Melbourne Victory and the Western Sydney Wanderers played out a seesawing 2-2 draw at the Veneto Club, with goals to MelindaJ Barbieri and Natasha Dowie for Victory and Linda O’Neill and Carmelina Moscato for the Wanderers.

Melbourne Victory’s return to the Veneto Club came off a stinging 0-4 loss to Melbourne City at the same ground the previous weekend. Whilst the Wanderers headed down south following their own hometown derby against Sydney FC where they settled for a 2-2 draw, a point and some confidence for the road.

This game was, to say the least, exciting. The Victory stepped onto the pitch as close to full strength as they’ll be after losing Selin Kuralay and Laura Spiranovic to knee injuries. Meanwhile the Wanderers came on in similarly full strength, with young keeper Jada Whyman standing in goal for the squad.

What the fans got from the Victory in this game was what felt like a full team. In the weeks prior the Victory had struggled offensively, often finding their attacking players sitting back in more defensive roles to help the team. This game saw a defensive side that could hold their own, with the likes of Annabel Martin and Alex Natoli contributing in big ways in both halves of the field.

The Victory had a plan of attack and time and time again there were attempts to slot Dowie the ball just in between Wanderers defensive line. Unlike last weekend, where a relentless Melbourne City defence squashed these attempts, there was more success this week. Dowie also became a body in the box with Hayley Raso sending in crosses, something which previously hadn’t been happening.

The goals of the game were two firsts for the Victory side, MelindaJ Barbieri and Dowie both getting their first in Victory colours. The goals carried more importance than just the point the team got from the weekend.

They were two goals down early in the second half and a Victory of previous rounds may have simply collapsed and allowed this game to turn into a blowout. However they played the full ninety as a unit, taking the momentum from the first goal to get a second, and play dangerously through the whistle. This is by and large, a huge step forward for the Victory side, who were under the tutelage of W-League Head Coaching debutante Kat Smith as Dave Edmondson is unavailable for his upcoming wedding.

For the Western Sydney Wanderers, this was more a game of what went wrong? This is a team with the muscle of international defender Carmelina Moscato and the speed of Ellie Carpenter on the back line, with the size of Keelin Winters and Liz Grey in the attack, this team has showed their capabilities on and off the ball.

Moscato and Carpenter were tasked with the challenge of keeping Dowie from breaking past them, something they, and the rest of the Wanderer defence, did well. However the Wanderers just couldn’t make it happen in the attacking third all too often. That said, when they had the ball, they showed they were dangerous.

Linda O’Neill spent most of the half trying and trying to get a ball in the back of the net, using her speed and ability to read the game to do so. The arrival of Liz Grey on the field was a turning point for the Wanderers, with Grey quite literally towering over the Victory defence she was able to use her height to draw players away from their marks and was critical to the second goal the Wanderers scored early in the second half.  

As a whole, it just didn’t seem to click this weekend for the Wanderers and while walking away with a point is better than none, they needed the critical three points.

Next Week

Melbourne Victory head to Canberra to play the number two team in the league with a 4pm start on Saturday, 19th December.

The Western Sydney Wanderers have the bye-week and look to take this chance to regroup and focus ahead of their last push of the season. Their next game is at home, hosting the Newcastle Jets on Sunday, 27th of December at 3pm.

Melbourne Victory 2 (MelindaJ Barbieri 52’, Natasha Dowie 75’)

Western Sydney Wanderers 2 (Linda O’Neill 40’, Carmelina Moscato 47’)

Saturday 12 December 2015

Veneto Cub Bulleen, Melbourne

Kick-off: 3pm

Referee: Kate Jacewicz

Melbourne Victory: Melissa Barbieri (gk) (c), Alexandra Natoli, Melissa Taranto, Annabel Martin, Enza Barilla, Jamie Pollock, Christine Nairn, MelindaJ Barbieri, Thea Slatyer, Hayley Raso, Natasha Dowie

Substitutes – Cassandra Dimovski (gk), Briar Palmer, Whitney Knight, Gulcan Koca

Cautions – MelindaJ Barbieri 87’

Western Sydney Wanderers: Jada Whyman (gk), Carmelina Moscato, Chloe O’Brien, Rachael Soutar, Helen Petinos, Michelle Carney, Keelin Winters (c), Hannah Beard, Ellie Carpenter, Linda O’Neill, Alix Roberts

Substitutes – Lisa Farrington (gk), Liz Grey, Tara Pender, Jordan Baker

Cautions – Alix Roberts 6’, Ellie Carpenter 66’, Carmelina Moscato 80’