Women’s Super League Round 3 Review

Slowly the contenders are distinguishing themselves from the pretenders, while we now have four teams sharing top spot on the ladder.
Feature Match of the Week
APIA Leichardt Tigers vs Northern Tigers
Boating enthusiasts were treated to a beautiful warm day on the Parramatta River, while football fans on its shores at Wilson Park witnessed a massacre as APIA Leichardt Tigers gave Northern Tigers a seven-goal thumping.
The match that this reporter billed as the Battle of the Tigers seemed instead to resemble Tigers vs Cubs as the experience and quality of the APIA strikeforce proved too much for a shellshocked Northern Tigers side.
Indeed, the writing was on the wall when APIA’s Freya Hickey capped off a frenetic opening with a well taken goal inside the first minute, driving home from the edge of the box.
To be fair, Northern Tigers did not lie down, and eked out a few chances of their own.  The scrappy opening was providing lots of goalmouth action, but both keepers were comfortable thanks to some wayward shooting.
The weight of pressure eventually told in the 12th minute when Chanel Turner got on the end of an Aysha Adalis corner to double the lead and sink opposition hearts.
Adalis was involved in everything up front for APIA, lurking just off the shoulder of her marker and displaying her full range of tricks, including a sublime backheel and an audaciously attempted overhead kick.
Adalis doubled the lead herself in the space of a few minutes. Latching onto the end of a long ball she sent her marker the wrong way and finished nicely. Two minutes later she capitalised on some sloppy defending, finding herself unmarked at the far post to make the lead four.
As if not content with this scoreline, APIA banged in another before the half time whistle, this time from the left where Michelle Petschy made an intelligent run to put away the fifth.
Northern Tigers no doubt received a dressing down at half time and came out looking a decidedly different team, this one intent on stifling any APIA forward movement. On the other hand, APIA seemed to take their foot off the pedal and the game settled into a slower, more midfield-heavy rhythm.
The young Tigers side fought to the death, at times displaying an urgency that belied the scoreline. Unfortunately APIA were just too strong, capping off a dominant performance with two more goals through De Rooy and Adalis.
With the second, Adalis bagged the first hattrick of the WPL season after she was dragged down in the box by some tired Tigers legs. The livewire striker will cause teams problems all year with performances like this.
Despite the scoreline, APIA coach Tarek Madani was disappointed with his team’s overall performance.
“We were very poor and not sharp enough. We scored alot of goals but we were just very very poor.”
“It’s the first time we’ve had our full squad, but our passing, our finishing and our build up play just wasn’t good enough.
Tigers mentor Darryl Darke was disappointed his team failed to cope with the early setback.
“I don’t think we recovered from that, the girls haven’t seen this sort of thing before.”
“They controlled the game better than us.  They were alot hungrier for the ball and they dominated us in the main areas.”
Match Stats:
APIA Leichardt Tigers 7 (Adalis (3), Petschy, De Rooy, Turner, Hickey)
Northern Tigers 0
APIA Leichardt Tigers: 1. K Moodley, 2. E Noro, 14. F Hickey, 3. G De Rooy, 7. T Black, 15. M Petschy, 8. A Adalis, 13. D Pringle, 10. K Bridge, 9. F Dimino (c), 5. C Turner
Northern Tigers: 1. M Berger, 21. C Lamb, 18. J Hawker, 11. T Black, 8. M Van der Wallen, 26. E Apps, 7. G Dal Pozzo (c), 9. T Hack, 4. I Kacopieros, 12. K Daly, 5. S Greentree
at Wilson Park
Sydney Olympic have maintained their perfect start to the season with a come-from-behind 2-1 win over St George at Blick Oval.
St George took the lead in the 10th minute through Kara Hooper but for the second week running have let it slip, conceding goals in both halves to prolong a frustrating start to the season.
Olympic, whose goals came from Halaska in the 18th minute and Daleris in the 60th, are firming as genuine contenders after some strong performances.
Sydney Olympic 2 (Halaska ’18, Daleris ’60)
St George 1 (Hooper ’10)
at Blick Oval
Meanwhile, Nepean have earned their first three points of the season in the Battle of the West over a winless Springwood United.
While both sides will see finals football as a bonus in a year of development, Nepean will be happy to finally have some points on the board after some impressive but fruitless early season performances.
Springwood are proving competitive and could cause a few upsets as they begin the cope with the intensity of WSL games.
Nepean FC 3 (O’Brien, Lopez, Conroy)
Springwood United 1 (Doyle)
at Cook Park
Over at Melita Stadium, Eastern UNSW Lions have ruined Lady Hawks perfect start to the season with a 2-1 victory in a game that sprang to life in the second period following an uneventful first half.
The Lions have impressed everyone in their first few fixtures, and all eyes will be on their midweek fixture with APIA to see how they fare against the big guns. Second half goals to Godman and Browning saw off a late strike from Brown to bring UNSW level with Parramatta at the top of the ladder.
Lady Hawks will be disappointed to lose at home after such a good start, but having used up all their luck at St George last week they couldn’t salvage a point here.
Lady Hawks 1 (Brown)
Eastern UNSW Lions 2 (Godman, Browning)
at Melita Stadium
Finally, Gladesville have been quietly going about their business, this time dispatching Northbridge with two second half goals from Hardie and Atallah.
Northbridge are now winless after three rounds and will be hoping for some better results against teams less dominant than this Gladesville side.
Gladesville are yet to concede a goal and look a quality side this season. Fans await with anticipation their matchup with APIA in a few weeks.
Gladesville Ravens 2 (Hardie, Atallah)
Northbridge 0
at Magdala Park
-By Ryan Cropp