The three weeks of waiting for more HBF Park action proved to be well worth it, as the Glory came from behind twice to emerge victorious 4-2 last Friday night.
Late night matches always deliver an abundance of goals, and it was no different when Melbourne City returned for their second fixture in Perth.
In very similar circumstances to the first match in December, it was Tolgay Arslan who opened the scoring as his cross took a slight deflection off Aleksandar Susnjar to leave Oli Sail stranded with no chance of keeping it out.
And again the Glory found an equaliser in first half stoppage time, this time through a penalty from Mustafa Amini after Bruce Kamau was shoved in the back by Nuno Reis.
The opening period of action started sprightly as both teams got early looks at goal and kept the two keepers on their toes.
Sail kept out a Jamie Maclaren header from close range and denied Andrew Nabbout who had gotten in behind, while Jamie Young had to get down quickly to prevent Adam Taggart scoring at the near post following some neat work from Johnny Koutroumbis.
Once City took the lead, the pace of the game dropped off as did the crowd noise. Stef Colakovski had a fantastic chance to equalise after intercepting a misplaced pass but failed to find the net against his former side.
Between that chance in the 24th minute and Amini’s penalty in the fourth minute of stoppage time, only four shots were taken and two of them were blocked.
The visitors started the stronger of the sides after the break and were unfortunate to not have taken the lead through Leo Natel, who had his first attempt saved brilliantly by Sail and the rebound blocked onto the post by Darryl Lachman.
Their fortune turned just a minute later when Gio Colli’s pass back to Sail was picked off by Maclaren. The striker cut it back to Arslan who put the chance away with conviction with just Lachman on the goal line to beat.
Alen Stajcic turned to his bench straight away, with David Williams brought into the fray for Colakovski. It paid dividends when he set up the equaliser, dispossessing Curtis Good on halfway.
The ball across to Taggart didn’t reach him but Scott Galloway’s attempted clearance was directed goalwards straight to Young, who couldn’t react in time to keep it out of the net in front of the Shed.
Taggart was denied that goal but couldn’t be stopped two minutes later, finishing off a fine piece of football.
Amini’s ball out wide to Koutroumbis set the play in motion. The right back played it through to Daniel Bennie, whose cross to the back stick was met by the Glory’s leading scorer and tapped in expertly on his left foot.
The introduction of Socceroos James Jeggo and Mathew Leckie added extra quality to City’s already stacked side in their bid for a leveller, but aside from Arslan smashing the post from a tight angle and a moment of desperation defending right after going ahead, the Glory defence dealt with all of City’s attacking impetus extremely well.
Jarrod Carluccio nearly set up the sealer with a display of neat footwork on the byline, poking a ball past Young into the middle for Williams to attack, but Good got there first to clear it away.
The fourth did eventually come in the 98th minute through another one of the substitutes, with all the build up coming through fresh legs. Luke Bodnar’s high clearance was superbly controlled by Williams, setting up the counter. Joel Anasmo, making his Glory debut, was picked out by the veteran on the far side.
The 19-year-old finished the job with a cool finish into the corner, joining Kaelan Majekodunmi as an A-League debutant goal scorer to wrap up the three points and the Glory’s fourth win for the season.
ALW struggles continue
The Glory Women’s form slump has continued on and isn’t showing signs of slowing down following a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Sydney FC at Leichhardt Oval.
Sixteen-year-old Maddie Caspers opened the scoring with a simple finish on her left foot, rewarding the Sky Blues for their early control of the game.
Their lead would have been doubled if not for the fine form of Morgan Aquino, who saved her second penalty of the season to deny Princess Ibini.
Hana Lowry’s foul resulted in the spot kick but she made up for it with the assist for the equaliser. Her free kick was fired goalwards and tucked away by Quinley Quezada for her first Glory goal.
Sydney’s dominance of the match wore on into the second half and saw them retake the lead through Cortnee Vine, running in behind after a Glory turnover and finding the far corner.
Another run in behind after a turnover completed her brace and iced the win. The pass from Dos Santos was inch perfectto the Matilda, who rounded the keeper to set up a simple finish.
The Wrap Up
There’s been a bit of a role reversal for the Glory sides at the moment. Alen Stajcic’s side is improving and starting to get results, while Alex Epakis needs to find some answers to keep his side in the finals hunt.
He won’t get a better chance to start turning it back around, with a home match again bottom of the table Canberra United on Saturday night.
The women’s side broke their Canberra hoodoo this season and could do with another win against the same opposition to break this current hoodoo, yet to win a game in 2024.
The men’s side have been slowly gaining on the pack ahead, now just two games behind City in sixth with that last win.
Another win tomorrow would see us go level on points with the team we face, the hit and miss Adelaide United.
The Reds have one win from their last six, failing to keep a clean sheet in all of them and failing to score in half, the last of which was a heavy 4-0 home defeat to the Mariners.
Stefan Mauk has returned to the club, which isn’t short of quality players. Goals are to be expected, just think back to the last fixture between the clubs: the thrilling 4-4 draw in April of last year.
The transfer window has wrapped up and seen one more Glory departure: Luke Ivanovic leaving by mutual consent and heading to Finland. A loan deal for Chris Ikonomidis was potentially on but didn’t eventuate.
It’s a Friday night clash between the West and South Australia, a game which will no doubt deliver more than a smorgasbord of goals and action, and hopefully another Glory win.
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