New Year's Day 2025 saw the Western Sydney Wanderers host Macarthur FC in the first of three West Sydney derbies for the season, the match was a 3-2 goal-fest with a red card to Wanderers defender Alex Bonetig that set the stage for the visitors to take a 3-1 win back down the highway to Campbelltown.
Alen Stajcic was suspended after the ludicrous red card given against Adelaide. Dylan Scicluna missed out after suffering an Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury that will keep him out for the better part of a year. With load management on the mind of the club in the hot weather and short turnarounds before and after this match, Brandon Borrello and Nicolas Milanovic dropped to the bench, Juan Mata making his long awaited return to the starting lineup and Jesse Cameron made his A-League debut at right fullback for the injured Gabriel Cleur.
The first impact of the match was a crunching midfield challenge when Bozhidar Kraev reached out for the ball only to smash Valerie Germain in the foot area with his lunging studs. The yellow card was instantly flashed and many expected a VAR check, but none was forthcoming and Germain eventually got up to continue play with a free kick that was easily cleared.
In the 9th minute there was a VAR check for a handball by Oliver Jones, but the ball did in fact hit him in the legs, missing his outstretched arm that would have seen him concede a penalty and at least a yellow card. Cameron created the first opportunity of the game, with open space on the right wing he delivered a perfect low cross for Zac Sapsford but the first time shot looped high and over the bar.
Macarthur opened the score in the 13th minute, a scrappy goal after a Macarthur break was contained, they managed to find a low powered cross into the area, it bounced several times with the defence unable to fill the space on the penalty spot it left Jed Drew a clear sight on goal and his bobbling shot wasn't stopped by the diving Lawrence Thomas.
The Wanderers piled on the pressure in the 20th minute, pressing high up field to steal the ball away multiple times. The first set of chances came to Oscar Priestman who had a duo of chances blocked after some neat interchange passing, the midfield won the ball back on the edge of the area and Josh Brillante found himself in the area, leaving space on the edge of the 18 yard box where Juan Mata met Brillante's lay-off with aplomb, a perfectly executed side foot shot placed into the back of the net to open his Wanderers goal account and to level the match 1-1.
Macarthur took the lead right back as Ariath Piol torched Bonetig for pace. A simple throw in conceded by the Wanderers on half-way was taken quickly, leaving Piol to burn the central defender for pace, around the outside like a Formula 1 race car, cut inside with the threat of a penalty and potential red card hanging under Bonetig it was left to Thomas to try and stop the shot, but he went down too soon and left space over his shoulder that Piol took to score and restore Macarthur's 1 goal lead.
Minutes before the half-time break Macarthur scored their third of the evening to take a 3-1 lead into the sheds. Drew isolated Jack Clisby in a one on one, knocked it past him with a half-nutmeg that luckily broke back to the winger. Kraev and Priestman weren't close enough to get back in time as Drew cut back onto his right foot, beating Clisby all ends up once more, shooting from the edge of the area he caught Thomas flatfooted expecting a cross rather than the shot and his leap was so late the ball was already past him before his hands went up and his feet left the ground.
Jesse Cameron's debut ended after 45 minutes, the 19 year old suffering the penalty for the defensive frailty on display in the first half. He was replaced by Anthony Pantazopoulos to make his 8th A-League appearance.
5 minutes into the half and Macathur had a huge shout for a straight red card to Dean Pelekanos, as Piol made another break into the Wanderers attacking half chasing a Drew through ball, he would have been free & clear for a one on one with Thomas if not for Pelekanos reaching out for a blatant shirt pull. Pelekanos claimed he had been held onto first but the VAR review camera wasn't in place for the early stages of the collision, and what was left after made it an extremely obvious red card.
Western Sydney reacted best following the red card, despite their player disadvantage they produced a great piece of play on the right wing that Anthony Pantazopoulos finished well to score his first A-League goal, making it 2-3 and giving the Wanderers some hope. Temporary head coach Nahuel Arrarte reacted to the goal by throwing on the strike duo of Milanovic and Borrello, as Sapsford & Mata were physically spent after an hour of hard graft. Macarthur should have taken back their 2 goal lead with Marin Jakolis, a glorious chance to connect with a cut-back but he spurned the opportunity by blazing it over the bar. Kraev made his way off for Ayden Hammond, Macarthur bought on Daniel De Silva & Dean Bosnjak for Drew and Piol. 10 minutes to go and Arrarte threw his last roll of the dice, throwing on James Temelkovski for Antonsson.
The home side threw everything at Macarthur, waves of attack, multiple set pieces. In the 93rd minute Borrello won a corner that everyone including Thomas came up for, the ball was whipped to the back post and found the fluro yellow shirted keeper, he made contact but was perhaps put off by a touch in the back from another Wanderer and his header went very wide. It was the last action of the game, Macarthur took it to the corner and after 5 and a half minutes stoppage time took the three points with their 3-2 win, took 2nd place on the A-League ladder and left the Wanderers in 7th place & outside the finals race. The squad has a desperate need for reinforcement in defence otherwise the high scoring losses look set to continue in the forseeable future.
The Wanderers next match is against Melbourne Victory, in Melbourne on Saturday the 4th of January with kick-off at 7:35PM.
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