The Wellington Phoenix women face a one-goal climb at Porirua Park next Sunday after Brisbane Roar struck twice from corners to take a 2-1 lead in the first leg of their A-League semi-final at Spencer Park in Newmarket on Sunday afternoon.
For a club playing in its first finals series, the loss stings less than the score suggests. The Phoenix flew home with a goal in their pocket, a galvanising sense of what they had squandered, and a sold-out home leg waiting in Porirua. Coach Bev Priestman’s side started exactly the way they had hoped. Inside two minutes, a Manaia Elliott corner curled into the box and Grace Jale rose to head the ball past the Roar keeper. The 3,849 supporters in Newmarket were still finding their seats.
What followed was close to target practice at the other end. American forward Makala Woods burst through one-on-one and clipped the post with only the keeper to beat. Lucia Leon glanced a header just wide. The Phoenix could have been three goals up by the quarter-hour mark. Instead they were level. Roar midfielder Momo Hayashi attacked a corner of her own in the fourteenth minute and powered a header past Wellington keeper Vic Esson. The momentum, and the home crowd’s voice, swung instantly with it.
Brisbane took control through the rest of the first half and most of the second, registering 18 shots to Wellington’s five and forcing eight saves to the Phoenix’s two. The decisive moment came in the seventy-second minute. A Roar cross was only half-cleared inside the Phoenix box. The ball ricocheted off McKenzie Barry and dropped at the feet of teenage striker Daisy Brown, who finished low and hard from close range. It was the kind of breakdown a finals-tested side punishes, and Brown’s strike was her second in successive finals matches.
Priestman, who took charge of the Phoenix this season, used the second half to blood another teenager. Mikaela Bangalan was handed her A-League debut as a substitute and looked composed under pressure, picking up a yellow card for a strong challenge on Hayashi but otherwise growing into the rhythm of the contest. The experienced campaigners around her will need to stay on their feet in Porirua.
The Phoenix and the Roar have history this season. They drew 2-2 in Brisbane in January, then Wellington turned over the Roar 3-0 at home in March, a result that did much to push the Phoenix into the top four. Both fixtures hint at an even tie in normal circumstances. Sunday’s match was decided by two set-piece moments and the thin margins finals football is built on. As RNZ reported after the match, the Phoenix carried the early initiative without converting it.
That leaves Wellington one goal down ahead of the second leg at Porirua Park on Sunday 10 May, with kick-off at 2.30pm NZT. The club is erecting a temporary stand at the suburban ground to fit the demand. According to Friends of Football, this is the first finals series in the Phoenix women’s history, and Porirua Park has not previously hosted a semi-final of this profile.
The mathematics are uncomplicated. Win by two clear goals and the Phoenix go through to the Grand Final. Win by a single goal and the tie hinges on extra time and, if needed, penalties. A draw or any Brisbane win sends the Roar into a final they are starting to look hardened for. Brisbane coach Alex Smith has built a side that defends in numbers and counters with pace, the sort of profile that travels well across the Tasman.
For the Phoenix, the missing ingredient on Sunday was the finishing touch in the opening twenty minutes. If Woods, Leon and Jale carry that same first-leg sharpness into Porirua and bury one of the early chances they will undoubtedly create, the tie could swing decisively before half time. Esson and the back four will need to handle Brisbane set pieces with more conviction, particularly given how readily the Roar load their corners with bodies and let teenagers like Brown feed off second balls.
A finals home leg in Porirua, in front of a sold-out crowd, is exactly the platform Wellington’s women’s football has been promising. The match details and goal sequence were laid out cleanly by A-Leagues after the first-leg whistle in Newmarket. The Phoenix now have six days to find one more goal than Brisbane, and a club’s first Grand Final.
Will the Phoenix women complete the comeback at Porirua Park next Sunday? Drop your thoughts in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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