Melbourne City will be aiming to bounce back from its first loss of the A-League Women season when it faces Canberra away from home this Friday night.
After going down early to Western United last time out, Emina Ekic’s equaliser would eventually be cancelled out by a Chloe Logarzo second half brace, as City’s attention now turns to Canberra.
Here’s a few things to keep an eye out for in our final away match of 2023!
On to the next one
After beginning the season with three consecutive wins, City ran into a resilient Western United outfit last weekend.
In what was an entertaining game from a neutral perspective, City had plenty of chances and on another day would’ve been walking away with all three points, but although it huffed and puffed, it couldn’t blow the house down.
Head Coach Dario Vidosic commented during the week that it was one of the team’s ‘best performances of the season’, further illustrating the point that the 3-1 scoreline was far from representative of that match itself.
Next on the agenda for City is a Canberra United team that has had a mixed start to the 2022/23 season.
After four fixtures, United has a win and two draws on the board, but comes into this fixture off the back of a 3-2 loss to Perth last Sunday.
Unchanged again?
Four games into the season and we’re still yet to see a change to the starting XI that was out there in Round 1 against Wellington Phoenix.
It’s seemed to be a pretty simple case of ‘if it’s not broken, don’t fix it’ for Vidosic so far, but given the team dropped points for the first time of the season last time out, now could be the time we see some tweaks.
One player who won’t be involved in captain Emma Checker, who will miss a second consecutive match through illness after being a late withdrawal from last week’s squad.
Vidosic will be hoping to see her back in the selection mix for the quick turnaround to host Perth on the 27th, but in more pressing matters, the likes of Chelsea Blissett and Leticia McKenna are the two that would appear most likely to push for a start this Friday.
Amazing Emina Ekic
While Saturday may’ve seen the ‘goal in every game’ streaks end for Bryleeh Henry and Cote Rojas, Emina Ekic continued on her own goalscoring run.
Our American attacker was on target for a third consecutive match, this time finding the top corner after some lovely footwork to bamboozle the defence.
It’s been an impressive start to the season from Ekic, who’s also created eight chances to go along with the three goals she’s scored herself.
She’s certainly been one of team’s most important players so far this season, so City fans will be hoping for another strong performance and to see that scoring streak continue come Friday night!
