The appalling quality of first touches under any kind of pressure is inexplicable, there’s no physiological or psychological impediment, why does every player on the pitch have really poor ball control unless they’re at least 10 yards from an opponent.
Because, much like the male players in this country, there’s very little emphasis put on close ball control when they’re developing.
Bloody hell how didn’t that corner go in.
We cannot buy a goal!
Lets go!
Great ball from Holman and an incredible finish from Tallon-Henniker.
Need more Wollongong
Beautifully worked goal there. More of that in the other 88 minutes please.
Assured finish
We could have had an extra 4 or 5 goals. Khamis has made some great saves, and we’ve had another couple cleared off the line too.
Fuck you Western Sydney scum!
Unbeaten in 10 consecutive W-League derbies.
Thought Shay should’ve been on much earlier, superb ball to create the one clear chance. Happy days.
Massive game against City next Sunday!
I know the ALW standards are often not great, but I feel it would be pretty difficult to play on whatever they call that thing they played on on Saturday.
It’s not the first time I’ve made that observation, while the pitch may have played a minor role, the correlation between opponent proximity and awful first touches suggest it’s more to do with mentality and practice than pitch.
That’s pretty standard?
The same NBA players, shooting specialists, who might averages 30-40% on their three-pointers in game will routinely hit dozens consecutively in practice.
Pressure is real.
While some of the youth coaching is getting better the vast majority of our youth players are taught to get rid of the ball at the first opportunity. Taking any more than 2 touches is looked down upon. This creates a panic when the ball is coming to them, they tense up, miscontrol the ball and lose it or spray a pass.
They’re more worried about being caught with the ball rather than caring for/protecting it.
I think there needs to be a better focus on close in ball retention/skills rather than what we’re doing at the moment.
I hope I’m not being too pessimistic but I’m getting the feeling that the alw isn’t improving.
The best players are leaving and there is a big drop to the next level down.
I don’t know why but it almost feels like we’ve lost an age group of players.
Have the good athletes all gone to aflw or nrlw?
I know heaps is going on locally to improve women’s football but maybe we were a bit behind the other sports for a few years.
The big European nations are investing heavily in women’s football, as well. As soon as anyone stands out in this league, they’re gone for one of those leagues.
And hopefully we make some money on the transfer, money that can be channelled back into training the next generation of players.
The highest women’s transfer for a Matilda was Kyra Cooney-Cross at €320k, or just over $500k AUD. Fowler is next at €190k, or just over $300k AUD.
I’d say we’d be lucky to sell any one of our players for $150k.