Milanovic Earns Second Half Draw In Auckland

[mack]

The Western Sydney Wanderers travelled to Auckland for the first time ever for a clash against the top of the table, best defence in the league blue & black of Auckland FC. The teams evened each other out by the end of the 90 minutes, a goal from Felipe Gallegos just before half-time was cancelled out by a Nicolas Milanovic strike with both keepers thinking they could have done better.

The big news out of the team sheets was Alex Gersbach making his starting debut for the Wanderers. Both teams were on significant unbeaten runs, Auckland's stretched back all the way to early January with 10 games without a loss after their surprise 1-0 defeat in Perth, the Wanderers run stood at 7 games, and in a hint of irony, it began following their 1-0 loss to Auckland on Australia Day in Parramatta.

Bozhidar Kraev had the opening chance of the game, a left footed long range volley that smacked into a defender on the edge of the penalty area. Kraev should have opened the scoring minutes later when Zac Sapsford dribbled around the defence but his cutback was backward instead of across the face of goal, Kraev had kept his far post run and would have had a tap-in had it gone to him.

15 minutes in and Sapsford was asking for a penalty, after he got ahead of an Auckland defender inside the box. The replays showed a clear kick in the back of the leg against Sapsford but Alex King refused to award the pen and VAR declined to intervene. Kraev had another chance after 20 minutes that might have been called back for an offside, as Sapsford's closing down induced an error in defence and with Gabriel Cleur swarming in to support it took a huge save at point blank range from Alex Paulsen to keep the game scoreless.

The Wanderers had dominated the opening half hour and they finally had their just reward. At least initially. A striking counter-attack with Sapsford and Borrello combining to put Auckland on the back foot, it gave Kraev open space on the overlap and Borrello found him, the Bulgarian smashed it on his left past Paulsen. 5 minutes later the VAR decided there was an apparent offside in the build-up with Sapsford allegedly being offside from the initial pass that started the move.

Auckland's first chance of the half came just four minutes from the break, an almighty scramble from a long throw, it dropped and bounced and spun and flew around the 6 yard box until it finally fell to the feet of Marlee Francois who blasted at goal quickly and banged it off the goalpost and away. The second chance saw the home team take a lead into the break. It came from an abysmal error from Wanderers goalkeeper Lawrence Thomas. Having had little to do the entire game he conspired to hand Auckland the lead by slipping over as he tried to play out from the back, passing it straight to Felipe Gallegos, who almost slipped himself but recovered well enough to knock the ball into the open net for his first goal of the season.

In the final of the 6 minutes of stoppage time the Aucklanders almost doubled their lead, with Max Mata taking a spectacular overhead kick at goal that needed a brilliant reaction save from Thomas to keep the deficit to the single goal. Going into the break a goal down was a kick in the guts for the Wanderers, they had been all over Auckland, had a seemingly legitimate goal ruled out and missed several other big chances only to fall behind due to an error at the back.

Nicolas Milanovic levelled the scores 5 minutes into the second half, Gallegos slipped when Milanovic made his trademark cut back, giving him the opening to fire at goal. Paulsen was perhaps unsighted by the sun or Pantazopoulos making an onside run in front of him. Either way, the Goalkeeper of the Year-elect fluffed his lines, spilling the ball behind him for the second major goalkeeping error of the evening and a 1-1 scoreline.

Jesse Randall, Cam Howieson & Jake Brimmer came on for Francois, Verstraete & Max Mata while Alen Stajcic injected Marcus Antonsson and Jack Clisby for Sapsford & Gersbach. Antonsson almost scored off his first touch, a classic Pantazopoulos long bomb goal kick ended in the Auckland penalty area, a sliced clearance dropped for Antonsson who had an awkward chance as the ball fell that he put into the side netting.

Randall's first involvement was a weak header at the back post. He was falling backward at the time and couldn't get any power on it at all. He almost had a second chance seconds later but his touch deserted him at the moment of importance and it slipped away. Juan Mata was introduced with 15 minutes to play, taking a more advanced role than the substituted Josh Brillante.

Guillermo May seemed certain to score in the 82nd minute, a cross into the box was desperately blocked and fell to May 8 yards out, with the defence all over the box he was unmarked but his shot was perhaps impacted by a bobble off the turf and skied into the crowd. Juan Mata made a mistake in defence 20 yards from goal, making contact with a high boot and giving Auckland a free kick centrally. Francis De Vries and Brimmer were lined up for the shot, conversing over who would take it. Brimmer took it on his right and smashed it into the wall, De Vries picked up the rebound and crossed in to win a corner that went nowhere.

Jack Clisby almost had an unlikely winner, a counter-attack that raked across from right to left, Clisby sweeping ahead, a first time rocket that Paulsen tipped onto the crossbar. Hiroki Sakai had another chance to take all three points, the Wanderers defence was stretched out and left Sakai free in the box, his left foot strike was impacted by him falling backward and it was weak, Thomas holding on easily. One of the games of the season ended with the sides taking a point each, the Wanderers managing to come back strongly despite the mistake from Thomas, and Auckland refusing to lay down, always threatening to win the game. In the super tight race for the finals it was another precious point for the Wanderers keeping them 1 win away from the chasing bottom half. Auckland continue their reign at the top, now 8 points clear and certain to make finals and very likely to win the Premiership trophy.

The Wanderers next match is against Western United in Parramatta on Sunday the 13th of April, with kick-off at 5pm.
 

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[Legionista]

Yeah. 

[immortalshogun]

Thought we lifted compared to the game vs Wellington. Auckland were always going to be tough to score against so a point vs the best defence in the league is a good result in my eyes. 

[Smoggy]

That was a game with a top two side, against a team that should be a top two side…

 

Edited yesterday at 06:23 AM by Smoggy

[Sithslayer1991]

They lifted several levels from the Nix game. Did well to hold on for the draw.

[matty]

Draw vs 1st, happy

Draw vs 10th, not so much

The team is playing well together, credit Staj for that.

[William]

I was hoping we would come away from New Zealand with 3 Points with a win and a lose so the 2 draws are ok with 2 added to our total 8 without lose and a point from Auckland that not many other teams will take from them , 4 games left .

Edited yesterday at 06:48 AM by William

[BoyFromTheWest]

Auckland stadium has a little of the feel of early Parra years with the old stadium.  There is the bandwagon enthusiasm in the crowd. Whilst the RBB led/lead the league in chants from day one the Port had nothing original and it felt a little naive. They got behind their team and lifted them but we felt the stronger team across the whole game. We gifted them the goal, had one chalked off for who knows what reason. Thought we deserved more than the point but it was a solid performance against the top team.

[matty]

6 minutes ago, William said:

I was hoping we would come away from New Zealand with 3 Points with a win and a lose so the 2 draws are ok with 2 added to our total 8 without lose and a point from Auckland that not many other teams will take from them , 4 games left .

Auckland at home

7W 4D 1L

[William]

Only criticism is Antonsson on instead of Hammond and jiggle the front 3 , a positive is the 2 kids at the centre back positions desperate defending was needed at times and they did that well.

Mata in my opinion puts our defence under pressure and has offered little in attack

to bad Thomas slipped but we should have just thumped the ball up park that close to halftime rather than fiddling with it 

[StringerBellend]

As Errol from Hot Chocolate once said  I believe in Stajic (you sexy thing)

Have to say didn't see the game clashed with my one, so only highlights so far come on P+ how hard is it to put the replay up (of the WSW game obviously not mine)

[bombagol]

I’m happy with how we played, we were dominating the table-toppers in their own backyard for large periods of the game, created chances and we could have had the 3 points in the bag, but for an unfortunate mistake by Thomas who otherwise had a good day between the sticks. 
The finals series looks promising. 

[MathyouWSW]

So a draw against Wellington and then a draw against Auckland.

Draw Zealand it is then...

[William]

22 minutes ago, StringerBellend said:

As Errol from Hot Chocolate once said  I believe in Stajic (you sexy thing)

Have to say didn't see the game clashed with my one, so only highlights so far come on P+ how hard is it to put the replay up (of the WSW game obviously not mine)

You don’t play for Stanmore over 45s do ya

[WanderingToquii]

I think for Mata to influence the game, he has to play more minutes per game. 

He has a football IQ of 1000, a sweet left foot, good vision. Knows what pressure is and how to handle it. 

Played youth football at REAL MADRID!

Won a World Cup, Champions League, FA Cup etc .... if we rehearse and practise movements and runs and adapt so that Mata is a vital cog .... at least that's what Stajcic should've done from the start.

Bringing him on for 10 or 15 mins ain't gonna squat.

Hammond should've come on from about the 65th or 70th minute to run at the Auckland defenders. Boy can ball!

Antonsson  .... on yer bike and see ya later. Not marquee or foreign level.

[Sithslayer1991]

In terms of our play honestly it was really good. The criticism is really we should have done more with what we created in that 1st half because they were dead for 44 minutes. It sucks Thomas slips up pass but he had 3 massive saves that kept the point.

I think movement was good we were splitting holes in their defence. But what was clear is Auckland is a strong 2nd half team. They are clearly a fit and physical team so we faded out, this why they are first over everyone else. But we still created I mean Clisby with the post and Antonsson if he could volley a ball. He needs to play Victory every game he just can't replicate what he did in that game.

[StringerBellend]

2 hours ago, William said:

You don’t play for Stanmore over 45s do ya

No 

Close though.

Saints 

[StringerBellend]

2 hours ago, WanderingToquii said:

I think for Mata to influence the game, he has to play more minutes per game. 

He has a football IQ of 1000, a sweet left foot, good vision. Knows what pressure is and how to handle it. 

Played youth football at REAL MADRID!

Won a World Cup, Champions League, FA Cup etc .... if we rehearse and practise movements and runs and adapt so that Mata is a vital cog .... at least that's what Stajcic should've done from the start.

Bringing him on for 10 or 15 mins ain't gonna squat.

Hammond should've come on from about the 65th or 70th minute to run at the Auckland defenders. Boy can ball!

Antonsson  .... on yer bike and see ya later. Not marquee or foreign level.

I agree on Mata or at least did. But to be fair to the Stajinator, we are doing well as we are so hard to critise really. That said I'd have had him on earlier against Wellington we needed someone to unlock that game.

I can't comment on today yet 

Was a glorious day for football in the inner west today, that said a bit to glorious. Overlapping runs in 30 heat are hard for this old guy. Even though I like to think I'm the right footed Leighton Baines

[Zelinsky]

Today we won the point we lost at home against them. Very lucky in the last minutes. Great performance though.

[Upthehill]

For me, the NZ trip has been barely a pass mark. We dont bring any losses home, but not beating Nix hurts a bit. 

Specifically for this evening, it definitely feels like a missed opportunity. Alex King did us absolutely no favours tonight, but its not good enough to leave your fate in the hands of a completely incompetent officiating crew. Auckland were constantly bailed out by Paulsen, but we had opportunities to put more past him. The clisby missed goal at the end stands out to me as the biggest miss. Unfortunately we just have to learn and move on.

As far as our last few games go, we absolutely MUST be getting wins against the Bulls and Jets. Another win against either WU or City should mena a home prelim final. If we beat City then it would be assured assuming we top Bulls and the Jets.

Sydney have a seriously tough last 4 games (Jets, Auckland, WU, MC plus 2 ACL2 games)where Adelaide face Brisbane, Welly, Perth and MCFC. I dont have any issues with facing Sydney in the finals but it would be very funny if adelaide push them out. 

Its one of the most exciting final 4 rounds in a long time. Lots of potential outcomes

Edited yesterday at 03:18 PM by Upthehill

[StringerBellend]

6 hours ago, Upthehill said:

For me, the NZ trip has been barely a pass mark. We dont bring any losses home, but not beating Nix hurts a bit. 

Specifically for this evening, it definitely feels like a missed opportunity. Alex King did us absolutely no favours tonight, but its not good enough to leave your fate in the hands of a completely incompetent officiating crew. Auckland were constantly bailed out by Paulsen, but we had opportunities to put more past him. The clisby missed goal at the end stands out to me as the biggest miss. Unfortunately we just have to learn and move on.

As far as our last few games go, we absolutely MUST be getting wins against the Bulls and Jets. Another win against either WU or City should mena a home prelim final. If we beat City then it would be assured assuming we top Bulls and the Jets.

Sydney have a seriously tough last 4 games (Jets, Auckland, WU, MC plus 2 ACL2 games)where Adelaide face Brisbane, Welly, Perth and MCFC. I dont have any issues with facing Sydney in the finals but it would be very funny if adelaide push them out. 

Its one of the most exciting final 4 rounds in a long time. Lots of potential outcomes

Nix result wasn't good, a point away to Auckland is not bad at all.

As for MUST wins against Bulls and Jets, yep..But if we can't beat them then we don't deserve semifinals and wouldn't do anything in them.

Exciting all the games left are key. I'm not looking at making 6, I'm looking at how how high can we finish..

home final? 

As for Shelbyville, it's a mental thing for us 

Edited 23 hours ago by StringerBellend

[nmh94]

Next week becomes huge. You take the points but the reality is the last two weeks we have fallen back to the pack at bit (only 3 ahead of Syd FC now). A win against WU would be huge next week, and we need to show we can win big games like that at home consistently. 

[Smoggy]

4 points was the par score from these two NZ games. Nix was disappointing, but fair play to them as they raised their game and I think played well....but we still should have seen them off...

Auckland was a decent point and would have been acceptable after a Nix win..

Ah well...undefeated run still going and we look like contenders...

[SBW]

Landed back in Sydney over 1 hour ago

First of all

**** those Once Were Warriors pricks! They have to be up there with the Smurfs as the most vile fans in the league. I was sitting on the other side of where the away support was with my relatives who live in NZ and I was wondering why some fans got dispersed at halftime until I heard about a dog shot to one of our fans there.

Secondly, Mt Smart Stadium has to be up there as the shittest stadium in the league, smack bang in the middle of the ghetto in Auckland with little to no public transport access and very **** parking area. The food there are both **** and expensive, security are pathetic. And I thought NSW Cops were bad racists but cops in NZ take it to the next level targeting every Maori or Polynesian with a patch they come across in the stadium assuming they are criminals and try to find reasons to arrest them. So **** that place. Never returning to that shithole ever again.

As for the game, we played much better than last week, we had a bit more energy, Kraev was very unlucky as he could've scored a Hattrick.

I think his goal should have stood, I don't think Sapsford was in anyway offside.

From where I was sitting, when Lawrence was playing out from the back, he slipped and was very unlucky to give that ball away which led to their goal.

I wanted to see a bit more of Milanovic as he was quiet in the first half, he got more involved in the 2nd half and scored a great goal.

Borello (bless him) works very hard but he at times is very ineffective and adds nothing to our attack other than wasting our chances. He should have been subbed earlier and brought Hammond on as we needed a bit more spark and energy to our attack.

Mata needs more minutes than just coming on the 75th or 80th minute.

[JustWandering]

Mata just does not fit in our team. Our front four are dynamic and direct. Our midfielders are combatitive and hard-working. When Mata comes on he kills the momentum. When we are pushing for a winner we need like for like subs. Mata's cool head has some value when we have the lead and are trying to wind down the clock.

[BoyFromTheWest]

I continue to think or back yep have the makings of a decent pair but we need someone there, either one off then or someone in front who had dynamic distribution skills. Neither Panta not Bonetig are good at distribution and even down things down. They aren't quick to sense too the possibility and direct a ball there. Th hey can run the ball but don't know when/how to let go of it. Neither Brilliant not Priestman are known for their ball distribution. We play out from they back and we play slowly. We need someone who can take the ball and see they killer pass. Hate to submit it but a Brattan-type passer who can get there ball moving. When we play quickly and get it through into the midfield and forwards we look dangerous.

The CB's are great defensively but slow to move the ball. Even when the fullbacks get it, it is too slow and late and everything is covered.

That has been where Mata in a couple of games (eg Vic game) excelled, getting the ball through and quickly, with accuracy. Don't know what the solution is but that is the most frustrating part of our game. If that was okay, Lawrence wouldn't have had the ball when he gave it away...

 

[StringerBellend]

1 hour ago, BoyFromTheWest said:

I continue to think or back yep have the makings of a decent pair but we need someone there, either one off then or someone in front who had dynamic distribution skills. Neither Panta not Bonetig are good at distribution and even down things down. They aren't quick to sense too the possibility and direct a ball there. Th hey can run the ball but don't know when/how to let go of it. Neither Brilliant not Priestman are known for their ball distribution. We play out from they back and we play slowly. We need someone who can take the ball and see they killer pass. Hate to submit it but a Brattan-type passer who can get there ball moving. When we play quickly and get it through into the midfield and forwards we look dangerous.

The CB's are great defensively but slow to move the ball. Even when the fullbacks get it, it is too slow and late and everything is covered.

That has been where Mata in a couple of games (eg Vic game) excelled, getting the ball through and quickly, with accuracy. Don't know what the solution is but that is the most frustrating part of our game. If that was okay, Lawrence wouldn't have had the ball when he gave it away...

 

Yep of only had world class midfielder available who could take the ball off the CBs and distribute, this imaginary peraon would even need to run that much.

[sonar]

Not being a naysayer but WSW playing finals football isn't a given even at this stage of the season. 

Auckland,WU and Melb City would be safe to secure a playoff spot so It is a fight between WSW,Victory,ESFC and AU for the final 3 spots and any of those teams could miss out.

Two big games at home v WU and Melb City,then two away games to finish off.

Our destiny is in our own hands. Everything to play for.

COYW.!

 

 

[Legionista]

[StringerBellend]

#ibelieveinsjaj