Wanderers dig in, hold out, and secure a desperatly needed three points against Victory
Western Sydney have played 12 games this season and, in Alen Stajcic's eyes, their 1-0 win over Melbourne Victory was probably their 12th best performance. But the win? "We needed it desperately."
AAMI PARK, Melbourne — When you’re winless in your last five games, sitting bottom of the A-League Men table and desperately searching for any kind of circuitbreaker, the three points that Western Sydney took from their 1-0 win over Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park on Saturday would feel like some of the most beautiful they’ve ever seen. And it’s a good thing that the points were aesthetically appealing, given that the game that produced them really wasn’t all that flash.
Kosta Barbarouses’ 29th-minute penalty, deposited straight down the middle as debutant goalkeeper Jack Warshawsky — inserted after Jack Duncan experienced delayed onset concussion symptoms on Friday — dived to his right, proved all the Wanderers needed to take out a win that moved them off the foot of the table and just five points back of the top six. After entering the game with most expecting he would be sacked in defeat, it was a result that also ensured that Alen Stajcic will live to coach another and relieve some of the suffocating pressure that surrounded him – at least until his side’s next lean run of form and this cycle repeats anew.
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Did it matter that Barbarouses’ spot kick was the only shot on target they produced throughout the entirety of the opening 45? Or that they would only produce 0.14 expected goals (xG) from their four other shots in that opening half? Or that the game as an actual spectacle was scrappy, at absolute best? On this day, absolutely not. The Wanderers needed a win, they got a win, and now they can turn their sights towards next week’s meeting with Newcastle knowing that, thanks to the league’s incredibly forgiving finals format, there’s still something that can be taken from this season.
“It was a battle for us tonight,” said Stajcic. “We played our 12th game this year and, for me, we probably played better in the other 11.
“You want to strictly talk about performance on the ball, movement, creating chances, momentum and rhythm in a game, but it was one we had to grind out. And sometimes you've got to do that.”
And perhaps on some level, there’s something of a layer of charm (beauty is probably too strong a word) for a desperate side hitting the road against an opponent that’s flying and finding a way to scrap and claw their way to a win. And not only that, but, pretty much straight from the opening kickoff, doing so by getting physical and inducing their opponents to play the game on terms that suited them, grabbing the goal that they need, and then defending with everything they have.
“We had to [defend with desperation], it’s an important aspect of our team,” said Stajcic. “We haven’t had to all year, because we pretty much dominated large passages of virtually every game we’ve played; we’ve had probably more territory and dominance and chances and shots in a game.
“But today was a bit the opposite. It was one where we had to bunker down. We had the lead, sort of made our own luck in that moment, and showed the character and resilience that we need. It’s a foundation for the team, but it was good to see it come out when we needed it. And we needed it desperately.”
It took until the seventh minute for either side to produce an actual period of extended possession, and that somewhat sputtered out after Victory spent most of it passing in a semicircle around a set Wanderer defence. Five minutes later, the hosts were lucky not to be reduced to ten men when Jason Davidson launched himself into a contest with Brandon Borrello and inadvertently grazed the attacker’s side with his studs. In other A-League games, it was the kind of challenge that has seen the wrath of VAR descend and a red card issued, but on this day, the stand-in skipper survived with a yellow card (albeit one that will see him suspended for next week).
Perhaps fittingly, it was a long throw-in, effective as it is bemoaned for its perceived rudimentariness, that catalysed the goal: Anthony Pantazopoulos hurling the ball into Victory’s penalty area and, in the resulting scramble, Borrello sending in a shot that clattered off the arm of Santos and earned the visitors the spot kick that Barbarouses would dispatch.
Victory would finally produce some moments of promise in the following exchanges, Nishan Velupillay cutting inside and bending a shot outside the far post in the 35th minute, Davidson hitting a shot into the side netting in the 42nd and Juan Mata cutting the ball back to set Nikos Vergos up to shoot straight at Lawrence Thomas, but they were now playing catch-up.
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And while they played with a slightly more purpose in the second-half, helped by the Wanderers retreating into a more defensive shell that effectively gave them possession and territory, they still couldn’t actually turn this into play that looked it was capable of fashioning a chance that break down an increasingly desperate, increasingly dogged defence that was getting nine, ten, and sometimes even eleven behind the ball.
When Mata snuck out at the back post amid a series of Victory corners and volleyed goalward in the 56th minute, only for his attempt to be cleared off the line by Pantazopoulos, it felt somewhat prophetic. It just wasn’t going to happen for Victory on this day, even with the lifeline they were granted by Warshawsky getting a shoulder up to deny Bozhidar Kraev’s breakaway attempt in the 79th.
“Definitely not the result we wanted, and the performance wasn’t good enough,” coach Arthur Diles said.
“We weren’t at our best again. And in the end, we don’t deserve to lose the match. We probably didn’t deserve to win it either. We weren’t good enough.
“In the end, I would’ve liked to still get something out of the game, but we didn’t.
“We were just a bit slow. We just felt slow there.
“We weren’t playing at the tempo that we normally do, and we weren’t penetrating enough, getting the ball forward and making runs in behind as often as we would like.”
There was a sense that, set up in the way they were, the Wanderers would almost surrender a second by default if they gave up an equaliser. But they held on grimly to deny that hypothesis a test: the final sight of the game before Daniel Elder blew full time, the sight of Vergos, prostrate on the pitch with his head on his hands after sending what would have been an equalising header wide.
“I think we’ve been playing pretty well most games; there’s not one game where I walked away, before today, thinking the opposition deserved to win that game,” said the Wanderers boss. “But you only get judged on results.
“Performances are something that we analyse, but you need three points -- that’s what professional football is all about.
“It was good to show that resilience and determination to get the three points when it probably wasn’t our best performance. For me, I’d love both. I’m greedy. I want a good performance [and] I want three points, and hopefully, we get that next week.”