A lightning strike in the first minute was cancelled out by sloppy defending as the Western Sydney Wanderers lost their AFC Asian Champions League debut as Ulsan Hyundai scored three unanswered goals to take the match 3-1.
Tomi Juric was absent due to injury sustained against Perth Glory but his replacement Brendon Santalab made his own dazzling mark on the Asian Champions League in just 40 seconds. Shinji Ono lobbed the ball over the Ulsan defence for the run of Santalab, who turned and fired a side volley past the diving Ulsan goalkeeper to the delight of the 11,000 strong crowd.
Ulsan showed the higher quality of the ACL by responding to going behind with aplomb. With the field obscured as a result of half a dozen smoke bombs being let off in the RBB, the shell shocked Wanderers defence failed to clear the ball. Jerome Polenz, Aaron Mooy & Nikolai Topor-Stanley all failed to get the job done in the area, South Korean international Kim Shin Wook fired a snapshot into the bottom right corner to equalise.
The smoke bombs will see an expensive bill from the Asian Football Confederation for the Wanderers with each device coming with a $5,000 USD price tag. The AFC can also sanction the Wanderers to playing matches behind closed doors if more pyro is let off in future matches.
3 minutes before half-time Western Sydney failed yet again to clear their lines. Jerome Polenz hit a defensive header back across the face of goal, Matthew Spiranovic could only nod the ball onto the cultured left foot of Ko Chang Hyun who hit a low half-volley across Ante Covic, the South Koreans taking a 2-1 lead into the break.
The game was effectively over as a contest when a third defensive mix up saw Ulsan lead 3-1 through another South Korean international. Kang Min-Soo pounced on a rebound after Iacopo La Rocca could only flick on a defensive header into the chest of Min-Soo, who let the ball drop before tapping home from point-blank range under a scrambling Covic.
The first match for the Wanderers in Asia shows just how tough the competition is. Mistakes are punished without mercy. My personal hope is that even if the Wanderers manage to lose all 6 matches our supporters do not turn against the competition like others have done in the past. Tonight did not dampen my enthusiasm for the Wanderers playing in the ACL one iota. The A-League & FFA Cup are not the only competitions this club can win.
Clubs in the A-League often talk about wanting to become the biggest club in Asia. They often forget that they need to start by becoming a club in Asia. The Wanderers want to compete in Asia every season, and playing in the ACL shows the club where we stand in our confederation. The ACL will push the players, coaching staff, supporters and those who run the club. Standing still is not an option. This club is not measured merely against other clubs in Australia, but against clubs across Asia. Improvement to reach the level of clubs we face in the group stage and potentially in the knock-out rounds will take time and should not be expected overnight.
The goal of this club is not just to win the A-League and/or FFA Cup.
It is to do one better than Adelaide United did, with Western Sydney wining the Asian Champions League.
I expect every member and follower of this club to support that goal one hundred percent just as we expect the players to give that much on the field in every match we play.
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