The opening match of the 2016 Westfield W-League season occurred today at Spencer Park in Newmarket, the home of NPL Queensland side Brisbane City. The weather was incredibly hot, however there was a good crowd in attendance who were considerably vocal in support of their side.
Despite a tense and goalless first half, Matilda Caitlin Foord opening the scoring for Sydney FC 8 minutes into the second half. The excitement was short lived however, as Brisbane Roar’s coach Mel Andreatta pulled the trigger and replaced Sunny Franco with new signing from Olympic FC in Queenslands’ NPL competition Allira Toby, who scored just three minutes after being handed her Brisbane Roar debut with an amazing header that stunned the Sydney players.
Katrina Gorry also scored 11 minutes later for the Roar, before Caitlin Foord was given her marching orders after receiving two red cards in the second half.
Brisbane Roar managed to fight off a late attempt at levelling the score by Sydney FC, and walked away with a hard fought victory to start their 2016 W-League campaign.
[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G0000FtfH0npVUkg” g_name=”5th-November-2016-W-League-RD1-Brisbane-Roar-v-Sydney-FC” width=”600″ f_fullscreen=”t” bgtrans=”t” pho_credit=”iptc” twoup=”f” f_bbar=”t” f_bbarbig=”f” fsvis=”f” f_show_caption=”t” crop=”f” f_enable_embed_btn=”t” f_htmllinks=”t” f_l=”t” f_send_to_friend_btn=”f” f_show_slidenum=”t” f_topbar=”f” f_show_watermark=”t” img_title=”casc” linkdest=”c” trans=”xfade” target=”_self” tbs=”5000″ f_link=”t” f_smooth=”f” f_mtrx=”t” f_ap=”t” f_up=”f” height=”400″ btype=”old” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” ]