Canberra’s defence couldn’t keep up

Canberra’s defensive problems were exposed against a high-quality Melbourne City team in tonight’s game.  

There were multiple times where players were left unmarked in the box or were too slow to close down crosses and mark up the runs of Melbourne’s attacking players.

Melbourne easily beat Canberra’s defence through one v ones and spilt passes, with United’s defenders often slow to recover.

A leaky Canberra defence left Sham Khamis exposed on two occasions, where the keeper had no choice but to foul Claire Emslie and concede both penalties.

Canberra found themselves too deep in some instances and too high on others – they couldn’t seem to work out how to get out of their half and create their own opportunities.

Conceding four goals pushes Canberra’s goal difference to minus six – their defence will need to be better in the following weeks if they want to make it into the top four.