Co-Captain Lydia Williams believes a big crowd at tomorrow’s first home game of the season will play a significant part in the outcome when Canberra United take on Sydney FC in Round Two of the Westfield W-League.
Co-Captain Lydia Williams believes a big crowd at tomorrow-s first home game of the season will play a significant part in the outcome when Canberra United take on Sydney FC in Round Two of the Westfield W-League.
“Sydney has a really good team but I think our supporters are going to play a big part in the match in lifting our spirits during the match,” Williams said.
“Hopefully we get most of the crowd back that supported us last year, they were great.
“We all want to encourage everyone to come along to create an amazing atmosphere for the first home game.”
An opening round loss to Brisbane Roar gave Canberra United the chance to learn a few lessons to take into this weekend-s fixture against local rival-s Sydney FC as the side looks to get their season back on track.
“We-ve worked on the problematic areas that were obvious last week so hopefully we can turn it around and get a win,” Williams said.
If the Westfield W-League relatively short history is anything to go by, last season Canberra United bounced back from an opening round defeat to the Newcastle Jets to upset the Roar away from home.
Both sides will be forced to make changes to their line-up this evening with Canberra United-s Emily van Egmond and Sydney FC-s Teigen Allen, Nicole Bolger and Brittany Whitfield in Myanmar with the Australian squad for the AFF Under-16 Women-s Championships.
“We-re missing Emily van Egmond due to international duties so we-ll see how it goes but I-m very confident with the team I-ve got in front of me so hopefully we get a result this weekend,” Williams said.
For striker Ashleigh Sykes, the 2009 season will see more responsibility on her shoulders in attack but firmly believes that the side is more than capable of playing an exciting and attacking brand of football that-s surely to entertain.
Ray Junna opted to play with three strikers in Sykes, Tseng Shu O and Ellie Raymond last week and is likely to play the same formation against Sydney.
“There-s a bit of pressure on me coming into this season but then we-ve signed Tseng from Chinese Taipei so we signed another experienced player,” Sykes said.
“We lost a lot with Munoz and Chapman which put a bit of pressure on me but hopefully I can step up to the challenge, play well and score a few goals.
“The formation is set up so we can get into positions to score goals and keep the ball and hopefully create some chances.
“Tseng is a very creative player so we-ll work her magic, find ways through and make things exciting so score some goals.”
Supporters are encourage to arrive early and cheer on the QANTAS Joeys with Australia taking on Malaysia as before hand with the 2010 AFC Under-16 Championship Qualifier kicking off at McKellar Park from 2:00pm.
Canberra United v Sydney FC
Saturday, 10th October 2009
McKellar Park, Canberra
Kick off: 5:00pm
Canberra United squad: 1. Lydia WILLIAMS, 2. Rebecca KITING, 3. Bronwyn STUDMAN, 4. Chiung Ying LIN, 5. Kahlia HOGG, 6. Ellie RAYMOND, 7. Ellie BRUSH, , 9. Grace GILL, 10. Shu O TSENG, 11. Cian MACIEJEWSKI, 12. Snez VELJANOVSKA, 14. Ashleigh SYKES, 15. Nicole SYKES, 16. Ellyse PERRY, 18. Sally SHIPARD, 19. Jennifer BISSET, 20. Jocelyn MARA
*two to be omitted*
In: Rebecca KITING (promoted), Bronwyn STUDMAN (promoted)
Out: Emily van EGMOND (international duty)
Unavailable: Christine WALTERS (calf – indefinite)
