You could see the moment that Ally Green just decided to do it all herself.
Sydney FC were 2-0 down in the 72nd minute of their major semi-final against Melbourne City. It was just the second time all season that the newly crowned premiers had been behind by two goals – the first came against this same City side in late February, the only game Sydney lost in their record-breaking campaign.
City started Friday night's semi-final with that psychological edge. They were the better team in the first 45: disciplined in their structure, choreographed in their press, finding angles and pockets behind and between Sydney's lines, as sharp as the steel-grey colour of their kits.
Sydney, by contrast, looked nervous, lethargic, directionless. Their poor first half was summarised by the diabolical touch of captain Natalie Tobin – one of the few errors she's made – that redirected a City cross right back into the path of striker Hannah Wilkinson to open the scoring.
Like that one touch, Sydney's first half was so uncharacteristic it was barely worth a detailed post-mortem. It's just not what this team is known for.
City's second goal didn't rely on Sydney's errors so much as their own confident tactical play; twisting and pulling the Sky Blues out of their structure like warm hands on soft candy, overwhelming their more inexperienced players, thinking two steps ahead. Stott, McKenna, Wilkinson: 2-0.
You started to wonder whether this was it. Perhaps Sydney had 'played their final' the week before in their tight 1-0 win over Adelaide United to claim the Premiers' Plate. Maybe they were troughing while City was peaking. Maybe.
But Ally Green doesn't work in maybes.
As the 72nd minute ticked over, Green received the ball down the left side. Three City players stood in front of her, sticking out of the bright grass like ominous stone turrets, prepared for the oncoming bombardment.
Green looked up and assessed the moment. In the space of a breath, you could see her spot the path forward – a thin and rapidly narrowing path, but a path all the same – and decide to charge.
She put her head down and barrelled forward. The City defenders closed in around her like a collapsing cave, but with three tight touches, Green slalomed through them all and made her way to the byline.
She didn't even look back across the box before she shaped her body to clip a cross towards the penalty spot. She didn't need to; she already knew who was going to be there.
And she was: Cortnee Vine, subbed on at half-time, charged in from the right wing and leapt over the flustered Winonah Heatley, burying the header into the top corner of the net. 2-1.
It was the goal that changed the game; the wind that turned the tide. A moment that captured the persistence and willpower against the odds that has come to characterise not just Sydney FC's season, but this A-League Women season more generally.
Less than 10 minutes later, Vine threatened again; nipping in behind City's deflating defensive line and fizzing a warning shot off the crossbar. And in the 86th minute, Vine – who'd been kept on the bench despite being fully fit, with head coach Ante Juric trusting his instincts – changed the game once again.
A delicate Mackenzie Hawkesby pass through City's back-line was weighted just enough that the speedy Vine beat the on-rushing Melissa Barbieri to its rubber, lightly touching the ball out of the keeper's path.
She was a half-second away from scoring in an open net when defender TJ Vlanic took her out from behind, the two crashing into the grass in a tangle of limbs. Vlanic received a straight red card and limped off the field – putting her body and her season on the line for her teammates – while leaving City down to 10 players.
As the stadium clock ticked into stoppage time, the chaos that has come to define this entire season played out in City's penalty area. And it was Green who started it all, throwing her entire body into a wild, curling cross that Hawkesby plucked out of the air and fed to substitute Cote Rojas, who poked past the flailing Barbieri for 2-2.
The stadium erupted as the broadcast camera pivoted to Sydney FC's active supporters throwing beers and twirling scarves in front of a large banner reading "EXTEND THE SEASON".
The players seemed furiously intent on doing just that: having begged for a full home-and-away competition for several years to no avail, and with calls for a full-time league growing ever louder, the players persisted; somehow finding the energy and the spirit to push themselves, this game, and this league as far as they could despite the demoralising, exhausting nature of it all.
The momentum was entirely with Sydney going into extra-time, and City's fortress – which had been crumbling for the past half-hour – finally, dramatically, collapsed.
A headed goal to the magnificent Sydney substitute Sarah Hunter and a second to the galloping Vine put the premiers 4-2 ahead, and yet still they pushed: a counter-attack forcing Barbieri to sweep out of her box and receive a red card for handling the ball and denying another goal-scoring opportunity, while the young Charlize Rule unleashed a bullet shot in the final minute of extra-time that spun out for a corner.
It was as if these tenacious, joyful, spirited Sydney players didn't want this moment to end. Nobody in the stadium or watching at home wanted it to end, either.
It was a game that had everything: two brilliant teams filled with individual talents unleashed by clever tactics and formations; game-changing substitutes involved in game-defining moments; two red cards; six goals; and a reminder of just how much more these players and this league could deliver if given the opportunity.
And it was all wrapped up in that one storming run from Ally Green; a run filled with the fire and the fury of a group of women who have made this season one of the most unforgettable despite the towering obstacles around them: the tiny season length, the fluctuating fixtures, the exhausting mid-week travel, the part-time pay, the inconsistent facilities, the small squads toppled by COVID, injuries and burn-out, the jobs and families they juggle on the side.
So as the full-time whistle sounded and Sydney's players screamed out into the night – celebrating as though they had just won the whole thing – you felt as though, in some ways, they had.
They've taken it all on, these players; they have persevered and delivered what has been asked of them time and time again, yet for less than half the exposure, remuneration, and support as their male colleagues. For the love of it. For the joy of it. For the responsibility of it. And for the knowledge that through their persistence, captured in the golden amber of games like this, they will leave the A-League Women competition in a better place than when they found it.
How much longer will it take before the game does the same for them?
