Wonderful Wanderers Woop Woeful Wellington

[mack]

The Wanderers hosted the Wellington Phoenix in a Friday night top 6 blockbuster and showed up to play, smashing the Nix 4-0 with a near flawless performance to go up to 2nd place on the A-League ladder on goal difference and confirming a first week of the finals home fixture.

Marcelo returned from his two game suspension with Tom Beadling making way to the bench, with Kusini Yengi & Yeni Ngbakoto replaced in the starting lineup by Romain Amalfitano and Amor Layouni.

Layouni had the first chance of the game when Oli Sail came out a mile to meet a ball over the top, the lob from the winger was off target and also not in quite the right place for Brandon Borrello to have a shot on target.

It was just a few minutes later when the Wanderers did open the scoring. In the 8th minute the Nix failed to clear a penalty area scramble, eventually Ninkovic found himself clear with the ball, he laid off a cut-back to Borrello and he couldn't miss, making it 1-0. The move had begun with a great run out of defence from Aidan Simmons who refused to play the easy long ball and instead worked past three Wellington defenders to get the team going forward.

Layouni continued to torment Sam Sutton on the right wing, with every attack down that side seemingly to create chances. Zavadi for the Nix had their first chances of the game but each time he was either offside or had committed a foul in the lead up.

Western Sydney made it 2-0 in the 32nd minute. Wellington their own worst enemies, losing the ball in a bad position deep inside their own half, Borrello and Calem Nieuwenhof pounced, coming clear before a neat 1-2 passing sequence gave Nieuwenhof space, he cut past the Nix defence and then fired on his left with a placed shot past sail.

Sail kept his team in the contest with another great save with Simmons continuing his excellent match with a shot on target, then Nieuwenhof had a similar chance to his goal but this time the ball curled agonisingly wide. Wellington went into the break having failed to make a single shot on target, their chances few and far between and they were well off the pace of the Wanderers who were pinging the ball around like it was a game of snooker.

The Wanderers took full control of the game in the second half, scoring their 3rd in the 66th. Simmons scored his first goal in the A-League in the 66th minute, getting onto a lofted through ball, he chested it down & beat his marker for pace, stood up Sail and went around him effortlessly and with great composure found the back of the net past the backtracking cover defenders.

Wellington finally managed their first shot on target through former Wanderers Steven Ugarkovic, it was easily saved by Lawrence Thomas. Ngabakoto was just out of reach for a tap-in at the back post in the 76th minute when Adama Traore was released down the left flank.

Kusini Yengi finished the rout late on making it 4-0, substitute Nicolas Milanovic picked up the ball on halfway, he ran full steam ahead with Yengi in front, he stayed onside when the through ball was played, shaped his body for a first time strike on his right and Sail couldn't do anything about the well placed shot between the goalkeepers legs.

The win lifted Western Sydney into 2nd place on goal difference although Adelaide United and the Central Coast still have to play this weekend. Melbourne City  secured the A-League Premiership last weekend while the Nix are at risk of falling out of the top 6 as their run of woeful form continues.

The Wanderers final game of the regular season is against Melbourne City on Friday the 28th of April with kick-off at 7:45pm in Melbourne.

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[Unlimited]

I’ll watch the highlights soon

Just taking the train home now - the girl and I had a nice time at the bar with some drinks and nibbles, then went for a nice walk down the harbour front. I got a hug. 

[sonar]

Only concern would be Layouni coming off injured. Hopefully it's not too bad.  If Layouni is out next week I would start Cluer at the back and put Simmons where Layouni plays.

[ItchyNek]

Great performance from the boys! Especially the youngsters and Borello, what a machine.. Rudan has the boys humming 
 

If we can take this form into the finals then we have a real shot 

[mack]

1 minute ago, sonar said:

Only concern would be Layouni coming off injured. Hopefully it's not too bad.  If Layouni is out next week I would start Cluer at the back and put Simmons where Layouni plays.

Post game interview with Rudan makes it seem like he was just fatigued rather than an injury.

[sonar]

Just now, mack said:

Post game interview with Rudan makes it seem like he was just fatigued rather than an injury.

New baby at home keeping him up.....

[Sithslayer1991]

Fantastic result. Relentless by the squad

[Ononono]

God it was nice to see us put another team to the sword. But man was wellington just dogshit. Did they even have a shot in the second half? I hope to god we have then again in the finals, if they even make it.

[Upthehill]

7 minutes ago, mack said:

Post game interview with Rudan makes it seem like he was just fatigued rather than an injury.

Zero trust there. Rudes plays mind games. Layouni definitely pointed to his hami

Unless of course Rudes had told him he was coming off at the 60 and to play like he had a hami injury. Who knows with these croation mad men

[mack]

1 minute ago, Ononono said:

God it was nice to see us put another team to the sword. But man was wellington just dogshit. Did they even have a shot in the second half? I hope to god we have then again in the finals, if they even make it.

Nix managed 5 shots in the second half. 2 blocked, 2 saved, 1 missed.

[ItchyNek]

Just now, Upthehill said:

Unless of course Rudes had told him he was coming off at the 60 and to play like he had a hami injury

haha I actually had the same thought, like they had a convo yesterday at training that if we are up by 2 or more then he would waste time before he is subbed off right on the 60th min as we need him to be fresh against city 

[pseudonym]

Fourth 4-0 win of the season

Best advertisement the club could have made to get people to buy finals tickets short of throwing in sets of steak knives

[VedranRozic]

Could have easily have been 8-0. 
 

Layouni looked injured. He limped off. Either way I would rest him next week for the finals.

[EmMac]

I wasn't sure I'd make the match but ended up going. Such a great match. Our passing is so good. So many neat passes, little flicks and a real awareness of where players are, who's free, who can run into some space. Impressive.

Also so great to see some familiar faces from the forum... good to see Edinburgh, Andypk, Manfred 

What a great night 

[Midfielder]

That was slick .... best I have seen you guys play in a long time... I guess the Rudan Out thread can be put off for a while...

[Upthehill]

Ok so heres a question I dont know the answer to. When is the last time we had a player genuinely earn a spot off another player? I mean, Cleur was doing just fine but you'd be hard pressed to let Simmo go back to the bench at this point.

Most changes have been because someone has been significantly underperforming. Baccus Jnr maybe but again, that midfield was dismal 

[Potkorok]

Such a brilliant game, although I’m also hoping Layouni is just a twinge or fatigue. Only negative on a night of so many positives! So happy Simmons got on the scoreboard. Still can’t believe we pinched both him and Nieuwenhoff from the Smurfs. Not to mention Ninko
We were fantastic to watch tonight. Classy stuff!

[mack]

24 minutes ago, Upthehill said:

Ok so heres a question I dont know the answer to. When is the last time we had a player genuinely earn a spot off another player? I mean, Cleur was doing just fine but you'd be hard pressed to let Simmo go back to the bench at this point.

Most changes have been because someone has been significantly underperforming. Baccus Jnr maybe but again, that midfield was dismal 

Borrello sending the guy who I can't even remember his name now packing up front? Layouni clearly took the right wing spot off Amalfitano/Yengi/Yeni etc.

[sonar]

2 minutes ago, mack said:

Borrello sending the guy who I can't even remember his name now packing up front?

Would you like a Kryptic clue. ?

[Upthehill]

Just now, mack said:

Borrello sending the guy who I can't even remember his name now packing up front?

Kinda. At that point Tomi Mrcela looked like our best striker. We had tried Ngbakoto, Blake, Sapsford there and then borello owned it.

Simmo has forced a performing player out of his spot

[WSWJACK]

Just watched Simmons goal over and over again, outstanding simply joyful, so happy for the fella, if you saw a goal like that in the World Cup it would be replayed to death.

And what was with the Nix tripping, pulling, kicking all game long, ref let them get away with murder.

Rudan seemed to enjoy that 4th goal, turned to the nix fans and gave it some 

[ManfredSchaefer]

That was the best performance by a WSW team I’ve seen in person at Wanderland 2.0 since we moved back to Parra. Possibly the most complete win against the Nix since the Gombau-Wow era.

if the team can repeat that standard of football in the coming weeks we might have more than a sniff of the dunny seat 

[Ononono]

28 minutes ago, WSWJACK said:

Rudan seemed to enjoy that 4th goal, turned to the nix fans and gave it some 

Haha yeah saw that. Clearly doesnt care much for his time back at the nix anymore.

[ManfredSchaefer]

BTW did anyone else see the Salami King, Dear Leader Lederer patrolling the perimeter post-match on the Eastern Stadium side?
Must’ve been a big win for him to crawl out of his hermetically sealed bank vault 

Edited April 21, 2023 by ManfredSchaefer

[StillAtMeurantsLane]

8 hours ago, MistahCampoy said:

like they had a convo yesterday at training that if we are up by 2 or more then he would waste time before he is subbed off right on the 60th min as we need him to be fresh against city 

[StillAtMeurantsLane]

 

What I liked also that even in the 2nd Half when we were ahead anyway the commitment to chase them down and close off the space was great to watch. 

 

[BoyFromTheWest]

Borello, as always, was flatout chasing the ball well into extra time. He just never stops!!!!

[VedranRozic]

I will say it again (this time more seriously). We are going to win it.

[Paul01]

13 minutes ago, VedranRozic said:

I will say it again (this time more seriously). We are going to win it.

Only if Layouni doesn't have a hamstring injury

[MajorMelons]

10 hours ago, Unlimited said:

I’ll watch the highlights soon

Just taking the train home now - the girl and I had a nice time at the bar with some drinks and nibbles, then went for a nice walk down the harbour front. I got a hug. 

If that’s all you got then you would have been better off going to the game.