It was a spirited performance from Alen Stajcic’s side, however, they lacked the cutting edge to get one over Marko Rudan’s Western Sydney Wanderers, as the 2-0 loss was the Glory’s 12th consecutive away game without a win.
It’s fair to say most Glory fans once they saw the team lineup were concerned.
There were the obvious outs in Oliver Bozanic and Jarrod Carluccio due to the loan agreement with the Wanderers, but the big out was star striker Adam Taggart who was ruled out through injury.
In fairness to Stajcic’s side, they came out pretty strongly.
Bruce Kamau had a great opportunity a few minutes in, where a chaos ball from David Williams was lobbed over the backline to the advantage of Daniel Bennie, who was tripped yet still found Kamau, only for the 28-year-old winger to flash his strike across goal.
It was unfortunate to see the winger come off not long after, as he looked to have pulled his hamstring.
The first half ended with both sides feeling that they probably could’ve been a goal up, however, it ended 0-0.
Five minutes after the break, the Wanderers were a goal up, courtesy of former Glory man Jack Clisby.
It was very sleepy defending from the Glory, as there was a big gap between Darryl Lachman and Daniel Bennie, who was covering for Johnny Koutroumbis who had gone out to press.
You could be cynical and argue Bennie was probably caught a little too square, with Clisby getting on the blindside of the young winger, or you can say it was a pretty decent goal crafted from a well-hit through ball by Josh Brillante.
The Glory had the chance to equalise a few minutes later, as David Williams’ poked effort was wide of the post following some good lead-up play by Koutroumbis down the right-hand side.
Five minutes later and the Wanderers punished the Glory’s inaccuracy in front of goal.
Clisby whipped in a pretty decent cross that was headed away by Darryl Lachman. The ball was floating towards Salim Khelifi, however, Tate Russell came out of nowhere, attacked the ball with real aggression and smashed down a volley from close range, leaving Cam Cook little chance of stopping it.
Khelifi’s a great winger, we know that. However the defending there was pretty poor, it was too lax.
Following on from there, the game ebbed and flowed.
Stefan Colakovski had a great chance via a header that was well saved by Lawrence Thomas and Jayden Gorman had an impressive sighter that was a few inches too high of the crossbar.
So ultimately on reflection, I think it’s fair to say that the players do deserve credit for giving it a crack and taking it up to a very strong Western Sydney side.
There have been plenty of instances over the last few years where the Glory would’ve just crumbled in similar games.
Although what this game illustrated to me was that ultimately you need top-class players to compete with the best.
We ended up with eight academy players on the pitch, which is great for the club in terms of youth development, a facet any potential new owners want to improve.
Having said that, there’s only so much those young guys can do against big-name players like Laurence Thomas, Marcelo, Hendrix, Brillante, or Borrello.
Quality players that can make a difference.
We were without one of the league’s best strikers and three established midfielders; Oliver Bozanic, Mustafa Amini and Aaron McEneff.
And you could argue, the game was lost partly due to the Glory not being able to win the midfield battle.
This problem was noted by many.
Ben Smith, one of the main football writers at the West, said on Twitter “The Glory are an absolute mess in possession, living off long balls and the transition game while Colli and Muir struggle to influence proceedings”.
We danced to the drumbeat of Josh Brillante and Jorrit Hendrix and fair enough, they’re quality players.
But we just couldn’t seem to adjust nor wrestle the game back into our favour, to dictate the game and control proceedings.
I still believe we could do with an attacking midfield signing in January as we also lack the ability to link the ball effectively from the midfield to the attack.
Ultimately, the loss against the Wanderers served probably as a learning experience for our midfielders, but also some of our forward players, in terms of how clinical you need to be in front of goal.
The stats don’t make for much easier reading either, with both the Wanderers and the Glory accumulating an xG of 1.43, but only Marko Rudan’s side could put the ball in the back of the net.
With the international break coming up, this serves as a good time for Alen Stajcic and the team to see what’s working and what isn’t, as we are performing well in a few key areas but notably we’re behind in a few, which was to be expected in the early stages of this season.
Up next is the Brisbane Roar, also away from home, following the break. They’ll be a tough test, but fingers crossed with some players coming back, the Glory might be able to get a much-needed win.
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