The Western Sydney Wanderers fell to a 3-1 defeat against last placed Western United in Parramatta tonight, heaping pressure on the leadership of Marko Rudan.
Western Sydney came in hoping erase some of the pain of the 4-1 loss in the Sydney Derby last week and wanting to snap a streak with just one win from the last five games. Instead they fell to a 3-1 loss despite going ahead through a great Nicolas Milanovic goal, conceding three late as the defence fell to pieces.
The big squad news was the return of Marcus Antonsson to the team much sooner than the expected 8 week injury lay-off. Tom Beadling came into the starting 11 in place with Alex Badolato dropping out entirely & Lawrence Thomas made his way back to the squad as the reserve goalkeeper. Former Wanderer Josh Risdon lead out Western United as their Captain, and on the other side Nicolas Milanovic and Dylan Pierias were wanting to make an impact against their former side.
Western United had the first big chance of the game after 4 minutes, a right footed cross that made it's way into the penalty area. Riku Danzaki met it with a stooping header but the ball's progress was
2 minutes later a minor scuffle developed when Lachie Wales was brought down near half-way by Aidan Simmons, the flash-point behind Tom Beadling kicking the ball into Wales just as the referee blew for the foul. The two sides came together and almost as quickly came apart with no sanctions on either side. Lachlan Brook had a long range effort that flashed wide in the 13th minute.
WU had another penalty claim in the 22nd minute, Garuccio and Daniel Penha played a neat one-two that ended with Garuccio falling in the box, the shout waved away by referee Ben Abraham and the VAR, while Garuccios scrabbled in the pitch looking for a piece of tooth that had broken off in a collision with the ball. He eventually found the wayward incisor, passed it off to the physio and continued to play.
Marcelo picked up his 5th yellow card of the season on the half-hour, a tangle of legs & arms with Michael Ruhs that saw the defender the first name into the notebook, a costly card that will see him miss the Tuesday away game against Melbourne City. Marcelo was the only thing standing in the way of Ruhs or Danzaki opening the scoring, Wales getting into the penalty area and cutting back across the 6 yard box where Danzaki was unmarked at the back post waiting for the tap-in that never came. Tomoki Imai earned the first card for Western United for shoving Nicolas Milanovic into the sideline camera nest at high speed.
Western United had yet another cry for a penalty on the cusp of half-time, Seb Pasquali was running into the area after a handball from Simmons, the attacker falling to the floor after initiating contact with Jack Clisby, the subsequent free kick fired into the wall. The half dragged on until it's conclusion, a dismal 45 minutes from both sides with little excitement.
The Wanderers came out of the half looking better and Milanovic broke the deadlock 7 minutes into it. A team move that began at the back ended with Milanovic and Borrello playing off each other to give the young winger room to shoot and on his right foot Milanovic fired from 24 yards, well outside the penalty area and skidded a perfectly aimed shot past the full length dive of Matt Sutton, off the goal-post and in to make it 1-0.
Western United almost equalised immediately, their 7th corner of the game threatened an Olimpico before Marcelo rose at the near post to smash it off the goalpost, before a return shot from Angus Thurgate that had Margush beaten but not Milanovic who was covering the far post and was perfectly placed to block it off the line. Thurgate went into the book for a flying lunge on Jorrit Hendrix that wiped out the Wanderers midfielder and prevented the team from continuing the attack.
The 67th minute had Garuccio putting the ball on a plate for Ruhs, the left wing cross that beat the keeper and Marcelo's cover defence for Ruhs 6 yards out from goal. The striker had front position but had an air swing when you would expect him to hammer it home. It was the type of miss that you expect from a bottom ranked team.. but they ended up equalising moments later. Oscar Priestman's introduction to the game was smashing an attempted clearance into Risdon's head, the ball deflecting off him into the path of Penha and with the defence out of position he lifted it over Tom Beadling for the run of Matthew Grimaldi who took one touch and fired it underneath the onrushing Margush to level the scores at 1 apiece.
The visitors were unlucky not to go ahead in the 72nd, another left footed cross from out wide that wasn't dealt with, leaving a free header on the edge of the 6 yard box that miraculously ended up going straight at Margush.
Daniel Penha was the anchor that Western United had built around, in the 77th minute he scored a goal his good play had deserved. The Wanderers midfield stopped and waited for a handball call that never came, allowing Ruhs to turn toward goal. Simmons stuck a foot in and knocked the ball away but with Marcelo jogging on the edge of the area the touch went straight to Penha, the Brazilian maestro took one touch to take the ball on his left and fired in a pinpoint accurate shot across the bows of Margush that nestled into the back of the net.
Western United punished some atrocious defending with a quick fire 3rd. A rough challenge on Clisby deep into the WU defensive half was let go by Abraham, after winning the ball back the first thought was an immediate kick up field from Penha that put former Wanderer Nikita Rukavytsya clean in on goal, his first touch was good and his second on the edge of the area beat Margush who had next to no hope of stopping it.
Neither Rudan or the players had anything in response. The addition of Milos Ninkovic did nothing as he had less than 10 touches in 20 minutes, and Pierias or Antonsson had nothing to offer in stoppage time.
What else is there to say other than Rudan has in the space of a week, lead his team to a 4-1 loss in a Sydney Derby, then followed it up with an agonisingly poor 3-1 loss to the team in last place.
Enough is enough. Rudan has talked the talk, just like Babbell and his mentality, and Robinson and his streams of bullshit. These two results haven't had anything to do with a "stigma" or the officiating, and in fact these games the Wanderers had the better of it, particularly the VAR. Once again Lederer has proven his utter inability to understand football, falling for the oldest trick in the agent's book, the pretend "interest from overseas" that once got Vedran Janjetovic a disastrous 4 year contract. This time around it was "only" a three year extension that Rudan was handed on a gold platter with **** all to show for it, and now his poor attitude and tactical ineptitude has put the Wanderers on the precipice of a top 6 exit. Not that it would likely matter even if we scraped in as the 5th or 6th place team. Even if that happened it would more papering over the cracks of another failure of a season.
The Wanderers next match is against Melbourne City on Tuesday the 13th of March at AAMI Park, Melbourne with kick-off at 7pm.
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