Two goals from Adelaide United star Fiona Worts inspired the Reds to a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Sydney FC at Coopers Stadium on Friday evening in the perfect tune-up for the 2024-25 Finals Series.
Adelaide already had third spot on the table locked up before the final round of the season began but Adrian Stenta’s side ensured their regular season campaign ended on a high note with a comeback win over the reigning Ninja A-League Champions, in midfielder Dylan Holmes’ 100th game for the club.
Teenage Sydney midfielder Maddie Caspers opened the scoring on 20 minutes but goals to Worts on either side of half-time completed the comeback in Adelaide; the Reds finished on the foot of the table last season but put an exclamation mark on their sensational return to form in 2024-25 on Friday with their 14th win of the campaign.
Adelaide welcomed star forward Erin Healy back from a quad injury in a timely boost on the eve of the Finals Series but will be sweating on the prognosis of an apparent hamstring injury suffered by defender Zoe Tolland in the second half of Friday’s 2-1 win over the Sky Blues.
Confirmed as third-place finishers, Adelaide will host an Elimination Final against the sixth-placed finishers – either Western United, Central Coast Mariners or Canberra United – on Sunday, April 27.
Sydney FC struck first in their final game of the 2024-25 campaign, going ahead through 18-year-old Maddie Caspers’ second goal of the campaign.
Caspers slotted her 20th-minute finish over the outrushing Claudia Jenkins at the end of a clinical team move from the Sky Blues, who took the ball from deep in defence all the way into their attacking penalty box with a series of incisive passes.
The visitors looked set to take a 1-0 lead into the break before former Sky Blue Fiona Worts brought Adelaide back into the game with an equaliser in first-half stoppage time.
Worts’ first touch took the ball around Sydney captain Natalie Tobin and from there, the English striker drove to the edge of the box before firing a low shot into the bottom-right corner.
Midway through the second half, young Adelaide defender Zoe Tolland limped off the field in tears after suffering an apparent hamstring injury; the Reds will hope Tolland’s injury is nothing serious as they prepare to take part in the Finals Series, beginning with an Elimination Final next weekend.
Tolland’s substitution came after Young Matildas defender Kirsty Fenton’s long-awaited return to action with Sydney FC; Fenton came off the bench to mark her comeback from an anterior cruciate ligament tear suffered in March of 2024, making her first appearance of the season.
Adelaide then welcomed Erin Healy back from a quad injury as the American import came off the bench with less than 20 minutes left to play – but it was her fellow attacking star Worts who came to the fore with the home side’s second goal of the night to give her side the lead at Coopers Stadium.
Set up by Lucia Leon off the right wing, Worts opened up her left foot and fired a first-time shot on the volley past Sydney keeper Jasmine Black as the Reds came from one goal down to win thanks to the Englishwoman’s classy brace.
