2016/2017 W-League – Melbourne City FC vs Melbourne Victory recap 11/27/16

W-League – Melbourne City FC vs Melbourne Victory recap 11/27/16. The Melbourne City FC won a decisive 3-0 victory over the Melbourne Victory.

And the winner was… Melbourne!

Sorry, another bad joke. I am just calling these teams “City” or “Victory” in my game description below. 1943 fans attended the game at AAMI Park. Here are your lineups, again taken directly from the W-League website:

• LINEUPS
• FORMATION

– See more at: http://www.w-league.com.au/matchcentre/Melbourne-City-FC-Women-v-Melbourne-Victory-Women/888650?matchstats#widget-match-day-tabs
Read more at http://www.w-league.com.au/matchcentre/Melbourne-City-FC-Women-v-Melbourne-Victory-Women/888650#E2YMDisJQg4m5YVm.99.

NWSL Players in the game

• All Seattle Reign fans would know Jess Fishlock, that fiery midfielder who never quits on anything. She is also an assistant coach for City.
• Half of Orlando Pride’s and Australia Mathildas’  backline is here with Laura Alleway and Steph Catley. But in this game, Catley was now playing something like a right attacking wing, instead of her usual left fullback slot. Catley is also team captain for the City.
• Lydia Williams and Bianca Henninger are Houston Dash goalkeepers facing off against each other, and it is also Australian National Team vs Mexican National Team.
• Christine Nairn from Washington Spirit, now headed back to Seattle Reign is the captain for the Victory. She will be also doing many of the set pieces here in her familiar role.
• Natasha Dowie, who provided a spark for the Boston Breakers is now the Victory’s most dangerous striker.
• Sam Johnson, the central defender for the Chicago Red Stars, is  manning the backline for the Victory.
• Erika Tymrak, who at the dawn of the NWSL was a promising young rookie for Kansas City, but spent a couple of years in a “rebuilding process”. However, She still has a lot of potential to be a very good midfielder  and now is left-wing for the City.
• Apparently Lauren Barnes of Seattle could not play for the City due to wrist injury.

Keys to the game

• For Melbourne City, it is simply a matter of constantly attacking with the combination of Tymrak, Catley, Fishlock, and friends.
• For the Victory, it is a matter of Sam Johnson holding off the attack, and the team countering with Dowie. If the backline holds, and Dowie cracks through the seams, then the underdog Victory will have a chance.

First Half Highlights

• Minute 3- Dowie makes a good shot, but is saved by Lydia Williams.
• 10′ – Fishlock misses goal, just wide left.
• 17′ –  Nairn “skies” the ball over the net. Not one of her better shots.
• Then, the City dominated. At one point it was about 70% possession in their favor.
• Basically, for the rest of the first half, it was “(City player) shoots- Henninger easy save”. The City was continually threatening to score, but their shot selection was not the best. Henninger was busy, but not necessarily “stressed”.
• The Victory threatened a few times, but it was obvious that the City were dominating. Can the Victory manage to survive a continued onslaught in the second half?

Second Half Highlights

• The answer to the above question  was for 15 minutes, sort of.
• Ayres makes a nice goal in the 60 minute! Not really, she was offsides, but ESPN did not seem to have a camera to verify the position of Sam Johnson, who may have kept her on side. Still 0-0.
• But not for long, Fishlock finally breaks through at the 64 minute. It appeared that goalie Henninger and defender Johnson simply had a communication breakdown, and a goal scored because of that lack of decisiveness by either player.
• Henninger was hurt, and was taken out in the 70th minute. Now Bethany Mason-Jones will have to face the City’s continuous attack.
• 74 minute. Tymrak passes to Tabain, who passes to Catley, who scores from about 10 yards out. 2-0.
• About a minute later, Fishlock scores her second goal of the game.

And your final score is ….

Final Comments

• Honestly, the second half was painful to watch if you like competitive soccer. It was definitely painful for any Melbourne Victory fans out there.
• It looks like Natasha Dowie, Christine Nairn,  and friends are going to have a long season. The Victory team is “anemic” if Dowie does not threaten to score. So, for any opponent of this team, it is simply man-marking Dowie with your best defender. Game over. The Victory need to develop some new “weapons” to take the pressure off Dowie. Nairn is best at set pieces, but struggles defensively and possession-wise during the run of play.
• Unfortunately, Victory defender Sam Johnson definitely needs her Chicago comrades of Julie Johnston, Casey Short, Arin Gilliland and Katie Naughton back there with her. It looks like she should call Christy Rampone, and get some pointers on how you can take 3 random people and within a few weeks mold them into a respectable defensive unit. Also, I am not sure if the defensive unit can be blamed for everything here. Often, it is the midfield getting completely overwhelmed and opening the floodgates. The City’s unit of  Fishlock, Tymrak, Ayres, Luik, Tabain, and Catley is a mdfield/forward combination that not many teams would enjoy facing.
• Steph Catley won “player of the game”. It must have been a “coin flip” between her or Fishlock.

About once per week, the games are broadcast on the ESPN3 website. Look under “Replay”, then ” Soccer” and then “W-League”. You may need to change the date as it defaults to “Last 7 Days”. The A-League is the Australian Men’s League. And since ESPN has the same deal with both, it may be possible that some of the women’s games might be hidden there.

The W-League website:

http://www.w-league.com.au/

The game can be found on ESPN3. Here is a link to the game.

http://www.espn.com/watchespn/player/_/id/2936367/