Adelaide United 0-0 Sydney FC
by Alyce Collett (8/11/25)
Above: Mackenzie Hawkesby (left) and Dylan Holmes (right) battle it out. Photo: via A Leagues
For the first time ever in the almost 20 year history of the A League Women’s competition, Adelaide United and Sydney FC have played out a draw, with neither side able to find the back of the net this afternoon. After playing in at times windy conditions in Adelaide, it will be Sydney who will come away from the match happier of the two sides as Adelaide dominated attack for the majority of the match but just could not convert that dominance into any score.
Despite the visitors kicking off proceedings, it was Adelaide who had the first promising attack, with Erin Healy creating plenty of strong drive through the middle of the park.
For much of the first half, those in red could be forgiven for feeling a sense of déjà vu from last week as Adelaide held the majority of possession and did the majority of the attacking, but just could not get a shot on target.
Adriana Taranto, Dylan Holmes and Carina Rossi provided a lot of attacking run, but Adelaide’s through balls just were not quite connecting, and combined with some strong defending from the likes of Tori Tumeth and Kirsty Fenton meant that only a tiny percentage of Adelaide’s shots were on target, and none of them went in the back of the net.
Sydney did have a couple of promising attacking plays, but the number was tiny in comparison to Adelaide’s. Amber Luchtmeijer impressed in attack for Sydney, trying hard to generate something for her side.
The windy conditions favoured the Reds in the first half, with a number of promising crosses from Emily Condon and later Holmes going within centimetres of scoring, but kept hitting the corssbar.
For much of the first half there was a feeling of despite Adelaide not registering too many shots on target, the Reds were doing so much attacking that it was a matter of when not if they would score.
However that did not come to reality in the first half, with both sides failing to score in the first half.
The second half started much like the first half had ended, with Adelaide again on the front foot early. The Reds had a really good opportunity within the first 15 seconds of the half when Healy found herself in ample space in the middle of the park, but ultimately could not get her header past Heather Hinz in the Sydney goal.
However Sydney was looking more promising in attack in the second half, deploying a higher press and as such was able to actually look threatening in attack.
Although the overall possession was still skewed from the first half, in reality the second half felt a lot more even possession wise than the first had been.
One of Sydney’s first substitutions of the match saw Caley Tallon-Henniker enter the match, and she did not waste time trying to give her side a spark, creating a lot of dangerous run on the right wing and generating plenty of crosses into dangerous areas.
The final stages of the match saw both sides going very close to scoring, but some unlucky bounces undid Sydney’s attacks and some strong some strong Sydney defending undid Adelaide’s, and in the end the half time score also turned into the full time score.
Teams: ADELAIDE UNITED (4-3-3): Jenkins, I. Hodgson, McNamara, Murray, Tonkin, M Taranto, Holmes, Healy, A Taranto, Condon, Rossi. Substitutes: E. Hodgson, Makris, Zois, Dawber, Worts, Melegh.
SYDNEY FC (4-3-3): Hinz, Tumeth, Ayson, Pearson, Fenton, Hunter, Galic, Hawkesby, Cassar, Luchtmeijer, Tanner. Substitutes: Robertson, Ülkekul, Rose, Sullivan, Tallon-Henniker, Caspers.
Referee: Isabella Mossin.
Attendance: 694.
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