Melbourne City continues its freefall in the W-League after a disappointing 0-4 loss at home to Western Sydney Wanderers.
A first-half brace for Bryleeh Henry had the visitors up at half-time and it looked like the scoreline would remain 0-2 until a late quickfire double to Rosie Galea only dampened spirits amongst the supporters in attendance.
Here’s what we learned from the game:
Things are only getting worse
We stated in our preview that fans needed to see a drastic improvement from the team over the coming weeks, but after last night it looks like things are only getting worse.
Before the game even started, Teagan Micah was spotted on crutches and fans probably knew from that point that we’d be up against it. Harriet Withers, the only effective striker we have, also continues to be sidelined by injury.
Once the whistle blew, things didn’t get any better.
The proceedings were dominated by Western Sydney, with the majority of chances falling their way, and the goals that were scored were largely simple finishes from assisting players who had exploited defensive frailties.
The win was deserved for the Wanderers, but City have plenty of work to do ahead of their final three games if we want to avoid finishing bottom.
Chinnama providing a bright spark in dark times
If there’s one positive that fans can take away from last night’s result, it was the performance of 16-year-old Naomi Chinnama.
Central defensive positions are often associated with experience and composure, so for Chinnama to not only spend the majority of her on-field minutes in the centre of a back three but to also excel there is credit to the youngster’s ability and mental fortitude.
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With Finals well and truly out of the equation, Chinnama’s assured performances should earn her future starting minutes as we close out the season.
(It’s at this point of writing the article that we watched the highlights and realised Chinnama was the player failing to track Henry for the first goal, but let’s just ignore that for now)
We need to figure out how to score or things are going to get REALLY ugly
Having gone three games without a goal and our most dynamic forward sidelined with injury, things are looking grim for City.
It’s one thing to be losing and another to do so whilst filling fans with such little hope of any sort of a comeback – because it’s not just that we’re not scoring, it’s that we don’t even look like coming close.
Granted, we should have had a goal from Sam Johnson’s literal one-foot-out header that flew over the bar, or could have been fortunately awarded a goal when it appeared late in the game that the ball had crossed the line (it probably didn’t, though), but in terms of decent chances created from open play… well there were none.
If this goalless run continues then it will not only consign us to a humiliating maiden wooden spoon, it will likely also have disastrous implications for the playing and coaching staff going forward.
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