Slightly undermanned, coming off a short turnaround, a poor loss and facing one of the form teams of the competition. It mattered little as the Glory conjured up the statement win we were all hoping for in front of nearly 4000 at Macedonia Park.
Life at our temporary home has been kind to us in the first three games. Seven points from a possible nine, producing some of our best football and doing it in front of a rocking crowd with a wonderful atmosphere.
Mustafa Amini warned opposition players they would cop it coming over to the West and that’s exactly what happened to Marko Rudan’s side. The challenge has been thrown down to rest of the league: can you do it on a windy night in Perth?
A lot of it will depend on the pressure and intensity we bring to each game. If we can consistently hassle the opposition and make life difficult for them, just like we did against the Wanderers, then we will keep getting results at home.
The short turnaround from the Adelaide loss brought about the changes from Ruben Zadkovich, five of them in the starting side. Jacob Dowse and Luke Ivanovic made their starting debuts, Luke Bodnar came into the midfield, Johnny Koutroumbis slotted into defence and Cameron Cook was back in net for the first time in 10 months.
Bodnar and Cook were two players I’ve wanted to see more of this season, and they’ve done their chances of remaining in the starting line up a world of good following excellent displays against formidable opponents.
The young keeper wasn’t forced into anything spectacular by the Wanderers frontline, making five relatively simple saves from shots fired directly at him. His good work was nearly undone by dropping a ball from a free kick; luckily Daryll Lachman was in the right place at the right time to clear it away. Error aside, a clean sheet will give him a lot of confidence moving forward.
As for the young midfielder, he was instrumental alongside Amini in helping us control the tempo in the first half and keeping the ball in our attacking areas. In the opening 25 minutes, the Wanderers rarely managed to break in transition and get the ball moving fluently. Bodnar won 6/8 ground duels, providing the defensive solidity in the centre of the pack which we haven’t seen from Zach Duncan or Aaron McEneff.
Individually there were a few standouts, but credit has to go to the whole team for the shift they put in. The ball and player movement was much better this team round; the Wanderers are a team who stay compact and don’t push too high up. It made our life on the ball easier, but we still managed to create space by moving the ball quickly out to the wide areas.
The wingbacks were good this game and both could have gotten on the scoresheet, doing it minutes apart. Salim Khelifi was a livewire on the right, forcing Adama Traore to do a lot of defending. His long-range effort from a recycled corner flew hard and fast at Lawrence Thomas, who could only get it over the bar for another corner. It was cleared by Marcelo but fell for Jack Clisby on the edge of the box, his first-time volley giving Thomas more work to do in the Western Sydney goal.
After a strong showing in the first half, all we needed was one moment to make it count and get ourselves the lead, and it came suddenly in the 59th minute. Keegan Jelacic’s flicked on header to Amini was the catalyst for a quick break. David Williams ran with the ball into the penalty area, dodging a couple of Wanderers players and tapping it to Jelacic who had made a run into the box. His left foot shot across the body came off the post and hit the back of the net in front of a rapturous Shed End, his first professional A-Leagues goal.
I was a bit harsh on David Williams and his first couple of starting appearances. Coming off the bench, he made an instant impact with an assist to go along with his goal against Wellington a couple of weeks ago. He could have had a second assist in this game after another breakaway on the left-hand side. His curling ball into the middle for a wide-open Adam Zimarino was cut out in the nick of time by a sliding Thomas rushing out of goal.
Marko Rudan was disappointed with his side’s lack of mental toughness, dropping down to third with that 1-0 defeat. Kusini Yengi’s early substitution due to a quad injury will worry the Wanderers fans; he’s made a good start in his first year for the club. A poor night for the frontline means most of the praise has to go to the defence, who have all been superb in the opening 10 rounds. Gabriel Cleur was solid on the right, a bright spark on a tough night for Western Sydney.
A good win for the Glory can never be smooth, with rumours of infighting within the four walls coming out before the match with Mark Beevers and Ryan Williams absent from the team sheet. Zadkovich seemingly put the rumours to bed, confirming both had failed fitness tests in the lead up. Salim Khelifi going off with a groin injury brings back bad memories from when Daniel Sturridge injured his against Macarthur; hopefully the Tunisian is back soon, although he won’t feature in the next match.
It’s a Tuesday night affair in a match which was rescheduled months ago. The Roar are flying at the moment, now in fifth following a win over Melbourne Victory. They’ve only lost once but have the same amount of wins as us. The gap isn’t big, and we’ve got a great chance to close it even further and start making progress up the ladder.
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