New Season Same Wanderers

[mack]

The Western Sydney Wanderers kicked off their 2024/25 A-League campaign in a massive, sold out Sydney Derby clash in Parramatta tonight, the visitors taking all three points with a 2-1 win, the Wanderers showing little improvement over the team that finished in 7th place last season.

The biggest news in the lead up was national team goalkeeper Lawrence Thomas being ruled out through injury thus giving an A-League debut to 21 year old Tristan Vidackovic. There was also an A-League debut for Taewook Jeong. Off the bench there were potential A-League debuts for Dean Pelekanos and marquee attacking midfield maestro Juan Mata, with club debuts in the offing for Jordan Holmes and Ben Holliday.

Sydney FC had the opening chance of the game as they worked the ball into the penalty area, with Joe Lolley getting on the end of a blocked shot, firing it the wrong side of the near post as he slipped on the wet turf. 9 minutes in and Zac Sapsford went down after being involved in a friendly fire head clash with Gabriel Cleur.

Alexandar Popovic rescued SFC from going behind in the 15th minute, Sapsford crossed to the far post for Cleur and he reached out to loop the ball to the back stick where Hammond turned it past the SFC keeper but not strongly enough to score.

Minutes later and Sydney FC were in front. Vidackovic made a horrible pass out of the 6 yard box, giving it away to Rhyan Grant, his midfield header found Patryk Klimala unmarked, one intelligent header to the side gave Lolley space, Jack Clisby in racing back lost his footing and it was all the room Lolley needed to fire in the strike to the far post giving Vidackovic no hope to atone for his erroneous distribution.

The game flared into even more life with a pair of horrendous challenges from Sydney FC players. Klimala went into the book first and he was followed by Popovic after a wild lunge from behind into Sapsford. A melee ensued and the end result was an additional card this time for Nicolas Milanovic for joining in the fracas. Brandon Borrello continued his poor early season form by shouldering a free header on the 6 yard box that was a glorious set piece chance from a corner. Cleur was booked as well for another side lunge that stopped a promising attack. Grant also picked up a booking for his cynical foul on Hammond after he beat Cena and had Grant done for pace.

Anas Ouahim had the opportunity to double the lead after a flowing sequence where the Wanderers couldn't get a touch on the ball for several dozen passes in a row, with SFC pasing around them at all, Anthony Caceres ran into open space on the edge of the area, touched on to Ouahim but his shot went very wide with scrambling defenders jumping in to attempt to block it.

With seconds left in the half it seemed certain the Wanderers would equalise. Breaking out of their defensive zone, Milanovic lofted a ball over the top for Borrello who managed to get it into the mixer, then instead of settling for a corner after an initial clearance he kept the game going, found Hammond on his own, 8 yards out with 80% of the goal to aim for but Hammond scooped it well over the bar in a contender for the eventual worst miss of the season.

Sapsford was withdrawn after half-time, replaced by Bozhidar Kraev for his A-League debut. With Alen Stajcic in the middle of preparing the introduction of Mata, his team finally pulled off a series of passes in attack that allowed Hammond to make up for his first half miss. Sydney FC tried playing out from the back instead of clearing their lines, Costa with his back to goal failed to find a team-mate with his flick pass, instead sparking a counter for the home side. Joshua Brillante dove in to knock the ball to Kraev, he played a 1-2 pass with Milanovic, on the return he delayed long enough to open space for Borrello. Borrello was cut down by Grant for what would have been a penalty had the ball not rolled into the path of Hammond who finished unerringly at the second time of asking to make it 1-1.

Mata arrived in the 61st minute with the goalscorer Hammond coming off. His first introduction to the A-League was instantly conceded from a set piece. Playing a free kick short, Costa cut back onto his left, Mata hadn't closed down quickly enough for his lunging block to make contact, and from there it was a simple flick-on at the near post from central defender Hayden Matthews followed by Klimala stooping to conquer with a flick of his own to beat Vidackovic and leave the Wanderers and Juan Mata stunned. Klimala was robbed of another and SFC's third by a wonderful reaction save from Vidackovic, diving to his right. Pelekanos made his debut with the cramp stricken Cleur making way.

Stajcic threw on his final subs with Marcus Antonsson and Holliday making his debut, Scicluna and Borrello making way. With 4 minutes to play Sydney FC's dirty challenges were finally punished with the ultimate sanction, Max Burgess doing a Ruben Zadkovic and being sent off mere minutes after coming on for a stomping lunge. Alex King had no hestiation to pull out the red card to setup a grandstand derby finish. Andrew Redmayne became the 8th player in Alex King's notebook, his timewasting finally being punished in the 2nd minute of stoppage time.

Milanovic had been all but invisible all evening, he popped up in the 95th minute on the end of a cross that beat Grant but the contact was weak and the ball was snaffled by Redmayne. The dying seconds saw a pair of corners that even the Wanderers debutante keeper went up for, but it was to no avail as Sydney FC held on, claimed the 3 points and derby bragging rights and put the Stajcic era off on the wrong foot. It was a deserved loss for the home side, who managed just three shots on target, looked devoid of creativity for much of the game and had trouble maintaining defensive shape in the midfield & backline.

The Wanderers next match is against Western United at the Wyndham Regional facility on Sunday the 27th of October with kick-off at 4pm Sydney time.

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[Legionista]

Jell time required. 

[WSWJACK]

Great Tifo 👍👍👍😃

[Nathg]

We haven’t had a player as **** as Clisby since, well last season. Guy is a liability and well past it. 

[SNS100]

Juan Mata's first three contributions were...

1. Corner kick, found the side netting

2. Over-hit free kick, straight to Redmayne

3. Free kick reaching the first defender, knee high. 

Sydney FC will win anothet 5 grand finals, before we make the top 6 again. 

Clisby is so **** at left back, so a master-stroke by Staj to switch him over to right back. 

Sigh!

[immortalshogun]

I feel we played okay in the 2nd half, but Clisby needs to never step foot on a pitch again. 

[tardotz]

Borello and Brillante need to come on as subs.

Milanovic needs to understand that having a great season last season doesn't mean much this season.

Stajcic, there is a reason other coaches don't do substitutions when defending a corner or free kick.

This excuse that they need time to gel is ridiculous....with the longest pre season they had lots of time at least for.most of them.

The only good thing is that it's only the first game and we didn't look as bad as some other seasons but the defence has to be sorted out quickly !!

 

[jockman]

Don't think we are winning anything this year....

[Sithslayer1991]

Again reiterating there is a quality gap between us and Sydney Fc. Our recruitment wasn't great. That midfield trio of Oahim, Caceres and Sena completely dominated the midfield. We have to thank Vida for keeping the scoreline respectful.

 

Positive we did come out the first 15 minutes of the 2nd half on top and scored our equaliser from there. I don't think anyone expected us to win today, I really thought we were gonna get smashed but somehow stayed in it. The next game is Western United so we will see how we bounce back from there.

 

[Smoggy]

27 minutes ago, SNS100 said:

Juan Mata's first three contributions were...

1. Corner kick, found the side netting

2. Over-hit free kick, straight to Redmayne

3. Free kick reaching the first defender, knee high. 

Sydney FC will win anothet 5 grand finals, before we make the top 6 again. 

Clisby is so **** at left back, so a master-stroke by Staj to switch him over to right back. 

Sigh!

I will give  Mata a bit more time to settle in before I judge, but on tonight’s viewing you would say ESFC got the better marquee deal.

Ugghhhh…defence I reckon will drive us nuts this season, especially if Clisby is starting every game.

No surprises in there for me tonight, it kinda what we expected isn’t it.

Edited October 19 by Smoggy

[jockman]

Was not a full house as advertised...plenty of empty seats in the southern end above the cove

[TwoLeftFoots]

Mata was a passenger for 25 minutes then did well.

First touch was terrible for the most part tonight.

Lots of passes just off the mark, there's signs there, we have half decent players, it's gomna be eetswa ?

[Smoggy]

18 minutes ago, jockman said:

Don't think we are winning anything this year....

I reckon we will finish 8th.

 

[Nathg]

30 minutes ago, SNS100 said:

Juan Mata's first three contributions were...

1. Corner kick, found the side netting

 

I’m not sure what Redmayne’s positioning was like, but when the camera zoomed in on Mata he looked frustrated. I think he might have been trying to beat Redmayne by surprise at the near post

[mack]

He took a quick corner shot at goal. The end result was a goal kick either way, but at least that was a reason.

[SNS100]

Sad to say, Borello looks cooked. Scored a massive deal from the club... he huffs and puffs but zero end product up front. Put him back on the wing. 

I said it last year, play the youth and build for next season. We ain't achieving anything this year, with 3 VISA players most likely cementing a spot on the bench. 

Just a little side note regarding this year's home kit... well done to the Adidas design team for making us look like Adelaide United with black shorts. 

 

 

[BoyFromTheWest]

We came away from the stadium with a more positive outlook. Thought we much better than expected given their foreward line and midfield. Talay has built a team over the last year and spent t better than any other team.

I'm not nearly as negative as the rest of the forum, here. Mata's movement and vision is very good and he started to look like he will control things. No-one explained the quality of referees! I was impressed with Hammond and generally okay with it CB's.

I watched Auckland and Roar, and a bit of Jets and City. Want greatly impressed with them and Vuk/CCM didn't impress me. I hate to say it but SFC feel like the team to beat this year. They bought to win not to develop players like most clubs have decided to do.

[Upthehill]

46 minutes ago, Nathg said:

We haven’t had a player as **** as Clisby since, well last season. Guy is a liability and well past it. 

This was my biggest take away from tonight. Holliday was more productive tonight at LB than Clisby has been in all of last season.

I'm not stressed about Mata, Borello or Mila. Our defence and midfield isn't able to get the ball into workable positions.  Mata loked really lively on the end of the attack when he was actually given something to do. He looked great for 10 minutes because he dropped deeper to get on the ball.

Pelekanos did a decent job at progessing the ball when he came on, but I still have major questions about running a 2 man midfield with the (lack of) quality we have.

Broadly speaking, our squad just isnt there at all. Sydney started with all 5 foreign players, yet 3 of our 4 dont cut the mustard in the biggest game on the fixture list? And wookie has a hell of a lot to answer for in this scoreline. I really hoped Staj had some answers, but it seems pretty clear to me that my preseason worries about recruiting not matching the structure were accurate 

[VedranRozic]

We are worse than last season. #Stajout

[StringerBellend]

Just call me mystic meg how could anyone have predicted that?

[immortalshogun]

Holliday i think forced his way into next weeks side.. and if Thomas isn’t fit i dont see how Holmes starts over a Vidackovic. 

There’s definitely some positives to take away, it is only round 1 

[StringerBellend]

The Korean center back is last. How in **** are you 6 4 and get beaten so easily.

Clisby was worse than last season, he looked absolutely terrified of Lolley..with the ball we would give it to him space so he could then take three touches get closed down and play it to Brilantte to lose. Ffs just get to the byline and cross.

First goal why were they anywhere near are goal, well we tried to play out and lost it

 

The positives

mata was class (although we brought him on too late)

Holliday did what clisby should have done 

That's about it 

Also for a sell out that was empty, and they brought a decent crowd 

[Potkorok]

And where is Aidan Simmons? If he’s fit he should at least be on the bench. 
Lawrence Thomas being out is a big loss too. No disrespect to the young bloke, he pulled off a couple of decent saves but if Thomas is there, we don’t concede that first goal. 
But yeah overall Sydney’s midfield and constant pressing found us out. And so frustrating when we kept inviting them to press by faffing about at the back.

Oh well onward we go. 

[StringerBellend]

41 minutes ago, BoyFromTheWest said:

We came away from the stadium with a more positive outlook. Thought we much better than expected given their foreward line and midfield. Talay has built a team over the last year and spent t better than any other team.

I'm not nearly as negative as the rest of the forum, here. Mata's movement and vision is very good and he started to look like he will control things. No-one explained the quality of referees! I was impressed with Hammond and generally okay with it CB's.

I watched Auckland and Roar, and a bit of Jets and City. Want greatly impressed with them and Vuk/CCM didn't impress me. I hate to say it but SFC feel like the team to beat this year. They bought to win not to develop players like most clubs have decided to do.

The Korean Centre back got beat for two goals he's a major worry. Bonetig didn't so much wrong. We look very weak at centre back and centre midfield, which I'm old skool but that's the two most important areas.

Looking at the old a league adage of get your foreign players right and you will make finals. Mata and Keaev will get fitter, so we probably have 2 right, maybe the Korean dude will settle but it doesn't look good. antonessen I just can't see what he offers 

 

[PedroPony]

47 minutes ago, BoyFromTheWest said:

We came away from the stadium with a more positive outlook. Thought we much better than expected given their foreward line and midfield. Talay has built a team over the last year and spent t better than any other team.

I'm not nearly as negative as the rest of the forum, here. Mata's movement and vision is very good and he started to look like he will control things. No-one explained the quality of referees! I was impressed with Hammond and generally okay with it CB's.

I watched Auckland and Roar, and a bit of Jets and City. Want greatly impressed with them and Vuk/CCM didn't impress me. I hate to say it but SFC feel like the team to beat this year. They bought to win not to develop players like most clubs have decided to do.

Same here. Given we were playing a very strong side who have been playing competitive Asian cup games leading into this we did well to come through with a narrow loss. If we had been playing most other teams tonight we would have come away with a win.

[MathyouWSW]

2 hours ago, WSWJACK said:

Great Tifo 👍👍👍😃

Anyone got pics of it to share?

[Zelinsky]

31 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

I will give  Mata a bit more time to settle in before I judge, but on tonight’s viewing you would say ESFC got the better marquee deal.

The same was said 12 years ago when Ono’s first appearance was compared with del Piero. 

13 minutes ago, SNS100 said:

Sad to say, Borello looks cooked. Scored a massive deal from the club... he huffs and puffs but zero end product up front. Put him back on the wing. 

He is half the player he was before his injury. Body language was not good in the second half. 

Other than that: the usual time wasting as Redmayne gave his annual dying swan impersonation at Parra. Then the usual ankle kicking and stomping that usually does not get the refs attention. Same old grub ball Arnie drilled into them.

Very uninspiring derby. We were outplayed and out coached for much of the game. Had the Smurfs been more clinical they could have had the game in the bag after the first half.  That we didn’t score the Equalizer right before half time was crucial. Big miss. But thank goodness Rudan is gone. 

 

[GunnerWanderer]

Given the **** lineup Staj put out lucky we didn’t get belted!

I never felt throughout the whole game we would get anything  even when we scored I said to those around me they will score in 5 to 10 mins and they did. Had a feeling they had another level and we just toiled most of the game. 
 

Mata was okay did some nice things love to see him start when he is deemed ready, Costa on the other hand I didn’t rate he barely stood out and had much of impact i’d take Lolley over him easily. 
 

Great night to be back but yeah need to figure out something things Staj… Clisby and Brillante look like have regressed further. Not convinced the formation suits the players we have also. Feeling it’s going to be another challenging season hopefully I’m incorrect! 
 

[GunnerWanderer]

2 hours ago, Smoggy said:

I will give  Mata a bit more time to settle in before I judge, but on tonight’s viewing you would say ESFC got the better marquee deal.

Interesting I thought Costa’s influence was minimal, he did surprise me with his willingness to get back and defend though other than that I didn’t see that much to be impressed about, I saw a player out there who probably justified why he’s last club was happy to see him go… 

[StringerBellend]

6 hours ago, Zelinsky said:

The same was said 12 years ago when Ono’s first appearance was compared with del Piero. 

He is half the player he was before his injury. Body language was not good in the second half. 

Other than that: the usual time wasting as Redmayne gave his annual dying swan impersonation at Parra. Then the usual ankle kicking and stomping that usually does not get the refs attention. Same old grub ball Arnie drilled into them.

Very uninspiring derby. We were outplayed and out coached for much of the game. Had the Smurfs been more clinical they could have had the game in the bag after the first half.  That we didn’t score the Equalizer right before half time was crucial. Big miss. But thank goodness Rudan is gone. 

 

Exactly 

It was far from the worst WSW derby performance but it was how predictable it all was that sucked any optimistic I had out.

So things that should get better 

- Mata will get fit enough to start - he looked like he was fit enough

- early season we will start getting combinations soon

- Kraev will be fit to start 

Things that worry me 

- Centre Back, the Korean bloke was terrible

- staj, coaching a team with a back 4 where only bonetig actually looks comfortable with it to play out ALL the time 

- we had no fight in the midfield at all, Sydney had so much space and time in there 

- that a sell out derby wasn't really sold out and Sydney had their biggest allocation for years 

- my sanity 

Edited October 19 by StringerBellend