teams came in with perfect records, two wins from two. Both including a really impressive victory over Canterbury and a battling three points against Central. Two teams who’ve put themselves in position to compete for the title making this an absolutely massive contest on that Petone Memorial Park Turf. Although a little bit of the air did get let out of the balloon, just a little bit, when the teams were announced and Capital were without their two hugely impressive central midfielders Helena Errington and Nina Kondo. Jemma Catherwood came back into the starting team after playing off the bench last week while there was a first start for Lauren Owen. As for Southern, they were missing Emily Morison which allowed Lena de Ronde to come into the eleven. Also not only did standout substitute Shontelle Smith not get that deserved elevation to the starting team... she wasn’t even in the squad. So important players missing for both sides.

Southern started slow last week against Central and conceded early. The same thing nearly happened here as Kaley Ward ran onto a long ball from Emma Main, with the Southern defence caught staggered, but Amy Simmers was able to somehow get a hand on the shot and tip it over the bar despite Ward seemingly crushing her shot. This was only three minutes into the game and Southern got through unscathed. Capital were the team with more of the initiative... but that tends not to be a problem for an always well-organised Southern side.

Emma Main got a glancing header onto one of those typically dangerous Anna Green corners which was cleared off the line by Hannah Mackay-Wright. Meanwhile Southern were working hard trying to play out from the back against Capital’s press. Not a lot of Amy Hislop or Margi Dias in the opening twenty-odd mins of this one, their two best attacking threats so far this season... though when the pair did combined on 23’ they almost provided a goal. Hislop dropping in to collect the ball and whipping a switch of play over the top to Dias’ run from the right and with the ball holding up in the breeze and on the turf, Dias was able to get a head to the ball before Molly Simons could get there. But Zoe Barrott had it covered and cleared the danger before it could get over the line. Lena de Ronde had a header saved by Simons a bit afterwards off a Renee Bacon cross. The visitors were coming into the game now.

Hislop couldn’t get the contact she wanted running through on the end of a Dias ball on 37’ – looked like she wanted to chip it over Simons but didn’t get under it. A great chance gone begging but all goods because one minute later Hislop flicked a long free kick towards Kirsty Hayr running past her. Hayr slid forward to Chelsea Whittaker who was closed down by Molly Simons sliding out to the very edge of the penalty area. Yet Simons couldn’t hold it. Ball came loose. And Hayr was first to pounce, flipping it into the empty net before any defender could get a touch. Not a score you’d have predicted earlier in the match but Southern took advantage of their phase of dominance and Capital did not.

Then to make matters worse for the home side, captain Ellen Fibbes stepped awkwardly on the turf a couple mins before the half and went down with what looked like a right knee injury. Horrible sight whenever a player hits the deck untouched. Especially knowing the trends of serious knee injuries in both women’s football and also in games played on turf. Fibbes was replaced by Rosie Wild at right back. Jemma Robertson also came on at the half for Cap. 1-0 to Southern at HT.

Hislop nearly made it 2-0 straight after the break. Mistake at the back allowing AH to pinch it off her but Hislop struck just wide of the post. Then Simons had to rush out to close down an under-hit back-pass soon after. Capital looking a bit ragged – gotta imagine being without Fibbes, Errington & Kondo wasn’t helping matters. But Ward did have a header deflected wide ten mins into the second half. Ward is never not a goal threat and as long as she was out there, Capital were every chance of an equaliser.

Great save by Simons down low to deny Hislop on the hour mark, this after another clever Kirsty Hayr through ball. That’s Southern in a nutshell: defending extremely well and then seeking to pounce when the opportunity arises. That nutshell defined the last half hour of this game as Capital scrapped for a goal against a Southern defence that wasn’t planning on budging, all the while risking conceding a second in the process. Capital were playing into the breeze this half too. That breeze helped Southern out nicely when they playing into it, holding up those balls over the top... but it’s a different story once fatigue sets in.

Ward sparked an opportunity drifting across the field and slipping a ball to Olivia Ingham whose shot was saved on the dive by Simmers. A cross by Kennedy Bryant almost caused some trouble. Anna Green’s long balls were never easy to deal with. But deal with them they did. An absolutely superb second half defensive performance from Southern, a clinic in positioning, in winning the first contact, in closing down in the midfield... all those things.

This was the kind of defensive display that you don’t notice until you think about it because it wasn’t like Southern were full of last-ditch tackles or amazing saves. They didn’t have to be because Capital couldn’t get that far. Kelsey Kennard had a blinder. Rose Morton’s defensive midfield efforts have been top notch in all three games. Toni Power and Renee Bacon are such an underrated fullback duo. Hannah Mackay-Wright of course. Amy Simmers with her first clean sheet. Southern now clear top with nine points from nine and the championship is in their grasp if they can repeat the dose in the reverse fixtures.

No doubt that this would’ve been a different game with Errington and Kondo in there for Capital. Main did have a few occasions, mostly in the first half, where she was able to roll through pressure and dribble forward at pace as she does so well but especially in that second half the home side really got cramped out in the middle. No room to work with. Then as they went wide to cross or pumped it long... well, Southern were winning most of those headers.

This was the first time Southern had scored first and the first time Capital had trailed. In the end that played into the strength of one side and the vulnerability of the other. Also if Capital have lost Ellen Fibbes for the rest of the year then that’s an enormous blow – she’s so important not only to their defensive efforts but as a ball-player in their build-up stuff too.

CANTERBURY PRIDE vs CENTRAL

Canterbury United Pride hit this game up with a record that read: two losses from two. It may not come at the expense of the dynasty for the team that’s won the last three National League titles in a row but this is not what we’ve come to expect from the benchmark domestic women’s footy team in Aotearoa. Many reasons for that and most of them have been discussed in the write-ups of the last couple weeks. Task at hand here was to get by a Central team that had also lost both its opening two matches - albeit for them that was expected. Central haven’t been pushovers in either. They’ve been very tricky to overcome considering they’re the youngest side in the comp. Canterbury weren’t gonna coast on reputation here.

The Pride made two changes from last week. Nicola Dominikovich was out injured on her birthday so in came the highly rated Kiara Bercelli up front while Una Foyle got her first start in goal of 2021 having come off the bench last week. Foyle was ever-present in 2020. Compare that to Central who made a grand total of zero changes; same starting eleven in all three matches for them. They’re building towards something and are backing their girls to learn as they go along.

Central found themselves stuck on defence from the outset as they struggled to make effective clearances against a few Cantabs long throws and corners. Then Charlotte Mortlock probably shoulda opened the scoring as Central took a goal kick with everybody on their left side, leaving Mortlock with figurative acres to roam in, and Bennett’s kick went straight to Annalie Longo who obviously reads the field like it’s a picture book and first-timed it over to Mortlock... except she couldn’t quite get the ball out from under her feet and Bennett was able to close her down to make amends. Still, this was a bit of a dodgy set up for Central if that kick isn’t clearing the front of that crowd...

Alana Gunn shook things up beyond those two changes to the starting team. So used to seeing this team with a back three... here it was four at the back and three in midfield. Makes sense given how they’ve struggled to move the ball like they ordinarily do. Extra body in the middle. Still with that intention to get the fullbacks forward which you can do with a strong defensive midfielder like Whitney Hepburn. And it was working. Lots of positive passing. Playing the game further up the pitch. It was like the good old days: Canterbury Pride well on top.

In terms of tangible chances, Bercelli had a couple snap shots off target. Then on 13 mins Kate Loye had a crack from miles out, a thunderbolt of a shot that came back off the crossbar. A Wall ball across the six yard box was missed by both Longo and Bercelli. Also Bennett made an unreal save on the line with her leg after Mortlock had combined with Bercelli, who’d then jinked past a defender or two but couldn’t beat the keeper. But from the second resulting corner, Kate Guildford put a lil swerve on her delivery and Rebecca Lake was there to head it in from just in front of the goal-line. Can’t say it wasn’t coming. 19 mins on the clock and there it was.

Central had Aimee Atkins playing deeper than usual, a flat five in midfield as opposed to having Atkins partnering Jessie Falloon up top. Gotta do what you gotta do. But they weren’t able to string too many passes together and the Pride had their offside trap working smoothly on the rare occasions when Falloon had something to chase. A bit too deep, to be honest. However they did keep a sturdy defensive structure which kept the Pride playing mostly in the midfield after that goal.

Thus the period of the game at 1-0 was probably the best for Central. Kate Loye did link up with Longo running through one time, Longo turning and shooting but Bennett made another save and then Bercelli put the rebound way over. And it was Loye who hit a thirty yard ball over the top on the spin that landed perfectly in the path of Mortlock but again she couldn’t beat Bennett 1v1. The one main complaint for the Pride: poor finishing from their young strikers.

Couldn’t blame finishing when Bennett punched a Mortlock curler out of the air (after Mortlock played a great one-two with Longo) and then got back up to cover Jasmine Donald’s follow-up from the other side. That’s just great shot-stopping. Yet there’s only so much pressure anyone can take. In the 41st minute, Kate Loye (yet again) drifted into a great position and her square ball picked out Annalie Longo about ten yards out. Longo rolled on her marker and smacked the ball into the bottom left corner of the goal then peeled off with a big fist pump in the air. The veteran loved a bit of that one (it was her 50th Pride appearance last week).

The Cantabs nearly had another straight after, the dummy from Guildford on the right wing sending Bercelli through at pace only her cross was a bit beyond Mortlock at the far post. Then a Lara Wall cross went a little over Longo’s head in the middle... arguably would’ve been better off not picking out a player famous for being rather short. Longo’s range is usually further out than that and she proved that before the half was out with a strike from distance that flew over Bennett and went in off the post. Note the assist from Meikayla Hunt. She was having a lot of success stepping up out of defence and creating that overload whenever Central got too deep.

That was literally the final kick of the first half. The second stanza then began in similar ways. Mortlock missed a good look slicing wide. Bercelli couldn’t get enough of a noggin on a cross. Longo had a snapshot from the perimeter which was comfortably saved. Both teams went to the bench, which in Canterbury’s case meant getting younger as the likes of Ellena Firth, Charlotte Roche, and later Megan Simpson and Madeleine Iro were all introduced... with Roche, Simpson, and Iro all making their National League debuts.

Also subbed on during that spell was Frankie Morrow and Frankie gets her own focus because about two minutes after she entered the game, Annalie Longo put the jives on Lara Smith and chipped a beauty of a delivery into the middle where all Morrow had to do was get a touch on it to score. Which she did. 4-0 to the Pride after 65 mins.

At that point it was all a matter of how much. The resistance had been broken. Bercelli shot too early after tackling Devyn Crawford at the back, her effort going over the bar. Longo let a cross drop and volleyed wide from a tough angle when she probably woulda had better luck heading it. Bennett added one more amazing stop with a trailing foot to keep Roche out after a great run to the byline from Morrow. Central nearly pulled one back but Hannah Buzan’s touch was too heavy. You know how these games go. The intensity drains out with the result already booked. But the Pride did add one more right at the death when Kiara Bercelli finally got that goal she’d been working for all match. There to stroke it home from the left after Frankie Morrow slipped in a clever assist.

Canterbury are back. It wasn’t only the 5-0 win, it was the manner of the win. The change in formation gave them the extra balance they needed and the response was a comprehensive possession-based performance in which they might have won by double that had the finishing been better. But no need to worry about that. They still scored five. And things like finishing, close control, decision making... these are aspects of a footballer’s game that get better with experience. What you want to see from young players like Kiara Bercelli and Charlotte Mortlock is an ability to influence the game and they were all over this one. The Pride hadn’t had that presence up front in the first couple games... and there’s even competition for places now because Frankie Morrow also made a strong case to start next week in the away rematch against Central.

Strong performances also from the likes of Hunt and Lake at the back. Annalie Longo was amazing of course, the stuff that she can do is nuts. The way she drops a shoulder to turn out of pressure, the passes that she’s able to see and the way she can guide her teammates around the pitch with how she hits those passes. Every one of them Cantabs impressed... but the most impressive was Kate Loye. She was everywhere. Winning tackles, defence-splitting passes, boundless energy. Glad to see I’m not the only one who thought so too...

And yet... Central weren’t that bad? At least not in the context of what they’re trying to achieve from this season. Falloon toiled hard up front alone. Abby Rankin covers a heap of ground in the middle. A defence as green as their jerseys constantly battles away, Crawford and Smith showing huge promise. The way that they pressure the ball-carrier is enough to cause most teams headaches while in Brooke Bennett they have a goalkeeper who continually makes saves that make you go: wow.

Sarah Morton’s come off the bench the last two weeks as well. Not named in their initial squad, how about that? One of the rare players with Football Ferns caps in this competition although her seven don’t quite add up to Longo’s 124 – those two shared a nice moment at full-time.

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