The Western Sydney Wanderers travelled to Campbelltown Stadium hoping to break a streak of a loss following a win and pick up their first consecutive victories since Round 5 but were cruelled by an atrocious officiating display that let Valerie Germain score when he should have been sent off, his final goal a 96th minute winner that shouldn't have been awarded to give Macarthur an ill-gotten 4-3 victory.
Lawrence Thomas returned to the squad following his matchless international duty with the Australian National team, on the bench with Daniel Margush retaining his role at least for today. Jorrit Hendrix took Josh Brillante's spot in the starting 11, Tom Beadling was back in central defence with Alex Bonetig's injury and Tate Russell coming in with Aidan Simmons out suspended.
The first significant moment of the game was a late, jumping shoulder charge from Keaeley Adamson on Nicolas Milanovic, the Macarthur player being hit with an immediate yellow card in just the 8th minute. From a 15th minute corner Macarthur hit the woodwork, Ulises Davila nodding a near post corner up and over the defence. From the subsequent corner the ball was launched into the 6 yard box where Tom Beadling's attempt at a clearance did nothing but cause him to commit a clear handball. Despite an obvious foul on Beadling from a Macarthur player climbing all over him, VAR declined to intervene and Germain hammered it straight down the middle for 1-0.
Macarthur's lead lastered mere minutes. They failed to play out from the back, Hendrix found Marcus Antonsson running into the box and with Macarthur's defence scrambling and out of position he touched on for Lachlan Brook and he couldn't miss on the right foot to bring the game back level at 1-1.
There was drama in the Wanderers penalty area, a collision between Margush and Davila also ended with Germain and Beadling both tangled up on the ground when Germain clearly kicked out twice at Beadling and hit him in the groin. To his credit Beadling didn't stay down long, and it wasn't enough time for the VAR to bother doing their job. Instead of the clear red card for Macarthur, play continued without even a cursory check from the review booth. It was another to add to the litany of examples of fouls and penalties against the Wanderers being missed by the central referee and completely ignored by the VAR.
Despite the missed red card the Wanderers remained stuck to their task and had their reward in the 28th minute. Another mistake at the back from Macarthur gave possession away in their final third, a shot came through that Kurto palmed away for Brook on the sideline to track down. He cut back to his right and fired a cross to the back post where Milanovic was unmarked and headed down, bouncing in front of Kurto and beating the keeper to make it 2-1.
Macarthur would have equalised in seconds if not for the intervention of Margush. Another mix up at the back let Davila find Raphael all alone, he eventually worked an angle for a shot but couldn't beat the stretched foot of Margush. They did in fact equalise anyway, a duplicate of the earlier chance but this time Raphael was allowed to dribble from near halfway into the 6 yard box, he cut inside Clisby and Margush dived away from the near post to block a cutback that never came and left.
Brook restored the Wanderers lead minutes before half-time. Antonsson broke down into the left channel that was vacated by the Macarthur right side defence, turned back onto his right boot and spotted the late run of Brook. The run split the central defence and the cross was superb, giving Brook little more to do than get the faintest of glances to take it past Kurto for a 3-2 lead.
Germain took full advantage of his red card reprieve to put the game on a level keel yet again. A corner that went far beyond the back post was nodded to the near post where Germain was in the right place at the right time to make the simplest of headers to score his second for the game and send the teams into the break at 3-3. It was a frenetic half that lacked stability and quality in defence punctuated by poor passing from both teams that saw the game enter into the record books as one of the many equal 2nd most goals in a first half with 6, trailing the 7 scored in a Perth vs Brisbane game in the 2015/16 season. Thomas made an early return to the pitch with Margush coming off with a concussion suffered in the Davila charge that was overshadowed by the Germain lash out.
5 minutes into the second half the game was turned on it's head by a straight red to Beadling. With Davila running out of his defensive Beadling was chasing and expecting a turn from Davila he went for a block but slipped and ended up crashing into the back of Davila's legs, it was a poor challenge and Macarthur surrounded the ref and Beadling, the ref pulling out a straight red to put the Wanderers down to 10 men.
Marko Rudan gave a debut to winger Aydan Hammond, coming on with Dylan Scicula for Hendrix and Milanovic. Macarthur responded with their own double sub, Yianni Nicolaou and Bernardo for Raphael and Adamson to go with the earlier sub of Jake Hollman for Kearyn Baccus.
With 15 to go Germain cost his own team a shot on goal, with Thomas knocking the ball back into the penalty area from a heavy cross, Germain dived in to get the ball not realising his team-mate Hollman was rushing in himself for what would have likely ended up as a shot on goal. Brook left the field with his brace along with Antonsson, Dylan Pierias & Zac Sapsford the like for like subs.
It looked like the Wanderers had held on for a point, only for the should have been sent off Germain to score a controversial goal right at the death. Ivan Vujica came down the left wing and fired a cross into the area, Germain rose high for a flick-on, Thomas made a miracle save to stop him scoring, the ball hitting the post and being pawed away by Thomas, only for the assistant ref to decide that the whole of the ball had crossed the and award a goal. Yesterday in the match in Tasmania the VAR was spending 5 or more minutes examining multiple reviews intricately, yet tonight in Campbelltown we had clear red cards and non-goals being ignored completely.
The goal was practically the last kick of the game and it ended in acrimony as the Wanderers bench and coaching staff remonstrated with the officials whose theft of three points dropped the Red & Black down into 5th place with Macarthur bumped up to 4th.
The Wanderers next match is against Newcastle Jets on Sunday 11th February, in Parramatta with kick-off scheduled for 5pm.
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