Rojas, Pollicina star in City ALW win

Chile international Maria Rojas has kickstarted Melbourne City's A-League Women campaign, turning their season opener with Wellington Phoenix in two magical minutes.

City ran out 4-1 winners at Sky Stadium on Sunday for New Zealand's first professional women's club football match.

Wellingtonians came out for the occasion, with a crowd of 5213 setting a new benchmark: the biggest for a standalone regular season game in the competition's history.

However, the Phoenix couldn't match even a depleted City side, with Rojas opening the floodgates just after halftime.

The Chilean forward joined City on an injury replacement deal last week but looked completely in sync with her teammates.

In the 48th minute, she ran rings around Nix defender Kate Taylor before a perfect cross allowed Bryleeh Henry to tap home a close-range volley.

Two minutes later she put her own name on the scoresheet, running off Taylor again to sidefoot home at the near post.

City should have had a third shortly after, with Brianna Edwards appearing to fumble Rhianna Pollicina's strike over the goal line, only for the assistant referee to miss it.

Still, the goals kept coming, with Pollicina converting a 65th-minute penalty after Zoe McMeeken was bamboozled by Rojas' trickery.

Pollicina - a dominant force in a roaming midfield role - added her second with a sharp curling effort in the 69th minute.

Ava Pritchard then gave the home crowd something to celebrate when her strike beat Sally James courtesy of a deflection off Kate Torpey.

Despite the loss, Nix boss Natalie Lawrence didn't have a bad word to say about her side, which finally could play in front of their own fans after an inaugural campaign last season based in Australia due to COVID-19.

"I have a huge sense of pride and I'm proud of the players for the occasion," she said.

"Now we can play here and have fans here. That was what the day was about for us."

On this evidence, City look like title contenders - particularly given the weight of experience to come back into the side.

Senior players Emma Checker, Karly Roestbakken and NZ international Hannah Wilkinson were all missing, though City did boast another Football Fern in Katie Bowen - as well as Rojas.

American Emina Ekic might have scored a first-half double, producing an embarrassing point-blank miss before a sharp Edwards save kept it scoreless at the break.

The win gave former City and Phoenix player Dario Vidosic a taste of coaching success, with the assistant standing in for his unwell father Rado in the City dugout.

"When we got to the airport early in the morning, they're like, 'where's Rado? ... he's parking the car or something?' the stand-in coach said.

"For them, it was business as usual.

"Like I said to the ladies after, at times it was a real joy to watch."