After Roar thumping, Western looking for answers to defensive frailites once more
After recording the heaviest defeat in club history twice over the past three weeks, Western United ALW boss Kat Smith has acknowledged urgent work needs to be done to find a solution.
In two of the past three weeks, Western United’s A-League Women's side has set club records for the heaviest defeat in their history, the first coming in a 5-1 loss to Western Sydney and then an 8-2 thrashing against Brisbane Roar on Sunday evening. Albeit, ‘set’ is probably the wrong word here, given it carries connotations of striving to achieve something; because an uncharacteristically porous defence threatening to derail their campaign, coach Kat Smith has acknowledged urgent work needs to be done to find a way to plug this deluge.
Experiencing a surge in fortunes in Alex Smith’s first full season as coach, the Roar used United to send another warning to the competition at Ironbark Fields, storming to a 5-1 lead at halftime before adding a further three for good measure in the second half. Assisted once by her twin sister Sharn, who also netted a brace herself, Laini Freier made it two professional starts and two professional hattricks in the win, while NPLW QLD signing Momo Hayashi added another goal to her highlight reel with a thunderous first-half free kick.
Seemingly everything went right for the Queenslanders on the evening, putting up the first eight-spot in the league since 2022, scoring thrice from corners all sent towards the back of the six-yard box and looking like they were going to score with nearly every attack as the evening went on. Indeed, on another night, they could have easily had nine if they hadn't found a way to hammer a shot into the post, twice, in a furious late attack.
“Credit to Brisbane, they're in great form at the minute,” said Smith. “They've got great players. Alex [Smith] is doing a great job with that squad. You can see the results of late.
“We approach this game with a game plan full of confidence. Obviously, that wasn't either the right plan or executed well, and we’ll look at that, we look at ourselves, I’ll look at myself, and take responsibility and make sure that we pick the girls up and we go again for next week.”
Now, before getting into all the dark clouds it should probably be noted that even with the defeat, United remains in the playoff places in sixth position on the table. Their 14 goals scored this season is the fourth most in the league and they’ve won just as many games this season, three, as they’ve lost.
But when they lose, and here come the clouds, they do so in convincing fashion; the defensive frailties that have been exposed in those defeats, two of which came across the past three weeks, threatening to derail their season if not properly addressed. Weighed down by their 4-1 loss to Melbourne Victory, their 5-1 defeat against Western Sydney, and their 8-2 thrashing at the hands of the Roar, the side from Melbourne’s west has now conceded 22 goals this season – seven more than any other side in the competition – and their goal difference is a league-worst -8. Again disproportionately affected by their recent defeats against the Wanderers and Roar, their expected goals against (xGA) this season is 14.8, per FbRef, better than only Western Sydney’s 20.1.
Though the Roar have already begun to establish themselves as one of the league’s most preeminent attacks across the season’s opening two months, Sunday’s defeat also bore little hallmarks of what brought United near-instant success across their first two years in the league: earning respect from opponents since their entry to the league for their willingness to battle away and do the unglamorous little things and dirty work that lays the platform to win games. And as good as the Roar have been this season, whatever fig leaf this provides can’t also be applied to the Wanderers, who have only scored three goals in their other seven fixtures so far this season.
Yet compounding the difficulty of making any definitive analysis and unabashed doomsaying, the heavy defeats against the Wanderers and Roar were sandwiched around a 3-1 win over the fifth-placed Central Coast Mariners in Gosford, while the 4-1 defeat against Victory was followed by a draw with Newcastle and a win over Sydney. If there is a downward trend, it’s not a sustained one, instead briefly interrupted by wins and positive upswings. And there is the talent here to suggest that things should be better than this; Julia Sardo Sasha Grove, Grace Maher and Alana Cerne are Australian junior internationals and have shown themselves to be capable of performing at a high level while keeper Chloe Lincoln made her Matildas debut in recent friendlies against Taiwan.
“There's still work to do in that space, obviously,” Smith said. “From the result against Victory into the result against Wanderers and now again tonight, against Brisbane, whether it's lapses in concentration, areas of the parks where we're not executing as either individuals or units – that's our job as a coaching staff, to continue to find ways that are going to help these players find solutions for nights like [Sunday].
“These girls have resilience. We will bounce back from this. We'll put in all the work that we can. It's all going to come down to our preparation going into the next game here Friday against Newcastle.”
Smith was positive that skipper Chloe Logarzo, who attempted to play through an ankle knock only to be substituted off early in the second half, was withdrawn before any serious damage could occur, enabling her to start her recovery with a focus on Friday.
Header Image Credit: Western United