Canberra United face Adelaide United in a critical fixture of the Westfield W-League at Deakin Football Stadium tomorrow afternoon, knowing that only a victory will keep alive their finals aspirations.
Canberra United face Adelaide United in a critical fixture of the Westfield W-League at Deakin Football Stadium tomorrow afternoon, knowing that only a victory will keep alive their finals aspirations.
United must beat their South Australian opponents, and then hope that Perth Glory can defeat Melbourne Victory in their Round Ten fixture, in order for Canberra to take fourth spot on the ladder and the final spot in the semis.
It would be natural for the players to be feeling nervous ahead of such a big clash, but the general feeling in the camp is almost exactly the opposite, as co-captain Ellie Brush revealed.
“We-re really pumped up and excited and going into this one all guns blazing hoping that we can get a big win,” Brush said.
“We-ve been feeling this pressure all year, and we-ve been performing pretty well under that, so we don-t mind at all and hopefully we-ll pull out a big win this weekend.”
Brush indicated that the players and coaching staff are confident that they can gain the points required, although without underestimating the seventh-placed Adelaide side.
“Everyone is very excited going into this weekend,” Brush continued.
“We unfortunately had a loss at Melbourne, but that has given us extra incentive for Saturday knowing that we have to win to get a place in the semis. The feeling is we have to go out and put on a performance this weekend.”
Defender Nicole Sykes, who has played all nine matches of Canberra United-s season to date, knows that Adelaide will present a stiff challenge to the team tomorrow.
“They are not an easy pushover team, as we-ve seen with some of their results this year,” Sykes commented.
“We are looking to go out there and take them seriously and hopefully record a good win. We have to get our heads in the game and hopefully we can get a good result. Everyone wants to finish the season on a high note and there-s no way we want to lose this game. After the loss last weekend we definitely want to lift our performance and a win would put us in the position where we can rely on the Perth-Melbourne match.”
The fact that Canberra have to rely on Perth beating the Victory to secure a finals berth is not a unique phenomenon for the players as Sykes confirmed.
“While it is strange having to rely on another result, we are used to this as it happens often coming towards finals,” Sykes said.
“It is difficult knowing that we can-t control our destiny, but we had a chance last week to put ourselves in front, which we weren-t able to do, but this weekend we are looking forward to getting out there and winning.”
Tickets for Canberra United-s final Westfield W-League match of the season, against Adelaide United at Deakin Football Stadium, are available from the Dickson Tradies Club, the Canberra United Capital Football office or at the gate.
