Jumpei Loses Shootout After Sotirio Send Off

[mack]

The Western Sydney Wanderers A-League season is over, with a 6-5 penalty shootout loss after a 1-1 draw against Brisbane Roar.

After a first half where both goalkeepers produced stunning saves to keep the score at 0-0, just seconds before half-time Avram Papadopoulos clattered into Brendon Santalab from behind, with referee Jerrad Gillet pointing to the spot. Terry Antonis stepped up to the mark and blasted his shot through the hands of Michael Theo to make it 1-1.

The visitor's lead only lasted until the 55th minute. With the Wanderers attack stunted by an uncalled handball from the Roar, they picked the ball off the Wanderers and went straight up field on the counter. Thomas Broich passed to Borello, and the young winger rolled his shot into the goalpost. Fortunately it rebounded straight to Jamie Maclaren and he made no mistake with the empty net.

In the final seconds of regulation time Brendon Santalab delivered a sterling cross from deep & wide and substitute Jaushua Sotirio should have put the Wanderers into a Sydney Derby semi-final. Instead Sotirio blasted the shot into the stands.

During extra-time, the game turned to Brisbane's favour as a result of a truly moronic brain snap from Sotirio. Already on a yellow card awarded minutes after he came onto the field in the 87th minute, he harshly followed through with an incredibly late tackle on Corey Brown in a nothing situation chasing down a hopeless long ball. He was instantly shown his second yellow card and the following red. It put the Wanderers on the backfoot and it was only a miracle that the Roar couldn't put the game away on the field.

As a shootout loomed, the Roar were forced into making a goalkeeping substitution, with Michael Theo being replaced by Jamie Young, as a result of a coming together between Theo & Antonis after a scramble for a loose ball.

With the game deadlocked at 1-1 after 120 minutes of frentic finals football, it fell to the penalty shootout to separate the teams. Dimas won the toss but against all conventional wisdom elected to shoot second. Each team scored their penalties, with Borello, D'Agostino, Maclaren, Devere & Kristensen all succeeding, and for the Wanderers it was Antonis, Dimas, Nico, Hamill & Cornthwaite.

Sudden death loomed, while Tommy Oar made no mistake, Jumpei took the 6th penalty, never looked comfortable, then fired it straight into the hands of Jamie Young.

The match followed the pattern of so many contests this season, with the Wanderers being dominant with possession but doing nothing to trouble the opposition keepers.

Tony Popovic massively failed in his recruitment this season, keeping Dimas instead of Andreu, while signing 3 massive flops as foreigners, the only mildly successful import was Nico. Even he was relatively subdued compared to the imports from other finals teams. After bringing back Bulut, the fan favourite was pointlessly turfed back out again after a handful of matches. Then after failing to sign a sorely needed foreign striker in January, Ryan Griffiths was picked up, did nothing and will leave without making any meaingful impact at all.

If Popovic is to remain as the Wanderers coach, he needs to sharpen up his scouting skills quicksmart, and get sent on a course that shows him how to play football without using multiple defensive midfielders. This season only picked up a modicum of momentum after the attack killing Dimas & Pinatares combination was sidelined, simply because the rest of the midfielders in the squad will often move towards the opposition goal after getting the ball, not backwards.

This was a stop-start season where any hope of winning the Premiership was lost in week one with a 4-0 thrashing by Sydney FC. Next seasons squad needs to be in winning form from week one. No "we are looking better every week" after a loss. No "that player is getting adjusted to our conditions" when they fail to perform. If Popovic cannot deliver a winning side & tactics from the first league game, he should step down now. After all, he isn't going to get such nicety from owners of the foreign league clubs I assume he has ambitions to lead one day.

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[ZachMercer]

Critical.

[wanderersfanatic]

Erebus, thoughts?

Edited April 21, 2017 by wanderersfanatic

[Valter43]

Looks like smurfs will win the post season cup too. We're the only ones that can be them. My Smurf mate was absolutely relieved when we lost the shootout.

[ManfredSchaefer]

Theo won the Meow the game

 

Sotirio lost it for us

[beatsurrender]

Sotirio and jumpei showed their lack of quality despite their endeavour. Not their fault but they are not good enough.

Recruitment was shocking. Griffiths? What was the point of that signing even?

Disappointed. Tbf we scraped into 6th and fittingly we drew again tonight. A derby would have been awesome. .

[Wanderboy]

I reckon we played beautifully tonight.

Some of the best football I've seen from us this season.

 

Jumpei's miss didn't cost us the game.

Our inability to put away chances did.

[ANZAC]

just a micky mouse post-season cup trying to paper over the cracks of a terrible season

[Smoggy]

Sotirio and jumpei showed their lack of quality despite their endeavour. Not their fault but they are not good enough.

Recruitment was shocking. Griffiths? What was the point of that signing even?

Disappointed. Tbf we scraped into 6th and fittingly we drew again tonight. A derby would have been awesome. .

 

Borda, Bulet, Jumpei, Griffith.... all very poor and leave you wondering what Popa was thinking. Borda especially is a shocker of a signing. Dimas totally lost his way, Hamill not good enough, and this is an unpopular one but I don't think Clisby is as good as some here make out, but is the kind of player you need in the HAL.

[xxBrandonxx]

I really didn't want to play the Smurfs next week anyway with players collapsing looking completely knackered.

 

Vedran had a top game.

Edited April 21, 2017 by xxBrandonxx

[Sithslayer1991]

I think this game perfectly summed up our season. We dominated the game but only had 1 goal to show for it. We had one defensive lapse and they score from it. We had chances to win but never fell for us. And Sotirio I think enough has been said on this forum on the issue.

 

In saying that this whole season I would say it was a pass overall grade. Need to recruit midfield and a striker for next season

[mack]

Failed ACL.

Failed FFA Cup.

Failed A-League.

Failed Final Series.

 

Not good enough.

[beatsurrender]

We've never dominated on the scoreboard though. Its not Popa's style. Go one up and shut up shop. Only blow outs really have been adelaide season 1 and that Chinese team in ACL group stage 5-0.

Our FFA cup performances have never been confidence building either. Adelaide city.. then that Pio penalty and last year being smashed by City.

However that's the next thing to look forward to unless you count a friendly against The Arse in 3 months time...

Sigh..

Edited April 21, 2017 by beatsurrender

[wanderersfanatic]

Failed ACL.

Failed FFA Cup.

Failed A-League.

Failed Final Series.

 

Not good enough.

Failed Recruitment.

Failed to spend on players.

Failed to deliver membership cards on time.

[DamnedUnited]

We came close and most of this season we weren't even close to being close. Someone was going to crack under pressure from the shootout and it just happened to be Jumpei. I'm just glad this slow funeral is finally over because on and off the pitch so much is fractured.

[Taurus]

Season rating  4/10.

 

I'm probably being generous given we finish in the bottom half of the AL table, failed to get out of our ACL group, failed to progress to last 4 of FFA Cup & it's the 4th season in a row that we haven't won any silverware in our domestic league.  #PopaOut

[DCWSW]

Followed the shootout on the train back to Kyoto after seeing Gamba Osaka smash Omiya 6-0.

 

Hopefully, we see a spirited performance against Urawa on Wednesday. 

 

Big questions need to be asked about recruitment and other parts of the club ahead of next season. Reform of some kind is needed. 

[bombagol]

Sotirio lost the plot. The most mindless challenge I've seen for a few years.

[Zelinsky]

RIP S5 - football version of trains, planes and automobiles.

Big club. In the business of winning titles. Going to propel the club forward.

Yeah yeah.

Two wins in 15 games against the top five. Without Santa we would have been totally stuffed.

Western Sydney Mariners. Cheapskate United.

 

Edit: in the last member's forum JT said that five import needs to work out, not just four (meaning Pio). And then this! What on Earth were they thinking?

[ManfredSchaefer]

Sotirio lost the plot. The most mindless challenge I've seen for a few years.

 

Except for anything done by Borda this season 

 

Might write this up more fully in another avenue, but this season was a real 'bee's dick' one in the A-League on the pitch (not so the FFA Cup & ACL). A few decisions that didn't go our way, a few 50/50 moments and we may well have been top 3. Tonight's a perfect example of that...Theo & Young made 4-5 saves that went fooking close to being buried, and at the end it was one missed pen shot that stopped us from progressing.

 

Not going to make excuses for bad recruitment, bad performance and questionable coaching decisions. However football is never going to run smooth on the pitch. Where things went seriously off beam as far as I'm concerned is the off-pitch bullshit. It's harder to feel positive about anything achieved on the pitch when so much was negative in the stands, with the suits, at Soulless etc.

[Wanderer747]

That game summed up our season but even if we won the penalty shootout, we would have struggled next week anyway. Roar will lose next week anyway so they can celebrate like they have won the GF.

 

Our season was a complete failure and we were still lucky to make a run at the end. Significant changes must be made - next season will be defining in our history.

[lloydy136]

The second half of the season was my kind of team. Not flashy but tough, hard to beat, committed and with a solid sprinkling of OUR homegrown players.

 

I'm not in the 'top 2 or it's a miserable failure' camp. I want a team that represents me and my region and I feel that Santa, baccus, aspro, antonis, corny, clisby, neville and yes even janjetovic 100% did that from January onwards.

[wsw1234]

The second half of the season was my kind of team. Not flashy but tough, hard to beat, committed and with a solid sprinkling of OUR homegrown players.

 

I'm not in the 'top 2 or it's a miserable failure' camp. I want a team that represents me and my region and I feel that Santa, baccus, aspro, antonis, corny, clisby, neville and yes even janjetovic 100% did that from January onwards.

I agree and that's the issue. We always seem to play for half a season and not a full season.

 

Its only been Season 1 we ever had a real chance of winning it all. Second season after Jan we only won 3 games and they were all against Perth. We all know Season 3, and Season 4 we started from scratch again

 

This period between now and the first game of next season will be key. Whether we go down the line of player clean out again. Or build off the good players we have and just improve the areas we need improving.

 

Ever since we were bought from FFA things have never been the same, Which I get, all clubs ride the highs and lows. But to me this year has been a failure in all respects when it really should not have been.

[tardotz]

The success of the 1st season was unprecedented and most probably will never ever happen again.

From season 2 on we have been very slow starters and that's a problem

[Wobblies]

 

Failed ACL.

Failed FFA Cup.

Failed A-League.

Failed Final Series.

 

Not good enough.

Failed Recruitment.

Failed to spend on players.

Failed to deliver membership cards on time.

 

 

Also a notable Failure was the Failure of 50% of our membership to attend games. 

[StringerBellend]

I'm glad Dimas drilled his, pen. The Dimas haters would have been out if he hadn't. Guy deserves better than that, even just for last season.

 

I'm no Jumpei fan, he completely lack end product... but I felt sorry for him missing the pen, he looked geniuely gutted, and he had put in an effort during game.

 

I keep saying that there is a player in there somewhere wit sotirio, but last night was totally brainless. To come on and get sent off for two yellows inside of about 15mins. Any player with half a brain would have toned it down after the first card, but no he goes charging in completely unnecessary.

 

From that we were hanging out for the penalty lottery. Rather pushing for the win.

 

As for the broader season

 

Massive missed opportunity by the club, dreadul squad assembled at start of season, with really poor choice of foreign players and club skimping on wage bill.

 

We salvaged some pride by bringing in Antonis and vedran, and dumping the useless Borda.

 

The development of aspro and baccus would be the highlights of the season

[wengerboy]

 

 

Failed ACL.

Failed FFA Cup.

Failed A-League.

Failed Final Series.

 

Not good enough.

Failed Recruitment.

Failed to spend on players.

Failed to deliver membership cards on time.

 

 

Also a notable Failure was the Failure of 50% of our membership to attend games. 

 

I think this is due to Spotless and now it's one less season there.  This is the first season where we've failed to generate the passion and feeling. I just hope spotless doesn't suck out the soul too much I don't tell people to the games because I think they will get a bad impression from spotless.

[Taurus]

The second half of the season was my kind of team. Not flashy but tough, hard to beat, committed and with a solid sprinkling of OUR homegrown players.

 

I'm not in the 'top 2 or it's a miserable failure' camp. I want a team that represents me and my region and I feel that Santa, baccus, aspro, antonis, corny, clisby, neville and yes even janjetovic 100% did that from January onwards.

 

Approx 33% of the squad

[Wanderer747]

Snake and Antonis were certainly positives.....

[luisenrique]

The second half of the season was my kind of team. Not flashy but tough, hard to beat, committed and with a solid sprinkling of OUR homegrown players.

I'm not in the 'top 2 or it's a miserable failure' camp. I want a team that represents me and my region and I feel that Santa, baccus, aspro, antonis, corny, clisby, neville and yes even janjetovic 100% did that from January onwards.

I'm with you. Here are my viciously hungover thoughts from the game.

 

I am immensely proud of the boys & their efforts last night. Were they perfect? No. It's the a-league. Did they give absolutely everything and fight really hard at a really difficult place to come? **** yes.

 

Cornflakes, Aspro, Antonis & Santa were absolute heroes tonight.

 

Ultimately, after we lost, there was absolutely zero part of me that wished I supported Brisbane. And that is how I feel whenever we lose one of these finals games. Their fans left to take shelter from the rain?! We stayed & clapped all our boys cos they deserved it.

 

You could see in people like Santa & Neville's faces how much our support means to them. Other clubs just do not have that. Jumpei was absolutely devastated but we gave him a little chant and he did the Japanese head bow thing. It was great to see the boys run up ro him as soon as he missed, and Nico basically had his arm around from thst moment until they left the field. It really made me feel a lot better about the loss because I was proud of not just their footballing efforts, but the culture of our team & fans.

 

Was it a good season? No, we finished sixth. Was it this catastrophe that some are describing it as? Absolutely ******* not. I'm not going to rehash the points I've made plenty of times before...the club certainly deserves criticism for some off the field stuff. But on the field, I absolutely do not care about our recruitment, alleged cheapness, etc. Football is not about transfers to me. You see those idiots on Arsenal fantv shouting how Wenger is cheap and it makes me cringe. It's not easy to get transfers right, snd especially with all the unique constraints of the a-league.

 

5 years ago, I had no team. Since then, I've experienced highs that most football fans will never experience, let alone in the first ******* five years of their existence. Is our club perfect? No. But as a fan, all you can ask is the players do their absolute best, & with some exceptions, we have that.

 

Do I think we can improve on some players in our squad? Of course. But even if the exact same team turned up next year, I'd be there supporting them, because being a Wanderers fan, even at Soulless, is an incomparable feeling in the a-league.

 

Love you all, even the whingers!