It may have taken years to re-establish a professional women’s football league in Australia, but it only took six minutes for Leena Khamis to kick-start Sydney FC’s campaign.
It may have taken years to re-establish a professional women’s football league in Australia, but Sydney FC only had to wait six minutes before striker Leena Khamis got the ball rolling for the Sky Blues in the inaugural Westfield W-League clash against Perth Glory on Saturday.
Making a run to the near post, the 22-year-old got free of the Perth defence and turned in Servet Uzunlar’s corner to take the honour of being the first scorer in the new competition.
“I was in the right place at the right time,” Khamis said. “In the set pieces I like to get on the end of them, so it worked out well.”
Khamis highlighted her credentials as one of the nation-s best up and coming strikers, regularly working her way into the box and causing headaches for Perth-s defence, and after just eight minutes she had completed her double, with goal number two again coming from a corner.
“I received great delivery from the girls off the set pieces and it calmed a few nerves down,” Khamis said. “Now hopefully I can continue that for the rest of the comp.”
The young striker-s early contribution laid the foundation for a dominant 4-0 win for the Sky Blue women, and sent a signal that Sydney will be a force in the race for the inaugural title.
Khamis and her team-mates will look to keep the goals flowing when Sydney FC play hosts to the Melbourne Victory this Saturday afternoon.
The match is the first game of a Westfield W-League double-header, with Sydney FC kicking off at 4pm, before Central Coast take on Perth Glory at 6pm.
Entry at Parramatta Stadium is free via gate F, with gates open from 3pm.
