{"id":6336,"date":"2026-05-07T03:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T03:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/6336\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T03:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T03:09:10","slug":"a-league-womens-semi-final-brisbane-roar-lead-2-1-vs-wellington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/6336\/","title":{"rendered":"A-League Women\u2019s semi-final: Brisbane Roar lead 2-1 vs Wellington"},"content":{"rendered":"

A really long halftime break \u2014 that is what Brisbane Roar have called this week to ensure they don\u2019t switch off before the second leg of the semi-final against Wellington. <\/a><\/p>\n

The Roar take a 2-1 lead into the match but this time around they won\u2019t have more than 3500 fans cheering for them and they will be playing in much tougher conditions in Wellington. <\/p>\n

On the line is a spot in the A-League\u2019s Women\u2019s final \u2014 an opportunity Roar haven\u2019t had for 12 years.<\/p>\n

Midfielder Alicia Woods knows better than most of her teammates what it means to the club to be within reach of that. <\/p>\n

She was just 10 the last time Roar achieved the feat \u2014 they went on to lose the 2013\/14 final to Victory 0-2. <\/p>\n

Woods has been a Roar fan for as long as she can remember. <\/p>\n

Roar have won the title once \u2014 back in 2009. They then played in five of the first seven ALW finals and haven\u2019t featured since. <\/p>\n

Just one player from the era remains in the squad \u2014 Woods\u2019 mentor Tameka Yallop. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey had like half the Matildas squad playing for them (in 2009),\u201d Woods said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was such a strong squad and it\u2019s just so nice to be back in that environment where we have a strong squad again and we\u2019re really a team to not underestimate,\u201d Woods said. <\/p>\n

This season is Woods\u2019 third with the Roar. <\/p>\n

Playing finals has always been the dream. It was on the cards last season until a horror string of injuries left them outside the top six. <\/p>\n

Injuries hit the team hard again this season but they were better prepared this time. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a bit of a ride there for a second but I think as soon as we lost a few of those games everyone realised the reality of it and from that day we\u2019ve been playing finals it feels like,\u201d Woods said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose last three or four games of the season where we had to just dig deep and get those last points.\u201d <\/p>\n

Woods said the journey had set them up perfectly for the finals series and had the team in a really good headspace and able to deal with the challenge presented by the two-legged semi-final.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a bit of a challenge because it\u2019s hard to celebrate that (2-1) win, the elimination final. We were all stoked but this one is a bit awkward because there\u2019s still another game,\u201d Woods said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look at it like we\u2019ve just played the first half, now we have to play the second half.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s the most important one.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first leg was a battle \u2013 Roar went down first and managed to claw back a draw before Daisy Brown found the winner in the 72nd minute. <\/p>\n

\u201cWellington are a great team, they\u2019ve got good systems in place and you obviously don\u2019t come that close to winning the premiership without being a good team,\u201d Woods said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going to be tough to beat but I don\u2019t doubt that the girls can go there and show up like we did the other night.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are just excited to be in this position and to have the opportunity to take Brisbane all the way to the grand final again. <\/p>\n

Brisbane Roar will play Wellington Phoenix on Sunday at 12.30pm (AEST). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A really long halftime break \u2014 that is what Brisbane Roar have called this week to ensure they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[23,133,7616,7615,99,1875,1995,7617,7614,4629,2205,7613,7619,7618,355,120,212,7620,7611,7612,7621,7610,353],"class_list":{"0":"post-6336","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brisbane","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","10":"tag-bayern-munich","11":"tag-bente-jansen","12":"tag-brisbane","13":"tag-brisbane-roar","14":"tag-elimination-final","15":"tag-erin-smith","16":"tag-eufa-champions-league","17":"tag-finals-goal","18":"tag-finals-series","19":"tag-halftime-break","20":"tag-horror-string","21":"tag-momo-hayashi","22":"tag-new-south-wales","23":"tag-oceania","24":"tag-queensland","25":"tag-roar-steels","26":"tag-spencer-park","27":"tag-tameka-yallop","28":"tag-wellington","29":"tag-wellington-phoenix","30":"tag-western-australia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}