Dylan Pierias returned to the Western Sydney Wanderers and scored a brace as his former club hosted Adelaide United on the much hyped Asian Champions League win 10 year anniversary. The teams showing up with defense an afterthought with Adelaide doing enough to keep the Wanderers at a distance all night long to win the match by 4 goals to 3.
Both teams came into the game without a win. Adelaide with a sole point for a draw following their Round 1 Bye, the Wanderers losing a Sydney Derby to continue an 8 game streak without a win at Parramatta, but picking up a 1-1 away draw against Western United to open their league account for the season.
Adelaide began brightly, winning a first minute corner and keeping the game in the Wanderers defensive third, before hitting the front in just the 3rd minute. It was an exceedingly simple goal. Panagiotis Kikianis stood on halfway on the ball, with no pressure he found Ethan Alagich who was allowed to stride forward over 20 yards unchallenged and shoot from 30 yards out. The shot was aimed straight at the Wanderers young keeper Tristian Vidackovic, who spilled the powerful shot to the edge of the 6 yard box. The only player to react quickly was striker Luka Jovanovic, he left the central defensive duo in the dust and Vidackovic caught in no man's land after the spill gave Jovanovic the angle to sidefoot the ball in the back of the net via the far post.
There was little reaction from the home team, the quarter hour came with the Red & Black having zero touches in the Adelaide penalty area, zero shots on target, zero corners won with an abysmal 35% possession. None of the stats had improved by the 20th.
Adelaide on the other hand, improved their goal count from 1 to 2. What should have been a harmless cross was completely botched by the young keeper, as Vidackovic punched instead of catching, but mistimed it horribly to knock the ball into Austin Ayoubi who couldn't believe his luck to score Adelaide's second of the game without needing to try.
It took until after that second goal to finally get the ball into the Adelaide defensive area and it turned into a first shot, shot on target and goal. Adelaide failed to clear a Jack Clisby cross and it eventually fell to Nicolas Milanovic at the far post and his rasping finish was strong.
The 2-1 scoreline didn't last long. A dumb foul from Milanovic allowed Zach Clough to fire a free kick into the defensive wall. It broke kindly for former Wanderer Dylan Pierias 24 yards out, it bounced once before Pierias lashed the ball over the crowd of players in the penalty area, Vidackovic may have been unsighted and that lack of vision caused a delay to his dive, turning a shot he probably would have pushed out for a corner into a weak touch that ended up inside the post and nestling in the back of the net for a 3-1 score before the half-hour had arrived.
Mercifully half-time arrived with no further damage on the scoreboard, Alen Stajcic needing to implement one hell of a turnaround if the fortunes in the match were going to change, and in doing so he threw on Zac Sapsford wearing a batman style protective facial mask, and Dylan Scicluna with Oscar Priestman and marquee Juan Mata replaced.
It took 10 minute for the changes to bring the Wanderers back into the game. Adelaide lost possession with an aimless long ball, Alex Bonetig finding Brandon Borrello who turned it around the corner for the brilliantly timed run of Sapsford, he ran into the area and with Kraev beating his marker for pace on the interior line he was found by Sapsford who couldn't miss from 6 yards out and with the keeper covering the near post only.
Adelaide picked themselves up and found a 4th goal. Clough was in an acre of space in the attacking 3rd, he pierced the Wanderers back-line with a precision through ball, Vidackovic was caught waiting for the ball to roll through by the run of Pierias whose pace was more than enough to see him get to the ball first and toe it through for his second of the evening.
The goal fest continued with the Wanderers scoring their 3rd, and the 7th of the night in the 75th minute. Dylan Scicluna monstered Clough off the ball to leave Adelaide scrambling back & out of position, Sapsford recieved the ball and probably should have scored with his initial effort only to be smothered by James Delianov, the rebound was battered into the corner woodwork, leaving Borrello and Delianov to challenge each other for the bouncing ball. Borrello summoned all his strength to out leap the giant keeper in a legal challenge, the contact was enough to send the ball over the line with Borrello wheeling away with 15 to go and a 3-4 scoreline.
With the seconds ticking away the game took on a frantic feel & the Reds fell back deeper and deeper as they tried to defend their one goal lead in the 6 minutes of stoppage time. The last attack of the game was a desparation corner that even Vidackovic went up for, but a near post flick on went over everyone's head and Adelaide managed to scramble it down into their attacking corner to hold out for the final seconds and pick up their first win of the season and keep Western Sydney from adding to their single point.
The Wanderers next match is against Newcastle Jets, at Parramatta on Friday the 8th of November with kick-off at 7:35pm.
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