Some fixtures carry their own edge before a ball is kicked. Hillsview on Friday night was one of them.
Jonathan Barrientos returned to his former club for the first time since leaving Bundoora United to build Eltham’s women’s programme, and the match carried the intensity that occasion demands. Izzy Berks, Taylor Halabi, Alessia Napolitano and Claudia Dimasi all wore Redbacks colours against the club that helped shape them, and neither team offered the other much to work with. The opening 45 minutes were disciplined and goalless, each side probing without finding the gap, the first-hand knowledge on both technical areas making open space harder to earn than usual.
A. Steiner gave Bundoora the lead on 63 minutes, a goal that put the home side in the position they had been building toward and set the test for the Redbacks: respond on the road, at a ground that knows this squad’s habits, with time thinning. The response arrived on 79 minutes through Paige Foa, the American forward levelling the match to make it 1-1 and keep the unbeaten run intact.
Foa’s goal was the evening in miniature. Eltham came to Hillsview knowing it would be difficult, found themselves behind, and produced quality at the right moment to take something home. It is the kind of response that defines a season’s character more than comfortable wins do, and it came from a player who arrived from Colgate University as one of the competition’s most promising new additions and has continued to deliver.
The draw leaves the Redbacks second on 14 points from six rounds, one behind Clifton Hill who moved to the top with their own result this week, and two clear of Bundoora in third on 12. All three sides remain unbeaten. The title race at the top of the VPL Women is exactly as the fixtures suggested it would be, and in that context, a hard point away at the ground of a direct rival is not the result the scoreline implies – it is precisely the right one.
Tiana Orfanidis kept a composed presence in goal throughout, the defensive structure behind her as tight as it has been all season. A goal difference of plus 13 from six rounds is the best in the competition, and it does not happen by accident.
There is plenty of season left. The Redbacks are precisely where they should be.