Chelsea 3 A-League All Stars 0
The A-League All Stars were swept aside by a silky Chelsea women’s team on Wednesday night as the Sydney Cup concluded in a low-key manner at Allianz Stadium. Two goals in the first ten minutes from Sandy Baltimore and Sjoeke Nüsken had the Blues in the driving seat early on, but they had to wait until the second half to add to the tally, Lexi Potter’s sweet finish completing the scoring. Credit to the A-League players for keeping the score respectable, but three goals down with ten minutes remaining, it was difficult to see what else they could do and the game ground to its conclusion with many fans already on their way home.
With the Spurs game to learn from, we were all a little more organised, converging on Mary’s Pizza joint in the Entertainment Quarter not long after 6pm for some horribly-priced but tasty food and drink. This was a Matildas crowd, the drawcard being the mighty Chelsea FC, laden with stars and ready to show Australia just why they are one of the biggest clubs in women’s football. The number of people on Driver Avenue on the walk up to the stadium was encouraging, the crowd to get in from Gate 3 showed that there was certainly an appetite for this game.
Our original seats in Cove Heights had been moved by the event organisers, we’re guessing due to the lower than expected attendance for this midweek school-night fixture, and we had seats in Bay 24, next to the Cove, surrounded by empty seats. The top sections of the stadium were all closed, but the traditional away end was busy and there was an atmosphere to greet the players to the field. As with the Tottenham game, the pre-game music was all for the visiting team, the music repeated ad nauseum until the game was ready to kick off. The vibe, the noise, the music and the atmosphere was killed with the opening whistle and the game started in total silence, an eerie empty feeling coming over this majestic venue.
Team news was positive for the Blues, this was a strong line-up featuring a number of household names and seasoned internationals. For the All-Stars, this was a starting line-up featuring some of the best-known names from the local league, Kayla Morrison, Makala Woods and Tameka Yallop bringing high quality to do battle against England’s finest.
Ten minutes in and we were already fearing the worst. First, an expansive move down the left saw Sandy Baltimore in too much space to curl a sweet shot over Courtney Newbon for 1-0 – it looked like a cross that went in, but there was definitely no one to cross to, so all credit to the bustling forward for picking her spot just inside the post. Not long after, Sjoeke Nüsken was first to react to some shambolic defending and hooked in a shot that Newbon maybe could have saved down low. The crowd had what they were hoping for, but the A-League players weren’t happy, convening in a huddle to work out what to do to stop the unrelenting tide.
And to be fair, they did. We even had a couple of chances up the far end, Chelsea quite sloppy giving the ball away, Aideen Keane teeing up Leticia McKenna, but the ball seemed to bobble as she hit the shot and it flew over the bar. Yallop was lively, always there to cut out the pass and make it hard for Chelsea to play the easy ball, Woods was looking comfortable on the ball up front, but possession was hard to get. Lauren James oozed WSL quality, her speed of turn, her graceful gliding and close control was a step above, and if it wasn’t for some wayward crossing from Ellie Carpenter, we could have had more. Keane took a cross full in the face not long before the break, she was down for some time, and the added minutes after the 45 couldn’t yield any more goals.
A quick walk around the stadium at half time, and the Chelsea end was by far the busier, but the official stadium attendance of 22k seemed way over the top. 15k at a push would be a more realistic figure, and this was the sort of fixture that would have sounded good when the tickets were booked, but come the day, a cold winter’s midweek night may have put off many from coming. The main merch shops had been taken over with Chelsea kit, this was certainly a home game for the team from London. A nice little touch was the ability to download something from a QR code that made you part of the half-time light show. Whilst the stadium didn’t play along by dimming the lights, the pulsating spotlights on everyone’s phones were an impressive gimmick that we might see a bit more at Allianz Stadium for night-time games.
The stadium seemed less full as the second half got underway. Keane’s crossing from the left was disappointing, twice ignoring the free player in the centre to either go for goal or skew the cross too close to the keeper. The subs had started already and interest in the game waned. All the play was at the other end of the field, and there was some kamikaze defending that went unpunished. Alyssa Thompson continued to be a livewire on the left, and it was from one of her darting runs that Chelsea scored their third, Potter showing McKenna how it’s done with a beautiful shot into the top right-hand corner of Chloe Lincoln’s goal.
The appearance of superstar Tahlia Younis was later than it should have been. By now, this was damage limitation, and instead of just going for it and making it exciting, the All Stars stayed on the defensive and were shackled by their defensive duties. The final whistle was a relief, a number of fans around us having left already, and the players remained on halfway, chatting while the young fans with aspirations of meeting their heroes stood forlornly at the fence or were prised away by parents eager to get home. Lucy Bronze did the post-match interview for the stadium, Katie McCabe was interviewed for Paramount, and there was good interaction between Ellie Carpenter and the ball crew, signing footballs and posing for photographs.
We left the stragglers to it, the ground staff were busy removing the white lines to flush all trace of soccer at their football stadium, and headed back to Watsons at the Entertainment Quarter, which was closing already. A quick birthday drink for Matildas Active stalwart and Chelsea nut Nawal and we were on the road, Michelle having driven from work, making for a quick run back to the north western suburbs of Sydney via Leichhardt, landing home well after 11pm.
Were we entertained tonight? Yes. Lauren James was a joy to watch and the A-League’s Makala Woods caught the eye. We saw goals. We saw chances created. We saw slick possession football and simple triangles to slice open the All-Stars’ defence, and we saw the gulf in class between the best of the A-League and the best of the WSL. Despite long passages where it was all Chelsea and play was camped up the far end in the second half, despite the negativity of the All-Stars, staying in their shell when the game was already dead and buried, and despite the low-key atmosphere, this was a welcome addition to the football calendar and we hope it continues.
See you at the next game, wherever that may be…