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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