FUTSAL WA

R8 – Women’s Supa-Liga, 2021/22 Summer Season

Featured Match Review

Northern Hawks SC came up against the West Coast Cobras in this weekend’s Women’s featured match. The Cobras were looking to win the game to close the gap with the Hawks on the ladder who started the match three points ahead of their opponents. Both sides fielded strong squads going into the match as they both knew what was at stake. The Hawks needed a win to bounce back from their recent poor run of form and keep in touch with the top two sides, who also play against each other this weekend.

The Hawks started the match with the majority of the possession. Very comfortable moving the ball around in their defensive third, they managed to draw the Cobras defence in on many occasions to eventually play the ball into the space in behind the Cobras press. The first goal of the match came after Crevacore of the Hawks pressed from a Cobras corner. Crevacore dispossessed the Cobras player and broke free to find herself one-on-one with Leyland, calmly finishing to the keepers left side to put the Hawks up 1-0. Not long after, a similar situation saw Boyle break free for the Hawks and setting up Johnson on the back post to extend the Hawks lead.

Both sides continued to play the way they set out to from the start and the Hawks eventually were punished for their risky style of play. A clever team press from the Cobras put McCulloch under enough pressure to force her to lose the ball right in front of goal, Kim McCartney striking the loose ball home for the Cobras. The pressure was further mounted onto the Hawks when an unfortunate deflection off of Ruby Cohen’s head brought the scores back to 2-2. A Hawks kick in gave them the advantage at half-time, Crevacore with her second of the match, turning the ball into the net from just inside the goalkeepers area.

The Cobras quickly bounced back in the second half after a misjudgment from the Hawks coach Farrell. Farrell tried to make a substitution at a crucial moment as the Cobras were taking a kick-in, the vacant space left by the Hawks defender was taken advantage of by McCartney, giving her too much time and space to blast the ball past a helpless Edwards in goal. The match remained on the balance at 3-3 for much of the remainder of the match. Northern Hawks eventually opted to play a fly-keeper in the final minutes and reaped the rewards when Karla Edwards positioned herself well at the back post from a corner set-piece and turned the ball in for the winning goal of the match.

The 4-3 win for the Hawks consolidated their 3rd placing on the ladder, opening up a larger gap of 6 points between them and the Cobras in 4th. In other league news, Andinxs FC were forced to forfeit their match against the Scarborough Sharks. The forfeit gave the sharks their 2nd win of the season in what would have been a crucial bottom of the table clash. The disappointing result for the Andinxs halts the great progress they’ve made in the last few games. Meanwhile at the other end of the table, Western Devils FC were too strong for an inexperienced Perth Pumas side. The Devils ended up winning the match 5-0 to pull clear from the Pumas at the to of the table.