While a match-defining brace earned Englishwoman Natasha Dowie best-on-ground honours and a point for Melbourne Victory, there was much more to her performance than just goals.
Despite the fact she found herself isolated in large parts of the first half against Adelaide United, the striker didn’t allow frustrations to rule her game, despite not seeing as much of the ball as she’d have liked in the contest’s early stages.
Instead, the 28-year-old was able to impact the game by defending from the front and applying pressure as her opposition defenders looked to slingshot attacks out from defence.
Her first half numbers included four interceptions, of which one lead to her first goal of the day as she hustled Lady Reds goalkeeper Sarah Willacy, intercepting a ball out from the back before sliding home into an open net to equalise for the Victory.
Dowie won the ball back seven times in total for her team and supplemented that by winning six out of her eight total aerial duels, to provide a real focal point for Melbourne’s attack.
She was able to work her way into the contest even more as the minutes ticked by and found herself the spearhead of every meaningful foray forward the Victory had in the second half.
Good to get off the mark with a point away to an impressive Adelaide outfit. Happy to get a brace and POTM 💙💪🏽⚽️ ☺️ pic.twitter.com/puQhSxbnsb
— Natasha Dowie (@tatsdowie) November 6, 2016
Dowie wasn’t just superior in the air; she was just as effective at holding the ball up and bringing teammates into the game, doing so 11 times across the span of the contest, of which the ball was lost just twice.
It allowed the likes of Christine Nairn to move forward to receive the ball in a more advanced position, which was the outlet that Dowie utilised the most when in possession of the ball, completing 78% of her passes across the 90 minutes.
The partnership between Nairn and Dowie is a mouthwatering one, especially with half a season of understanding each other’s game under their belt.
“She’s a pleasure to play with,” Dowie told Fox Sports post-game.
“As a striker making those runs and knowing she can put the ball exactly where you want it, it’s a dream to play with players of her quality.
“That’s why I’ve come back to the Victory, to play with players of that quality and she’s a great person and a great captain.”
In an attacking sense, Dowie’s smart movement and attacking nous saw her make a number of well-timed runs to complement the service provided to her by the teammates around her.
She was positioned perfectly to capitalise on Kariah White’s delightful cross stood up to the middle of the penalty area to complete her brace with a impecably timed header.
It was one of two headed efforts she attempted, with the other grazing the upright from a Rachel Alonso cross on its way out for a goal kick.
In total, her two goals came from a total of seven shots – the most of anyone on the park – of which four were on target.
Four shots came from inside the penalty area, forcing three saves from Willacy, with her other effort dragged wide from outside the penalty area.
It was a complete performance from the Englishwoman, who did it all bar claim the full complement of points, but she believed the team performance was promising enough to suggest an improved 2016 campaign for last year’s wooden spooners.
“To come back goal after goal showed our resilience today as a team,” she said.
“We’ve had a really good pre-season, the girls have been in good form and confident. We’re disappointed not having come away with a win given the amount of chances that we created, but overall I think the draw was a fair result.
“Personally, I’m over the moon to score a brace but this will hopefully kick start our season and at least we’ve come away with something.”