Melbourne Victory head coach Jeff Hopkins hailed Casey Dumont as the best goalkeeper in the Liberty A-League after she pushed her Matildas credentials in a 1-0 win over Canberra United.
Alex Chidiac’s deft finish in the 44th minute proved enough to see off Canberra, who let multiple chances go begging and were denied by a stand-out performance from Dumont, who made seven saves on New Year’s Eve.
The player of the match in last season’s Grand Final, three-cap Matilda Dumont earned rave reviews from her coach post-game.
Read more: Dumont catapults herself into Matildas discussion
“She’s amazing,” Hopkins told reporters.
“We spoke about it after the game but sometimes in certain games you don’t play well and you win and you can look back and say you relied on probably one player.
“Obviously Chids’ finish was great but also Casey just pulled us out of the mire on many occasions.
“I guess that’s what she’s paid her wages for, to stop the ball going in.
She knows what I think of her as a player and I make it quite clear, I think she’s a mile ahead of everyone in terms of goalkeepers in this league.
The win put defending champions Victory into the top four, while it was an opportunity missed for eighth-placed Canberra, who led 17-14 in shots at CB Smith Reserve.
Victory were without striker Melina Ayres (hamstring), Claudia Bunge (ankle), Gema Simon (calf) and Elise Kellond-Knight (illness).
They also had to re-sign goalkeeping assistant coach Melissa Maizels on an injury replacement deal after back-up Miranda Templeman had a spinal injury scare at training on Friday, though she was cleared of serious injury.
Kellond-Knight is expected to be fit to face Perth Glory next Friday while Bunge is in the mix and Victory will see how Templeman pulls up.
Ayres is touch-and-go but her hamstring injury isn’t serious, while Simon won’t face the Glory.
Dumont’s highlight of the first half came in the 36th minute when Grace Jale burst away on transition and got in behind Victory’s defence but Dumont brilliantly denied her attempted chip.
Canberra’s missed opportunities came back to bite them just before halftime.
Beattie Goad found Paige Zois and the young midfielder slipped a wonderful through-ball into the path of a surging Chidiac.
The Matildas midfielder let the ball sit then hit an excellent first-time left-footed finish inside the near post.
Canberra threatened throughout the second half and were denied brilliantly by Dumont several more times late.
“It’s probably been the story of our season so far – opportunities created and not being taken, so that continues again this week,” Canberra coach Njegosh Popovic told AAP.
“We need to be better in front of goal. I think I counted five one-on-ones with the goalkeeper to beat, so we need to be better there.
“When the coach of the opposition comes up and says ‘we got out of jail’ it doesn’t make it any better, the loss, but we can take some pride away with the way we kept on going.'”
