Two goals down at half time, the Glory were staring down the barrel at consecutive home defeats and another week rooted to the bottom of the league.
Goals have been hard to come by all season, and opportunities were missed in the opening period which were taken advantage of by an in-form Macarthur frontline.
On the half hour mark, Raphael Borges Rodrigues played in Matthew Millar after a quick change in direction took him away from his direct opponent.
Getting across Mark Beevers, the right back squeezed his shot past the defender’s slide and past Cameron Cook on a tight angle to open the scoring.
Right near the end of the half, and not too long after a missed chance from Adam Taggart, the Bulls were able to fashion a chance from a mistake by Jacob Muir.
Ulises Davila laid off a simple pass to Millar on the run, who flashed a ball across the box for Valere Germain to poke home and double the advantage.
Heading into the break, the crowd at HBF Park was left feeling flat. A quick response to start the second portion of the contest was necessary to lift the mood around the stadium, and it came in under three minutes.
Giordano Colli was at the heart of much of the Glory’s good work, distributing long and short with great effect and efficiency throughout the game and coming close with a few efforts of his own. The first was a long-range strike which stung the palms of Kurto and the second rebounding off the post following a neat one-two with Johnny Koutroumbis.
On this occasion he linked up with Luke Ivanovic before passing to Salim Khelifi on the edge of the area. The Tunisian’s shot took a fortunate deflection off a Macarthur defender, wrong footing Filip Kurto and finding the corner.
The substitution of Mustafa Amini was well timed by Alen Stajcic, with the pressure mounting more on the Macarthur backline the moment he came on around the hour mark.
The change saw the Glory regain momentum and bombard the box with set piece deliveries, with one eventually leading to the equaliser.
Amini’s cross was flicked on by Muir into the middle of a crowded area. Ivanovic was the first to react, sticking out his left foot and guiding the ball home to finally get his first goal in purple.
Muir was the only change made to the starting line up, coming in for Darryl Lachman in defence to partner with Beevers.
The young defender made the error leading to the second goal, but aside from that lapse in judgement performed strongly against a well-rounded attack.
His progressiveness as a centre back is excellent, and his ability on the ball very strong. It’s one of the reasons why he’s played minutes in the midfield so far.
In this game defensively, he made the most recoveries with nine and with the ball at his feet, he made the most accurate long balls and the second most passes into the final third, only behind Colli.
One of those progressive passes resulted in the late winner for David Williams. He drilled a pass to Taggart in the centre, who flicked it on for Williams to chase. With fresh legs he created a gap from Jonathan Aspropotamitis and clinically tucked away the shot past Kurto to secure the three points.
Western United defeat the women
It wasn’t such an enjoyable weekend for the Glory women, who were outplayed by Western United last Friday.
More control of the ball didn’t lead to more chances, with the side comprehensively losing the shot count 22 to 8.
Chloe Logarzo’s goal in the 18th minute was all that was needed to separate the teams at City Vista Recreation Centre.
Melbourne City’s win in the derby and their consequent 5-3 victory over Brisbane in the opening game of the current round has them firmly perched at the top with a six-point advantage, albeit with an extra game played.
The Wrap Up
A reversal in form for the two Glory teams. The women putting in an uncharacteristically underwhelming shift for the standard they’ve set in their opening nine matches and the men finally showcasing signs of promise and a victory to show for their efforts.
Luke Bodnar and Aaron McEneff remain out of the squad for this week, seemingly out of Stajcic’s plans for his midfield pairing. The performances of Colli and Amini suggest they would be the ideal duo if the former captain is fully fit.
The pressure is now on Oli Bozanic to keep his spot, having been subbed out for Amini in the last three matches while Colli has played the full 90 in all of them.
It will be a New Year’s Eve double header in Gosford. The women open the proceedings and will be followed by the men at 4pm as both aim to end the year on the high with victory over the Mariners.
The Mariners ladies are coming off the back of a 3-0 win away to Canberra whilst the men are on a five-match unbeaten run in the league.
The man who got sent off in the previous fixture, Angel Torres, has found his goal scoring touch with five in his last two. It will also be the farewell game for Marco Tulio, who will be leaving in January to play in the J1 League for Kyoto Sanga.
The previous two NYE fixtures have resulted in three goal victories for the Glory, hopefully a good omen ahead of Sunday. Another good omen? Our last away victory was against the Mariners.
It will be Stajcic against his former club at his old stomping grounds. The first win of the season against the Mariners was important, a win on Sunday will be even more significant and the ideal way to conclude what’s been a very eventful 2023.
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