Santalab Turns Up The Heat On Rams

A fierce strike from Brendon Santalab had given the Western Sydney Wanderers a 1-0 win over Macarthur Rams.

The Wanderers opening match of Season 2014/15 was held in freezing conditions in Campbelltown, and the Red & Black shook off any post-season frost with a high intensity pressing game that kept the Rams on the back hoof for almost the entirety of the game.

The key moment came midway through the second half when Santalab blasted a rocket from outside the area that beat the Rams keeper all ends up to open the scoring.

Tony Popovic sent out his charges in the typical 4-2-3-1 formation, and typically of pre-season games, he experiment with his lineup which included several trialists.

In the first half, new goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis took up position between the sticks, with Mark Bridge playing in the attacking midfield role, while trialist Steve Kuzmanovski tore up the right flank, taking advantage of the Macarthur left fullback's woeful positioning to get behind the Rams defence on numerous occasions. The other major point of note was Sandro Pasalic, a 19 year old German national who appears to be a left winger by trade, took up position at left fullback for the Wanderers. Pasalic was most recently part of the junior squad of SV Wacker Burghausen, a club who were last season relegated into the fourth tier of German football.

The second half saw wholesale changes, with Ante Covic in goal, young gun Marty Lo deployed as a deep holding midfielder, and on 67 minutes, the first look at Brazilian attacking midfielder Vitor Saba. Unlike his scruffy beard, his play on the pitch was silky smooth, and Saba lit up Campbelltown Stadium, gliding through numerous challenges and looking to link up with his team-mates. After the match he came over to the far side of the ground where the RBB were situated and spent some time taking photographs and autographs with his new supporters.

All in all, it was a good hitout, and one that stands the Wanderers in good stead for their trial next week in Canberra, Apia Leichardt on the 5th of August, before their first competitive match of the season against Adelaide City on the 12th.

Two other pieces of news hit the twitterverse this evening, one good, and one bad. The bad was that Australian National team defender & Wanderers Australian Marquee player Matthew Spiranovic had been carrying an ankle injury through the World Cup, and now requires surgery that will leave him out for 3 months.

The good is that ex-Victory player, attacking winger James Troisi is set to sign for the Wanderers and it could be completed as early as next week.

The Wanderers next match is against Canberra FC, at Deakin Stadium, Canberra, on Wednesday the 30th of July.