Gersbach Masterclass Defeats Western United

Lawrence Thomas and the Western Sydney Wanderers celebrated his contract extension with a dominant win against 3rd placed Western United to all but secure the Red & Black's place in the A-League finals.

Zac Sapsford had the first chance of the game for the Wanderers, he found space at the back post and attempted a header on his back foot that lacked power. Perhaps heading it back across goal was the better option but it's hard to blame a striker for striking at goal. Western United were trying extremely hard to stop the Wanderers playing down the right side of Nicolas Milanovic, Brandon Borrello & Gabriel Cleur.

Sapsford began a move in the 18th minute that should have resulted in the first goal of the game. He found the open space he was missing so far, surging running through the midfield, breaking to the final line of defence and turning a 2 on 2 with Borrello into a 2 on 1 by dribbling around Tomoki Imai and passing it to Borrello, the stadium held it's breathe only for the onrushing Matt Sutton to make himself big and block the shot, a disappointing end for a glorious attacking move.

Cleur rescued the Wanderers from a potential 3 on 4 defensive problem with a great challenge on Riku Danzaki in the 23rd minute. In the 27th Sapsford created a corner with another long run this time down the right flank, requiring Sutton to turn it over the bar. Off the resulting corner it fell from a half-clearance to Milanovic and he blasted it at goal, bouncing it in front of Sutton who stuck out a right hand for another corner. There was a carbon copy with another shot to Milanovic, but this time it went well wide to relieve the pressure.

Matthew Grimaldi should have copped the first yellow card of the game in the 31st minute after bringing down Bozhidar Kraev 30 yards out from goal by jumping all over the Bulgarian to prevent him dribbling into the box. Instead it was a mere free kick, smashed into the wall by Borrello and eventually rolling over the byline for a goal kick.

A 33rd minute corner for Western United almost provided the opening goal, a deep corner to the far post where Hiroshi Ibusuki rose above Kraev, at point blank range you would expect him to score but instead he nodded it into the crossbar and over.

The Wanderers finally broke the game open on the stroke of half-time. Alex Gersbach scoring his first A-League goal, and his first in a senior league competition since his days as a 16 year old in the Australian Institute of Sport team playing in the Canberra NPL in 2013. Gersbach started and ended the move, a through ball to Borrello that the striker chased down before it ran out, he came inside and managed to toe it into the path of Gersbach who had continued his run and his left foot first touch took him past the split central defensive pair and set up a chip over the top of Sutton after the keeper had gone to the deck to block a tap-in. It was a well taken finish for a player not noted for his scoring talents to break his 13 year league goal drought. John Aloisi reacted to his team going in behind and failing to take a single shot on target in the first 45 by swapping Luke Vickery on for Grimaldi before the start of the second half.

Aloisi's side had failed to create any good chances in the stages after the break and when the hour mark came he made another change hoping to break the cycle of Wanderers dominance, with the arrival of midfielder Jordan Launton and departure of Rhys Bozinhovski.

It seemed certain that Western United would equalise in the 62nd minute and again in the 64th but Thomas refused to let his line be broken. The Wanderers let WU finally put their first shot on target and miraculously it never ended up in the back of the net. A simple left foot cross arrived where Ibusuki towered over the defence and planted a header into the ground with only the clamped feet of Thomas blocked the first shot, the second was blocked on the line and there were no more Western United players available to poke it home. Minutes later a second chance fell to Ibusuki who hit a rocket down and unerringly toward the corner, only for Thomas and his lightning reaction to keep it out.

Alex Gersbach responded to Western United finally showing up by putting a stop to their momentum. A direct from a corner goal from a horrendous howler from Sutton. Having been the best player in white for over an hour he spluttered at the wrong moment, the corner came in high and curled to the far post, Sutton was backpedalling, jumping, grabbing at and spilling the ball into his own net to make it 2-0.

Alen Stajcic went to the bench for the first time, bringing on Marcus Antonsson for the hard working Sapsford and Aloisi injecting Michael Ruhs for Noah Botic. With 10 to go Aloisi emptied his bench with former Wanderer Ramy Najjarine coming on for Danzaki and James Donachie on for Ben Garrucio. The Wanderers remained stoic in defence as Western United threw the kitchen sink at the Wanderers, with tired bodies having trouble keeping the ball for the home side. The frustration boiled over for Ruhs and he was yellow carded after an off the ball whack into the stomach of Gersbach.

With stoppage time approaching Milanovic had run himself ragged and he came off for Ayden Hammond and Joshua Brillante off for Mo Al-Taay. Jarrod Carluccio came on with thirty seconds left on stoppage time, and it was Borrello who began removing his shin pads and medical tape to take just a few more seconds off the clock before referee Ben Abraham ended the game with the Wanderers securing a precious three points, Western United being kept scoreless for the first time outside Victoria and being defeated for only the 3rd away game for the season. The Wanderers unbeaten run stretched to 9 games, the home winning streak to 4 and taking 4th place on the A-League ladder on goal difference over Melbourne Victory.

The Wanderers next game is against Melbourne City in Parramatta on Saturday the 19th of April with kick-off at 7:35pm.