Canberra United’s A-League Women’s season has slumped to a new low, thrashed 5-0 by Western United on their home patch in a second straight embarrassing defeat.
A week on from a shocking 5-0 loss at previously winless Wellington, Canberra were brushed aside again, copping another five goals in the first half as they struggled to match the A-League Women’s best side.
United coach Njegosh Popovich said Canberra’s sweltering conditions had played a factor, but questioned his team’s ability to dig deep when things went against them.
“We continued on from where we left off last week into the first half,” he said.
“It’s a little bit of mental instability, I think the heat plays a factor in the brain more than it does in the legs, although admittedly it’s a tough thing to cope with.
“We were second to a lot of balls, but in saying that we gifted a couple of goals today that were uncharacteristic and we’ll probably not do again.”
Any hopes of a bounce-back result for Canberra were snuffed early, with the visitors striking twice in the opening 13 minutes.
Canadian forward Danielle Steer played a huge role in both.
First Steer powered above Canberra defender Emma Ilijoski to nod home a cross inside five minutes, then her clever touch put Mel Taranto through on goal to tuck the ball home for a second soon after.
The red-hot striker found two goals to keep her brilliant form rolling as she found the net for a fourth straight game, before an error from Canberra keeper Chloe Lincoln let Sydney Cummings complete the scoreline on 42 minutes.
Steer, in her first start for United after signing with the club earlier this month, said things were clicking for the league leaders.
“Coming from a team perspective, we’re really happy walking away with a win today,” she said.
The home side will be wondering what has happened to their season after an impressive start, having now lost five of their last seven matches and conceded 19 goals in the process.
Popovich said his troops would need to find the mental toughness to emerge from their epic form slump.
“We’ll try and instills a lot more confidence, we do have a young side, that’s not an excuse but just the facts,” he said.
“We need to be more resilient in matches and when things don’t go your way, you need to stand up.
“There’s some realities for us and we need to hold ourselves accountable and look at where we made some mistakes and errors and see where we can improve upon those.”
By Alex Mitchell in Canberra
