In front of a home crowd at John McEwen Reserve, the scene was set for a potentially historic night for the young Goulburn Valley outfit on the evening of March 21.
Having fielded only 10 players for the tie, the Southerners faced an all-conquering side still riding high after clinching the 2025 WSL5 championship, with two divisions separating the teams in the Australian league pyramid.
With cup competitions providing a level playing field for South, newly-installed coach Jean-Claude Guica will have been hoping to write a new chapter in the club’s history by staging a giantkilling on home soil.
However, the extra player advantage paid dividends as the visitors gained an early foothold in the cup battle as Grace Kim netted after just four minutes of play.
Following that sobering opener from the Melbourne side, it appeared that the depleted hosts were left shellshocked - as the Dynamo hotshot doubled the state capital outfit’s lead just after the quarter-of-the hour mark.
Having grown in confidence after gaining what proved to be an unassailable deficit in proceedings, the team from Kensington effectively put the tie to bed via Amanda D’Souza in the 36th minute, who made it 3-0 before the break.
Having been stunned into submission during the first half of the action down at Brauman Street, South boss Guica was now faced with the unenviable task of attempting to stage a miracle comeback.
Despite the result already being beyond doubt by the halfway point of the match, it appeared that Dynamo’s stars were in no mood to show mercy to their opponents in the second half.
Quick out of the blocks, the Melburnians added a fourth to their growing tally through Dira Marzuki in minute 48, before Alex Mainnie made it 5-0 with half an hour still to play.
From there, the free-scoring visitors put the seal on their passage to round 2 during the last 30 minutes.
Demonstrating their ruthlessness in front of goal, Ella Healy added a sixth a minute later before Liberty Griffin grabbed a seventh for the State League 4 North-West league side in the closing five minutes.
Addressing his team’s performance in the first round of the tournament, head coach Guica praised his ten players for how they fared on the night despite being a player down compared to their opponents.
“We only had ten players for the whole game so I thought we did well considering the majority of the girls are 16 and under,” he said.
“What they learned was the preparation that’s needed to get up to that speed of play and the outlook of what it takes to become a higher grade player.
“The majority of the girls played as a unit and that was pleasing.
“Unfortunately we couldn’t play them with a full squad but apart from that it was good - sometimes you have to just ignore the score.”
After dusting themselves down following this knockout result, the Shepp side will begin its State League 6 North-West campaign in April.
Guica was eager to stress that this defeat will prove to be a key learning experience for his young squad, with many of his troops for the cup clash having been under 16 years of age.
“I told them to enjoy the experience (in the Nike Cup) and to enjoy the afternoon as it was a chance for the girls to all rely on each other and put some minutes into their legs,” he said.
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