W-League: Brisbane Roar 1-0 Perth Glory

A match where Brisbane Roar were the definite favourites nearly finished as a no thrills game devoid of action, but instead ended with a fairytale finish for Lisa De Vanna.

Roar were the better side over the entire match, having more control of the ball and field position. The very vocal coaches from the Perth Glory benches were happy to try and squeeze a point by holding Brisbane out to a draw, and only went forward via route-one – the long ball over the midfield.

For Brisbane the attacks were more central and did not really use the wide channels available to stretch their opposition defenses. Brisbane did have a few opportunities to score through built-up plays, while Perth only looked dangerous a few times in the entire game, mainly through Sam Kerr on the counter attack.

Late in the game Brisbane brought on Lisa De Vanna for her home debut (poetically against her former side) which lifted the crowd, but also changed their style of play. The Roar went long ball just trying to give Lisa the ball for her to touch it with magic. Unfortunately this became predicable play and easy to defend against and it did look like that the game would simply fizzle out to a scoreless draw.

But when all looked lost and journalists were wondering what they were going to write, the goal came. In the last minute of play a ball played behind the Perth defense by Kim Carroll was not read by Perth’s central defender and it was latched onto by the effervescent striker Lisa De Vanna. De Vanna calmly and securely slotted the ball home on the last kick of the day. 1-0 win to the Roar. And a befitting result for Lisa against her former club.

Best for Roar were Captain Clare Polkinghorne and Elise Kellond-Knight and for Perth their captain the stoic Tanya Oxtoby.

After this near draw and Sydney losing, the W-League girls have started to get their defenses right. This can only be good for the league.