This week, we present our annual Australia's A-League Women midseason review. As part of this overview of the first half of the W-League Women (formerly the W-League), we talk to the head coaches of Adelaide United, Perth Glory and Wellington Phoenix to discuss possible future expansion of the league and the effect that next year's (hard to fathom, right?) Women's World Cup games in each of their cities will have for the sport.
2021-22 A-League Women Review to Date
The ten-team A-League Women has had some fixture disruption due to COVID 19, with Perth Glory and Wellington Phoenix having to stage all or most of their home matches in New South Wales this season; we look at the approximate halfway point of the season (this season the teams are playing 14 regular season games after playing 12 games for the last 8 seasons) as three sides have played seven games to date, six club have completed six games and Newcastle Jets have played five. Four teams still make the playoffs in the now ten team league but the playoff format has been altered to have the top two teams face off in the semifinals, with the winner advancing to the Grand Final and the losing side facing the winner of the third versus fourth place semifinal for another chance at making the Grand Final. In the past, the Premiership winners faced number four in the table and number two met number three with the winners meeting in the Grand Final. Thus, this year there will be four playoff matches rather than three.
Sydney FC (6-1-0—19 points—First)
Sydney FC has been very strong in attack this season, leading the league with 23 goals in seven games. Their defense has been equally superb, surrendering only one goal all season. On the attack, former youth international Mackenzie Hawkesby has been a revelation with five goals and is second in the league's goalscoring table, with four tallies coming in two matches against expansion club Wellington Phoenix, who will be glad that they will not face the Sky Blues (losing 3-0 and 5-0) and Hawkesby again this season. Hawkesby is now being mentioned favorably for national team consideration by some league followers. This is her third season with the club and she has already surpassed the three goals she scored in 14 games last season. Cortnee Vine and Remy Siemsen are just behind Hawkesby with four goals each and both were called into pre-tournament training with the Matildas in Dubai for the AFC Women's Asian Cup in India. Siemsen has a confirmed spot for the India trip while Vine is vying for two last spots (which she did secure a spot just before press time), with three others from the A-League Women (see last week's column: The Week in Women's Football: Asian Cup 2022; Matildas squad; Vietnam visit Spain; - Tribal Football).
In defense, Jada Whyman has an incredible six shutouts at the halfway point to lead the league (one was shared for 12 minutes with her backup Katie Offer). Even with long-time captain and midfielder Teresa Polias taking the season off to start a family, Sydney FC look extremely polished and should make the Grand Final again for the fifth consecutive season (but winning only in 2019—their third league crown since the inaugural season of 2008/09). Sydney FC won the Premiership (regular season) title last year but lost the Grand Final 1-0 to Melbourne Victory in the last minute of extra time.
Sydney FC's Mackenzie Hawkesby (far left) celebrates another goal in her hat-trick performance in her home town of Wollongong (suburban Sydney) against Wellington Phoenix on December 30, 2022. Picture courtesy of Sydney FC.
Melbourne City (5-0-1 W-D-L—15 points—Second)
City's preseason goal was definitely to finish higher than seventh, as last season's final placing was a historic low for a club that has won four Grand Finals and only missed the playoffs twice in their six years in the league. They have only dropped points in a 2-1 derby loss to Melbourne Victory in Round 2. New Zealand international veteran striker Hannah Wilkinson has been a revelation with eight goals—including all five in the Round 4 derby rematch 5-1 win over Melbourne Victory—in her first season in the league. Her five goals in the matches left her tied for the league record for goals in a game with former international and now women's football television commentator Kate Gill, when she was with Perth Glory in 2014.
Assistant coach and legendary former Matilda goalkeeper Melissa (Barbieri) Hudson (41) was pressed into action last season in an emergency need for four games after playing in only one match in the previous three seasons; this season however she has played all but six minutes in City's six games, posting three shutouts with only four goals allowed. In front of Bubs, Matilda defender Emma Checker (25)—who has played in Iceland and France over the past year—has been a key and steady presence in the back and has added one goal, particularly since her line-mate from last season—fellow international Jenna McCormick—is now playing in Denmark with AGF Fodbold.
Head Coach Rado Vidosic, in his fourth season with the club, is on track with a good chance to add to his one Premiership and one Grand Final title with the club.
Melbourne Victory (4-0-2—12 points—Tied for Third)
It's not been an easy season for the 2020/21 league champions Victory despite only two losses (to Melbourne City 5-1 and Brisbane Roar 4-2) as they lost their new captain—American defender Kayla Morrison—in the first half of their opening game of the season, and after she had scored a goal. Australian midfielder Lia Privitelli (27) took over Morrison's captaincy role for the rest of the season.
Veteran Matilda forward Lisa De Vanna from last year's squad was a late signing for Perth Glory at the start of the season, but U.S. international forward Lynn Williams came on loan as a guest player, after her national side played a pair of internationals in the country late last year. Williams scored three goals and an assist in her four matches.
The acquisition of Australian international midfielder Alex Chidiac on loan from JEF United Chiba of the new WE league in Japan was an inspired late pickup by head coach Jeff Hopkins, who said about her signing: "We're incredibly excited to welcome Alex to the squad for the upcoming season as we make the final touches to our Championship defense. At 22, Alex has experience beyond her years, making her A-League Women's debut at 15, representing her country at 16 and becoming an A-League Women's Champion at 17 [with Melbourne City]. Alex has the ability to control the midfield but also move forward and find the back of the net in her attacking role and we can't wait to see how she will complement our squad this season." Chidiac played with Melbourne City last season but began her career with Adelaide United in the 2014 season. She spent two years at Atletico Madrid in Spain but did not play regularly and had some injury issues. She was a surprise omission from Ante Milicic's 2019 Women's World Cup Finals squad. She currently has 17 full national team caps since her debut in 2015 against New Zealand as a 16-year-old.
Chidiac was excited to return to the Australian top women's league, "I'm thrilled to be heading back to Victoria with Melbourne Victory and joining a team that is committed to achieving success this season. Talking to Jeff [Hopkins], the team's intentions are to take out the Championship for the second successive season and I want to be a part of that journey. The focus for me is to consistently perform, week in and week out, for the team and help the Club achieve their goals."
Fourteen goals for and thirteen against for a +1 goals difference may get MV back into the playoffs but they need to tighten up their defense, as their 13 goals allowed is tied for sixth best in the league with Adelaide United, if they hope to repeat as title winners.
Adelaide United (3-0-3—9 points—Tied for Third)
The Reds had a tough start to the season with losses in Melbourne to the two Victoria State teams (5-1 to the Victory and 3-1 to City), sandwiched around a 2-1 home win against Canberra. Head Coach Adrian Stenta told this writer after their third game, "We always knew it was going to be a tough start to the year. We had a few challenges in getting players into the State [South Australia] and out of quarantine and available to train. We were quite disjointed in preseason as we had to drip feed some new players in at various points during the preparation stage."
Consecutive home wins over Perth (4-2) and Canberra (3-1) have Adelaide sitting in fourth place. After last season's heartbreaking narrow elimination from the playoffs by one goal on goal differential in the last week when they were idle, they are firmly on track to make their first ever playoffs in 14 seasons.
Adelaide United has always relied on promoting players from the NPLW, particularly the teams in South Australian, and they have two new Japanese imports who came up from the state league. Midfielder Reona Omiya (30) had spent the 2021 NPL Victoria Women season briefly with FC Bulleen Lions before joining South Melbourne FC, until the competition was suspended due to COVID; she scored three goals in 11 matches with both teams. She played in Japan with a number of sides including Elfen Saitama and Nagano Parceiro.
Midfielder Nanako Sasaki (22) is another new signing who came to the NPLW in 2017 and spent four seasons with Adelaide City before switching to Adelaide Comets at the start of this year; she scored four goals in 24 games and was selected for the WNPL South Australia Team of the Year for the third consecutive season. She has one goal from six matches.
American defender Kayla Sharples is on loan from the Chicago Red Stars but did not play in the first three matches. The Red Stars were in the NWSL Finals which delayed her departure. Stenta explained then that she had, "Unfortunate traveling and, due to a change in quarantine laws just before she landed, she had to spend two weeks in a hotel as well rather than one week at home which we expected."
Chelsea Dawber leads the club with four goals while English import Fiona Worts—who was also discovered from the local state leagues—has two goals in her second season 2ith Adelaide.
We asked Stenta to look into a crystal ball about changes in the A-League Women over the next few years. He said that he hopes that with league expansion next year for Western United [Melbourne] and Central Coast Mariners [New South Wales] will lead to, "More expansion, more teams, which provides more opportunities for our quality young Australian players to get exposed to that level of football more regularly…. There's also a big push here to expand the length of the season—in previous years it was a 12-game season and this year it's 14 games—but we'd like to see it go for a longer period that will allow us to have to access players for longer periods of time and work for them for longer periods of time. [There are] enough quality players to expand the league with more teams and not lose too much in terms of the quality of the competition. Continued expansion and a longer season as well [are his hopes]."
The A League for men is discussing adding a second division at some point in the future—depending on large part on the reduction of the COVID virus worldwide; reports are that a 12-team league could start in 2023 and expand to 16 teams within four years after, which could assist the women's loop with more expansion opportunities.
The news that Adelaide was chosen just after last season ended as a WWC host city in 2023 will help galvanize the support for United and women's football in general in the state of South Australia. Adelaide's Coopers Stadium (Hindmarsh) will host five Women's World Cup games in 2023. Stenta said that, "We are really excited to have one of the biggest stand-alone sporting events in the world coming to our city. It has already resulted in some increased funding and infrastructure to our home ground at Coopers Stadium. We're hoping to improve our training facilities as well. We are really hopeful that it leaves a lasting legacy not only for our country but in our state and city as well. Football is a popular sport here and the number of female players is always on the rise, but there is a lot more that we can be doing to promote the game and in particular keep those older young women involved in the game once they hit the age where they tend to drop off a little bit. We are really hopeful that having this event come to our city will leave a positive and lasting legacy for the sport in our state."
Newcastle Jets—(2-2-1—8 points—Tied for Fifth)
The Jets have had a very good start to the season with eight points from their first five games. A highly entertaining 1-1 tie at home against Perth on January 16 left both sides tied for fifth and just out of the four playoff spots. After some years of struggling on the financial side, Newcastle has signed two imports for the first time in three seasons. Another huge addition was the return of Emily Van Egmond, a local hero.
Norwegian international forward Marie Markussen (24) looks to be a very promising signing. She comes from Valerenga in the Toppserien. Another late import signing was NWSL veteran defender in American Elizabeth Eddy. Eddy (30) spent last season with Gotham FC in the NWSL after a trade from her longtime club the North Carolina Courage. During the 2021 NWSL regular season, she appeared in 17 games with one assist. She has played over 65 NWSL games, mostly with the Western New York Flash/Courage franchise. She scored 2 goals in 11 games on loan with Vittsjo of Sweden in 2020.
Emily van Egmond (28) was one of the most important signings by the Jets for years; she made her debut with the Jets when she was 15 in 2009 and has played in the U.S., Germany, Denmark and England. Van Egmond played in the NWSL with the Seattle Reign (2013), Chicago Red Stars (2014) and Orlando Pride in 2018, 2019 and this past season. She has over 110 caps with the Matildas. With her NWSL contract set to expire on December. 31, 2021, her rights were transferred early so she could join Newcastle. Subsequently, her NWSL playing rights were acquired by 2022 expansion side the San Diego Wave. Van Egmond last played with the Jets in 2018—one of only two playoff seasons in the club's history. Head Coach Ash Wilson said that she was ecstatic to have van Egmond at the Club once more. "Emily is a world class player and Newcastle is her home so to be able to have her put on the Jets jersey again is exciting for the community and the club. She brings so much to the team in terms of experience, technical and tactical quality and a winning mentality.…I'm excited to see her back in gold playing a positive, attacking brand of football, and I know she is motivated to contribute to a successful campaign for this community."
Perth Glory (2-2-2—8 points—Tied for Fifth)
The surprise of the season has been Perth Glory. They opened with two wins in their first two games (2-1 at home and then 1-0 on the road) and scored the winning goal in the 90th and 86th minute, respectively. COVID has restricted their ability to host games in Western Australia, necessitating long quarantines for teams entering the state (including the Perth-based sides for both men and women) and they couldn't host games in December or January (at least, unfortunately).
Head coach Alexander Epakis—who won three consecutive league titles in New South Wales NPLW with Sydney University—found the top tier women's league going a rough patch last season with their last place finish, after earning only one point from 12 matches, and was looking for marked improvement from his team this year. He had to quarantine ahead of the 2020/21 season for two weeks, severely cutting into his preseason practice time with his squad. Now in year two, Epakis has the team playing well with some savvy additions but are still juggling being on the road for weeks, particularly for those players who have a full-time job outside of football. Epakis said, "It has been difficult; we're trying to balance their maintaining a work commitment while also maintaining a football commitment from a different time zone. …. We're just trying to make it as normal as possible for everyone…. Last year was a difficult one. We had a very young team and we lacked a little bit of experience in some key areas. I tried to utilize the off-season to scout far and wide to find the players that we needed to bring in to improve the team and that's just not on the field, it's also off the field." He made a big signing for the Glory and the league with Danish international defender Mie Leth Jans (27) for the 2021/22 season. She has won 26 caps for her country, can operate equally effectively as a central defender or as a holding midfielder, and played for Manchester City in the WSL in 2017/18. He also added veteran Matilda Lisa De Vanna and American forward Cyera Hintzen (24), who has one goal in two games. Hintzen played this summer in Iceland with Valur and collegiately at the University of Texas. He also brought back U-20 international and West Australian native Morgan Aquino in goal, after the 20-year-old played in four games last season with the Roar.
Epakis, a veteran of the women's state leagues, talked about future league expansion and the idea of state league teams moving up to the A-League Women in the future, "We've got two new teams coming in next year [Western United and Central Coast Mariners]; 40 extra contracts, 20 extra professional players. Before we look at expanding, we need to consolidate and give those clubs the best opportunity to get both feet on the ground, build a firm foundation with their team, potentially building an academy program if they don't already have one [which Perth Glory does on the men's and women's side] before we start opening to state league teams…. We want to do it when it is appropriate and stable."
When asked about the effect that Perth hosting five 2023 Women's World Cup Games will have on football's development in the state, Epakis said, "It is certainly something that's big for the whole country and New Zealand and hopefully COVID is well and truly over, and it can be an event that the whole Australian community can really get behind and the event gets what it deserves from the Australian public. That's really important. To have those 5 games in particularly in West Australia is great, given our location and more detached from east coast—we're talking four hours [flight time] plus a time difference [three hours]—there are great things happening in football women's football in West Australia; it certainly allows it to further grow and evolve, particularly in Perth and Western Australia."
Alex Epakis has certainly made a huge impact at Perth Glory in his second year and, at only 30 years of age and with his successful spell at Sydney University, he is an asset to the Glory and football in West Australian and is a coach to watch for the future.
Brisbane Roar (2-1-4—7 points—Seventh)
The Roar signed head coach Garrath McPherson to a multi-year deal ahead of the 2021/22 campaign. He looked to be in a bit of trouble with only one point from their first four games, including a double loss to Perth to open the season, with Perth scoring late in both games. Two wins in their last three games (4-2 against Melbourne Victory and 3-2 against Brisbane—both on the road and both involving second half comebacks from deficits) shows some optimism for the rest of the season. Their current position in the standings is still a real surprise as the team has missed the playoffs only three times in their previous 13 seasons but if they continue stringing a few more wins together, they still have a solid chance at a playoff berth.
The Roar is scoring well and new signing Shea Connors from America has been a revelation with four goals to lead the club. She played a couple of games for the Roar in 2019/20 and was signed from Queensland State Football. Connors scored 30 goals for Lions FC this past season (who won the Queensland NPLW and Women's Super Cup titles in 2021) and then signed with the Roar for 2021/22. After college, she played a year in Iceland with KR. New experienced signing Larissa Crummer has two goals as does Anna Margraf; Margraf is in her fourth year with the club.
Western Sydney Wanderers (1-3-2—6 points—Eighth)
The club's defense has been strong, allowing only 4 goals in 6 games, with three shutouts for goalkeeper Sarah (Willacy) Langman in her second year at Wanderland after four seasons with Adelaide United (26), her home town team. They had three ties in their first four games and overall need more scoring, with only two goals for in six games; midfielder Ashlie Crofts (23) has scored once in her first season with the Wanderers and teenage forward Bryleeh Henry also has one goal and that is it, for the team with the lowest total number of goals in the league.
Defender Alex Huynh (27) signed on January 15 after playing in Serie A side Napoli as well as Danish Elitedivisionen club Fortuna Hjørring. A native of Western Sydney, she played for the Wanderers in the past in four previous seasons, including the club's first campaign in 2011/12. Head coach Catherine Cannuli was happy to sign the experienced local, who played collegiately in the States at the University of Colorado and Troy University of Alabama. Cannuli said, "We had a spot left in the squad and I think it's been a great addition. She's a great person and a great footballer to be around in our environment." Huynh has received one cap last year with the Matildas.
Isabella Habuda (25) of Canada is in her first season in Australia's top league and has played in Israel with WFC Ramat-Hasharon, in Sweden with Umea and in Austria with Sturm Graz. She played collegiately at the University of Louisville and Liberty University in Virginia and has experience with Canada's U-17's. She first came to Australia to play in the Queensland NPLW with Gold Coast United in 2020. She has played in three games thus far this season.
Canberra United (0-2-4—2 points—Ninth)
The Greens made the playoffs last year for the first time in four seasons but they need to put together a consistent run of wins after earning only one point from their first four games and two points after six. Canberra is another team that has been shipping goals, allowing 15, the second highest total to Wellington Phoenix' 21. They only have scored five goals—they are dearly missing forward Nicky Flannery to a season-long ACL injury in May at a federation-run national team talent identification camp in Sydney —while all-time A-League Women scoring leader Michelle Heyman has only scored twice to lead the side.
A late signing after the season started was Karly Roestbakken, who came on loan from LSK Kvinner of Norway. The Matildas defender played for Canberra from 2016-2019, and was promoted into the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup squad, making her Matildas debut against Brazil when she was 19 years old. She said about her signing, "I'm so excited to be back at Canberra for part of the season. Canberra is home, I always love coming back here, especially to this club. I've heard very good things about Vicki [Linton] so I'm excited to work with her and help the team achieve great things this season." Linton said, "It's a good addition for us and a great way for her to continue to train and play over the next couple of months. Karly is a local Canberra player and has played for the club for a number of years. I look forward to working with her for the first time and to see what she can bring to the group after her recent experience with the CommBank Matildas and time overseas." She got a last shot for the Asian Cup squad in the Dubai camp [see above] but just missed out on the final squad of 23 players.
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Wellington Phoenix (0-1-5—1 point—Tenth)
The Wellington Phoenix has scored three times and surrendered 21 goals in seven games but they have been competitive in most games; they came out on fire in Round 7, building an early 2-0 lead by the 24th minute over Brisbane Roar but Larissa Crummer led the fightback with a goal and an assist before Matilda Katrina Gorry scored the penalty kick winner in the 87th minute for a 3-2 win.
Wellington Phoenix Head Coach Gemma Lewis talked to this writer about her young team's first A-League Women season to date and her hopes and aspirations for future years. Lewis was named head coach in early October, after the Phoenix were accepted into the league in September and that rush to put together a team was difficult. On the Phoenix' first season, with one point so far this season, she said: "It's been a season of inconsistencies but we expected it with this young group and [with] a short time to get the squad together and start from scratch. It has been a learning curve and we are really happy that we have been competitive and, to be honest, that was one of our main goals. We are not expected to make the finals and we are not going to be one of the top teams in this league but we wanted to come in and really show other teams that we could compete to a decent level and make them fight for games, make them earn their goals, and not be a team that ends up being a walkover…. For the most part we are pretty happy with what the girls are trying to put out there."
They have been unable to play at home in Wellington and with COVID still raging in Australia, they will probably not play there this season—a determent to building a following, sponsorship revenue while extremely hard on her young squad. She talked about the demands on her players of essentially living abroad for an undetermined length of time as a type of refugee team, "It has definitely been really difficult for the players. We had to move on short notice [to Wollongong] and over the Christmas period in particularly they are feeling it more than they were before. The players tend to have ups and downs. One week they will be particularly fine [and] the next week they are missing home and finding it a bit of a struggle. Those challenges we have to compete with. Sometimes in training sessions, it's not always about the football and you have to put that on the back burner and it's more about them as people and making sure they get some balance and have some fun and remember that they enjoy what they do and they are doing it for a reason."
Lewis talked about the limitations that the team has as part of their agreement with the A-League Women in which they can field eleven New Zealanders and must have at least seven Australians on their roster: "I think some teams forget as well that not only did we have to put this team together at the last minute, we have restrictions that we have to live under that make it quite difficult—a certain number of Kiwis, a minimum number of Australian players and not really any access to visa players [imports] without it taking the spots of New Zealanders. When you come up against these teams, they have 2-3-4 really good international imports that raise the standard of their team; that caliber of player would make such a difference to this young team to push them, develop them and raise the standard on the field… In seasons moving forward, being able to have 2-3 internationals coming in that would be able to help the players around them naturally having those types of players in your training environment…. I really think we are missing that at the moment."
She hopes that she will be able to sign at least a few of the experienced Football Ferns next season, like a Hannah Wilkinson (8 goals for Melbourne City) or Rebecca Stott (5 Australian women's league titles), if not any imports from abroad—which currently would be at the expense of a New Zealander. With their late acceptance to the league for 2021/22, senior Football Fern internationals had already signed contracts with other clubs by the time the Phoenix were building their roster. Lewis said, "I would be pushing for [more access to experience New Zealanders or imports] from my end. I know the deal put in place is over the two years leading into the 2023 World Cup. I don't know if it would be changed for next season. We still would be better off next season because we would have a better lead-in so we have the time frames to access the more experienced Kiwis, a couple of New Zealand players that were going to be off-season before the World Cup; we could help accommodate them within the team that would bring us experience matched with the youth players we have coming through. If there were a little bit of shift on us being able to access even like two visa players—all the other teams get access to four at the moment. If we were allowed to access two, that would make a big difference. I don't know if that will be reviewed for the next season. I would really like to get reviewed. For the league and competitive nature of the league, they should want their teams to be relatively competitive. Lots of teams have been really complementary of us, saying in a couple of years this team will be really good. I also feel that we could be adding value now; if it was having 2-3 players that had a better caliber and better experience to bring to the team, it means that it would raise the level of the league, raise the level of the games and that pushes the teams around us as well."
When asked about how the Phoenix impacts selling the WWC in 2023 in New Zealand [with four venues], Lewis said, "It's almost been ingenuous timing for New Zealand football. We struggle in New Zealand with the lack of visibility in the women's game. All of our Ferns are doing a great job playing overseas in professional leagues, but [there is not] a visibility of them for players who are local and at home. It's hard for them to grasp the concept of the pathway in New Zealand. We have these players in really great leagues but we don't always see them and sometimes the Ferns aren't even playing in every window. With Wellington Phoenix, there are weekly televised games and some are free to air in New Zealand. Girls are getting messages from parents and young children and it feels that there is a bigger increase of visibility that there is something closer to home, that everyone in the game can look at and feel [is] more attainable and see more often. That will have a big impact leading into the Women's World Cup; visible football locally and our Ferns playing every window in the lead-up and if they can start to see some Phoenix players break into the Ferns or get taken on tours now and again, all of that leads to more players being exposed to football, getting more excited about the Women's World Cup, more fans coming to games and [they will] have idols they look up to and players training here—we have been missing that here; the Phoenix team is a fit in-between that. We will be in New Zealand and be based there and have exposure to different clubs and exposure to youth players coming through—it is in-between the Ferns and have middle ground of a professional team that they will have more access to in New Zealand and will increase the fan base and increase that excitement of 2023. It is good timing to have two seasons leading into 2023 World Cup."
Lewis, who is still New Zealand's U-20 national women's team coach, has been in constant contact with Jitka Klimkova, the new full women's national team coach, explaining that "I speak to Jitka frequently and she was going to come in February [to watch Phoenix games live] but with COVID it's unsure. We [Wellington Phoenix] do have a lot of involvement [with the national team coaches] but not officially and hopefully we will have involvement in the lead-up and in and around 2023." The women's side is a joint effort of the A-LeagueWellington Phoenix organization and the New Zealand Football Federation.
2021/22 A-League Women Table
GP W D L GF GA Pts
Sydney FC 7 6 1 0 23 1 19
Melbourne City FC 6 5 0 1 15 4 15
Melbourne Victory 6 4 0 2 14 13 12
Adelaide United 6 3 0 3 11 13 9
Newcastle Jets 5 2 2 1 9 6 8
Perth Glory 6 2 2 2 6 10 8
Brisbane Roar 7 2 1 4 13 14 7
Western Sydney Wanderers 6 1 3 2 2 4 6
Canberra United 6 0 2 4 5 15 2
Wellington Phoenix 7 0 1 6 3 21 1
Tim Grainey is a contributor to Tribal Football. His latest book Beyond Bend it Like Beckham on the global game of women's football. Get yours copy today.
Follow Tim on Twitter: @TimGrainey
