October 21, 2022
Western United featured in these diaries last year in an end of regular season fixture at Central Coast Mariners, where despite a 0-1 loss, they continued on to qualify for the end of season play-offs in third position, and went on to win the overall championship, by beating Melbourne City 2-0 in the Grand Final.
https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blogspot.com/2022/04/central-coast-mariners-1-0-western.html
This was a spectacular triumph for a side in only their third season in existence, having finished 5th in 2019/20 and 10th in 2020/21.
The Green and Blacks are based in Melbourne, with the 30,000 capacity AAMI Stadium being one of their regular homes pending the construction of their own dedicated ground. They have also played at the Kardinia Stadium in Geelong, but that is currently hosting the T20 World Cup Cricket qualifiers.
Western’s defence of their title has started poorly. They begun with a 1-2 loss at Melbourne City and then lost 1-3 at home to Sydney FC, although last season’s top scorer, Alexsandr Prijovic, who scored 10 times, missed both matches with a toe injury, and didn’t feature today. Consequently, they started the day in bottom place in the 12 team division.
In the pre-season FA Cup tournament, Western United suffered a surprise 1-2 defeat at lower league Sydney United in the quarter-finals.
Western United made one major signing in the close season, with 37 cap veteran midfielder James Triosi signing after a career that included playing for Juventus, Kayserispor and Zulte-Waregem amongst others. Their two significant departures, Ivan Vujica and Jerry Skotadis, signed for Macarthur…..
Western United’s coach is 55 times capped striker John Aloisi, whose illustrious overseas career included spells at Antwerp, Portsmouth, Coventry, Osasuna and Alaves.
Macarthur, based in the Campbelltown district of Sydney, are also in their third season of existence, having finished 6th in 2020/21 and 7th in 2021/22. However, they won their first piece of silverware by beating non-league Sydney United 2-0 in the pre-season FA Cup final, with Wellington Phoenix being the only A-League side in their path to the final.
Their league season has also started promisingly, starting with a 0-0 draw at Brisbane Roar, followed by a 2-0 home win over Adelaide United, thanks to goals from Daniel Arzani and Lachie Rose.
In addition to their two signings from Western United, Macarthur were busy in the close season transfer market bringing home Aussie ex-pats, with the signing of ex-St-Mirren and Shrewsbury full-back Matthew Millar, ex-Manchester City, Celtic and Lommel midfielder Daniel Arzani ( 6 caps ), journeyman striker Anthony Carter ( ex-Cluj, Viseu and Bangkok United ) as well as Perth Glory centre-back Jonathan Aspropotamidis.
Players retained from last season include ex-Cardiff, Brighton, Bolton and Plymouth winger Craig Noone, ex-Roda JC and Wellington Phoenix Polish keeper Filip Kurto, and ex-Chelsea, Santos Laguna and Tenerife Mexican attacking midfielder Ulises Davila, who was their top scorer last season with 7 goals.
Macarthur are coached by ex-Manchester United, Aston Villa and Trinidad and Tobago legend Dwight Yorke and today were playing in shirts with broad black and white stripes, with black shorts.
Tickets for the game were mostly in the 30 AUD range. Temperatures at the 19.45 kick-off local time were 17 degrees with heavy rain forecast, which arrived 10 minutes into the game.
Bet365.com, who streamed the match live, made Western United Evens favourites, with Macarthur at 12/5 and the draw 29/10. The game was also being shown live in the UK on BT Sport via the red button, with the Moto GP qualifying from Malaysia being the main feature on the channel !
Western started impressively and within 3 minutes Macarthur keeper Kurto had to make a flying push away to a dangerous cross from Connor Pain to prevent Lachie Wales having a header at the back post, and then poor defending allowed Risdon to get to the by-line and lay back to Dylan Wenzel-Halls, who shot in the side netting.
On 5 minutes Wenzel-Halls robbed a dithering defender and lashed a shot from the edge of the area straight at Kurto, but Wales could only put the bouncing rebound over the bar from 12 yards, and then Wenzel-Halls had a shot from a tight angle blocked for a corner.
Macarthur survived the initial onslaught and gradually started to get a foothold into the game, and Western’s Triosi received the first yellow card of the match in the 14th minute for a petty trip on Da Silva. From a distance the shaven headed Triosi resembles Aaron Mooy, another Australian international !
In the 17th minute, Wales got past Skotadis on the right-hand side and made headway into the visitors’ penalty area, but his fierce drive across goal towards Wenzel-Halls was blocked. Two minutes later Pain burst pass Millar on half-way but Western’s attackers seemed reluctant to take a pop at goal, with the ball being passed on 4 times before making its way back to Pain, whose shot from 20 yards was saved by Kurto at his near post.
Skotardis then made an unnecessary trip on Triosi to earn a yellow card.
The game took an unexpected turn in the 23rd minute as with virtually their first foray into the Western area, Craig Noone delivered a fine left footed cross from the right wing for full-back Millar to head home from inside the 6 yard box, giving keeper Jamie Young no chance and Macarthur the lead. With a large number of seagulls on the pitch at the AAMI stadium, ex-Brighton man Noone probably felt at home !
Almost immediately Macarthur could have scored again, but Da Silva shot poorly into the side netting when well placed.
Western then had another promising move but after Troisi, Higdon and Wenzel-Halls all abdicated responsibility for having a shot on goal, Triosi eventually had an effort which was blocked for a corner. Although Kurto flapped at the corner, there was no Western player on hand to take advantage of the slip.
In the 35th minute, Risdon did well to cross from the right-hand by-line but Macathur centre-back Uskok was able to head-off from close to his own line ahead of Wenzel-Halls, and then Risdon’s low long-range effort was comfortably saved by the diving Kurto. Another corner again saw Kurto unconvincingly get a finger-tip to the ball to deflect away from the lurking Wenzel-Halls.
In another rare excursion into the Western danger zone, four minutes before the interval, Macarthur’s Da Silva saw his shot from the edge of the area deflected narrowly wide.
With the half-time whistle, Macarthur headed to the dressing rooms with a 1-0 lead and still to concede a goal this season. Western had looked much the better side until the final third, and seemed to lack confidence in front of goal.
The second half started slowly, with both sides guilty of wayward passes, and Kilkenny’s long range shot was easily dealt with by Kurto. Pain then sent a probing low cross from the left that evaded everyone to go off for a goal-kick.
Skotadis was treading a fine line, bundling over Kilkenny near half-way when already on a yellow card, and so easily could have received his marching orders.
Macarthur then had a good short spell, a quick counter saw Arzani able to get his shot away despite the attention of Lacroix, but Young saved at the expense of a corner. Rose then shot wildly high when the corner fell to him 10 yards out. Noone then flashed a low cross across the 6 yard box but Garuccio was on hand to clear the danger.
On 58 minutes, Pain was free inside the Macarthur area and rather than go for glory himself, decided to set-up Risdon 15 yards out but the full-back’s left-footed shot was mis-timed and deflected wide. Kurto was again suspect from the corner but Lacroix could only meekly chip the loose ball into the grateful hands of the Polish keeper.
Kurto then had to be alert to race out of his area to prevent Wenzel-Halls latching on to Wales’ ball over the back-line.
In the 63rd minute Risdon raced down the right and his pin-point cross found Wenzel-Hall 8 yards out, but the downward header was poor and Kusto was able to dive and push it away. The chance really should have been buried to bring Western back to level terms.
Five minutes late a good move by Macarthur ended by Rose shooting weakly straight at the keeper from 18 yards
A minute later Western finally got the ball into the back of the net as Risdon’s cross to Wales was converted from inside the six yard box, but the referee disallowed the goal for offside. However, the VAR review confirmed that Risdon and Wales were both marginally on-side during the move so the goal was eventually awarded and the scores were level after 69 minutes.
Macarthur keeper Kurto had appeared for a few minutes to be struggling with a leg injury and with 15 minutes remaining left the field to be replaced.
Craig Noone went on a mazy run in the 77th minute, but his delicate chip drifted just over the bar, with Young struggling to recover his ground. A minute later defensive confusion between Young and Toper-Stanley led to the centre-back hoofing the ball miles into the air, but after the loose ball fell to Aspropotamitis, the Macarthur centre-back produced a defenders finish to send his shot a huge distance over the bar from 10 yards.
With just under 10 minutes remaining, Triosi whipped in a cross but substitute Botic, under pressure from Uskok, couldn’t make a decent connection and his close range header sailed harmlessly to safety. Macarthur respond a minute later but after cutting back inside, Arzani shot directly at Young.
With the game starting to fizzle out as the visitors looked to be settling for a point, the home didn’t look like making the break through and at the start of added on time, substitute Pierias couldn’t keep his back post header down and it sailed well over. In the final minute of the four added Wales played a square ball in from the right but a good defensive sliding interception prevented it from reaching Botic.
At the final whistle the honours were even but after having had 62% of the possession Western United will feel disappointed with just one point, but for all their fine approach play they need to be more confident in front of goal.
Western United : Young – Risdon, Lacroix, Toper-Stanley, Garuccio – Wales, Lustica ( Diamanti ), Triosi ( Milanovic ), Kilkenny, Pain ( Pierias ) – Wenzel-Halls ( Botic )
Macarthur FC : Kurto ( Suman ) – Millar, Uskok, Aspropotamitis, Vujica – Toure ( Drew ), Skotadis ( Carter ), Da Silva, Arzani – Rose, Noone
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