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  • No Windy Wellington Worries For Wanderers Win

    mack

    By mack

    A dominant second half display by Western Sydney saw Nikolai Topor-Stanley score his first goal for the club and Labinot Haliti cap his 100th A-League game with a tap-in to secure a 6 point gap over 5th place as Wellington capitulated in the Kiwi capital this afternoon.

     

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    Western Sydney started out the match on top of their lower ranked opponents, Youssouf Hersi with good work early on which created a chance for Aaron Mooy that the young midfielder wasn't able to latch onto. After 5 minutes Wellington had their first major attempt on goal, Stein Huysegems barreling through the Wanderers defence before a last ditch tackle by Michael Beauchamp stopped the big striker in his tracks. Hersi had his own break on the right, the cutback to Mooy was on, but blocked by Wellington.

     

    With Wellington relying on long balls and deep crosses, it was no surprise at the source of the next Wellington chance. Huysegems latched onto a deep cross from the left wing, stooped down with a diving header and made solid contact. It was not directed well however and went out for a goal kick. Western Sydney allowed Wellington to pass the ball around their back four before putting pressure by driving them backward toward goal. The high pressing nearly paid dividends when Labinot Haliti charged down a Mark Paston clearance. It could have fallen anywhere but unfortunately for the Wanderers it went far away from goal.

     

    Huysegems was close to scoring the opening goal completely against the run of play. Louis Fenton ran at the defence before laying off a pass toward Huysegems. With a measured stroke he launched a pile driver that had Ante Covic beaten but cracked the crossbar and ballooned into the air. The clearance fell for another long shot by Wellington but Nikolai Topor-Stanley blocked it. The ball eventually fell out for a goal kick. Western Sydney piled on the pressure before halftime with numerous corners but as they have all season their set piece work had no end result. Vince Lia had his very long ranged effort saved by a full length dive from Covic and the two teams went into the break at 0-0.

     

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    Haliti opened the 2nd half with a snapshot that stung the palms of Paston. A 50th minute corner by Wellington was headed back across goal by Andrew Durante, Louis Fenton attempted an audacious volley but blazed it high over the bar. As the hour mark came the Wanderers were in complete control, only lacking the goal their dominance deserved. Jerome Polenz, Iacopo La Rocca, Mark Bridge and Haliti all had a crack at getting the scoreboard ticking but Polenz toe poke was tipped over the bar, La Rocca lofted his effort high, Bridge fired his volley straight at Paston and Haliti hit the side netting.

     

    Wellington began to fight back, Dani Sanchez sparking a melee in central midfield after kicking out at Aaron Mooy. Captain Beauchamp stood up for his young charge by telling Sanchez off. A half-dozen players streamed into shouting range of each other but the two main combatants were quickly separated by Lia and Bridge and Sanchez was shown a yellow card. Mooy continued to take control of the match, a much improved performance from the first half. He drew a yellow card challenge on Vince Lia and was the architect of the first Wanderers goal for Topor-Stanley.

     

    With 70 minutes on the clock the Wellington defence failed to clear their lines, it fell to Mooy who spun his marker and delivered a pinpoint cross to the centre of the penalty box. Topor-Stanley stayed forward and made a great run, getting in front Ben Sigmund before Topor stooped low to connect with a diving header that Paston got a hand to but couldn't keep out. The goal was just reward for both the Wanderers in the match and for Topor-Stanley who has been a colossus this season for Western Sydney. Tony Popovic gave Mooy a well earned rest, bringing on the substitute Shinji Ono for the last 15 minutes of the match.

     

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    Paston continued to be in the wars, Hersi, Bridge, Ono and Haliti playing havoc, forcing the Kiwi keeper into a number of saves and long punts to clear the ball from danger. Confusion reigned in the Wellington defence and allowed Haliti to celebrate his 100th A-League game with a goal. Mark Bridge chased down a wayward pass, hooking it back over his shoulder to keep the ball in. Sigmund let the ball bounce game as he wanted Paston to collect. Paston expected Sigmund to clear, and all the pair managed to do was tap the ball toward goal and cause Sigmund to fall over. Haliti didn't need to make the tap-in but like any striker would he emphatically struck the ball home from a meter out.

     

    Wellington were impotent in the half, not having a single shot on target and only two very early shots off target. As Wellington pushed forward hoping to get back into the match it left a huge gap in their defence. On the counter attack Mark Bridge found an unmarked Ono, instead of shooting first time he took a touch that was poor and somehow tangled the ball beneath his feet. After the previous weeks of spectacular scoring it was an aberration but at 2-0 up with minutes to play the Japanese international could see the funny side of things. The final whistle fell and all but the four travelling Wanderers supporters in the crowd of 6,608 would go home disappointed.

     

    The Wanderers next match is against Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, on Sunday the 20th of January at 5:00pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time.

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    DeeDee

    Great win!!!

    These are the type of games we need to pick up the 3 points against.

    Great to see Haliti bag a goal, shame Mooy couldnt get on the score sheet.

    Great goal though by Toppa.

     

    We made enough chances in the second half to win 4-0.

     

    Ps: Bridge is soooo frustrating!!!!!!

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    WSWJuve

    Great win in probably the 2nd hardest away trip in the league.

     

    Absolutely murdered them in the second half, scoreline flattered them. I just love how defensively solid we are, must be an absolute nightmare for opposition strikers to deal with us, were just so organised at the back. A credit to Tony Popovic and all the good work he's done in building a solid, functional squad.

     

    Good times at the moment. I loved NTS goal, diving headers FTW!

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    mack

    You can tell someone is a defender when they make a diving header out of a ball that's barely above shin level.

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    RoboCop

    the kiwi commentators were shithouse

    There were times when they paused for so long that I thought there was a connection problem. No heart or feeling in their words.

     

    Loved the way we shut them down in the second half. Deserved win.

     

    See you all on the 26th. Very excited!!!!

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    Boban

    You can tell someone is a defender when they make a diving header out of a ball that's barely above shin level.

     

    Far easier to generate power and direction with a diving header in that position than to try and volley it.  It also wasn't at shin height.  IMHO, it was a perfect height for a diving header.

     

    I must admit that I was getting frustrated with Mooy especially in the first half.  He gave away the ball, turned into trouble and held onto the ball for far too long at times.  Then he get 3 points in the Alex Tobin awards!  Take your WSW bias out of the picture, and tell me if I was not the only one who saw it that way.

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    Boban

    Picked his game up massively 2nd half though

     

    No doubt, but did second half effort warrant the 3 points in the Alex Tobin award?  That's the part that confuses me somewhat.

     

    If it wasn't to be him, who would you give it to?  For mine, I think NTS was consistent for the whole match, as was Beauchamp who pulled of a perfect slide tackle in the first half.

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    Boban

    I thought NTS got the 3 points and Mooy got 2.

     

    You could be right, but that doesn't change my view on his performance.  I just don't think he was anywhere near his best.

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    Jukes01

    Not sure I totally understood why Popa left Ono out of the starting 11. Maybe he felt in the 2nd half he could run riot with a tired Wellington side. Maybe he was carrying a slight injury, hmmmm really not sure. It was a strange match all in all and I think the weather had a big part to play in it. The first half we weren't that great and the wind held the ball up in a lot of instances. We played better in the 2nd half with no real player standing out, just a good solid effort. Not the easiest away trip so I was pretty happy with getting the 3 points. For his 100th match I thought Haliti played well. Nice to see him score too.

    Edited by Jukes01
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    Davo

    I think Popa's reasoning was that Wellington are playing rubbish, lets make sure Mooy and Ono don't have to play 90 mins.

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    RoboCop

    I think Popa's reasoning was that Wellington are playing rubbish, lets make sure Mooy and Ono don't have to play 90 mins.

    Spot on. Smart move that proved to be the correct one.

     

    Melbourne Heart will be very pumped for the 26th. Ono will be very fresh,

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    Natethan

    I called for haliti to play as our striker after the last game and it was nice to see him given the chance. I thought he had a very good game bar a few wayward shots. Our attack flows better when we have a focal point that can both hold the ball up and be mobile enough to pressure defenders into making mistakes (I.e. his goal).

     

    Overall meh first half but fantastic second. Should have been up by about four by the end of the game.

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    Davo

    I read a stat in the comments of the TWG article for the match. Apparently this game brought the total A-League attendance for the season past the 1,000,000 mark, taking 13 less games than last season to achieve. You'd have to think that'd be down to the huge difference between our attendances and Gold Coast.

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    Tigers

    Not sure I totally understood why Popa left Ono out of the starting 11. Maybe he felt in the 2nd half he could run riot with a tired Wellington side. Maybe he was carrying a slight injury, hmmmm really not sure.

    my take is Popa was just resting him after playing nearly 2 full games in hot conditions in the last 2 rounds, Popa has rotated and rested just about every player and seems to be conservative with man management so far. ono also got a couple of knocks against victory so a bit of rest might be good.

    there's also the topic that deserves its own thread about mooy and ono playing in the same team, in the last 8 games they have only started together 2 times by my reckoning and we've been doing pretty well. they basically play the same position? i think we look more balanced defensively when 1 of mooy/ono play with 2 more defensive mids, but then obviously we lose some attacking structure.

     

    anyway another fantastic away win by the boys, the wind was shocking again, first half the game looked a 50-50 bet (covic, what a save!) but we totally dominated the second half. is that the most dominant half we have ever had? even including the adelaide game. there were minutes of the second half where wellington couldn't get the ball off us and when they did we pressured them into giving it straight back. awesome to see topor get on the scoresheet! not to mention about a million defensive headers again. and great pass by mooy to topor to set up the goal. my man of match beauchamp was supreme again at the back, tackling and cleaning up everything - we really missed him in the 2 losses we had to newcastle and central coast when he didn't play. haliti might be a better option than gibbs up front at the moment, but need to give him a few more games and see how he's going then. and bridge had an ok game but was frustrating again, so some things don't change! finally, have to mention that pass off his back by hersi! haven't seen that before. on to next week.

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    mack

    Wellington only had three non-blocked shots in the second half, all three off target. They had next to no pressure and were constantly losing the ball. We weren't great, maybe 60% of full capacity but still got the three points.

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    Pup55

    wellington stunk.

    we did the job.

    and got 3 points.

     

    Popa pulls the right rein again. in a match that was so windy and passing the ball so difficult, Popa leaves Shinji on the bench, plays La Rocca and Poljak so we are solid and compact, and we come home with a thoroughly deserved 3 points.

     

    the man is a genius

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    pushiepedlar

    Popa leaves Shinji on the bench, plays La Rocca and Poljak so we are solid and compact,

    This...

     

    Playing with 2 defensive minded midfielders made sure wellington were never comfortable on the ball. It allowed hersi, bridge and mooy to work hard with haliti at pressuring the wellington defence when they had posession. And boy didn't it work!!! Lost count of the number of times we basically had the ball given to us in attacking positions. Should've scored at least 2 more goals

     

    It did mean in the first half it we struggled to keep possession (the wind wouldn't have helped) but once we got a handle on the conditions it was onle a matter of time. NTS with a text book diving header and haliti with reward for all his hard work up front. I do like Joey Gibbs but Haliti is our in form front man at the moment, his work rate was great.

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    blameturner

     

     

     

     

     

     

    To everyone who made the effort to come to the Woolpack, good on you!

    Kinda stuck at King Tom. I'll be there next week.
    We were wondering where you were.
    Nice to know that I'm loved.

    You're not

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    Erebus

    The way Phoenix players were hacking ours, no wonder Popa left Ono on the bench. He did that when we played Perth the first time around also.

    Popa always adjusts the starting XI based off the opposition. He has never had the same XI back to back all season. And it appears to be working. It means the team doesn't rely solely on 1 player to get results. Anyone can slot in and get the job done. This is crucial for injury/suspension cover. Other teams struggle when a couple players are out for one reason or another. We on the other hand just continue on as if nothing has happened.

     

    Popa will get coach of the year award without a doubt.

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    ManfredSchaefer

     

    the kiwi commentators were shithouse

    There were times when they paused for so long that I thought there was a connection problem. No heart or feeling in their words.

     

    Loved the way we shut them down in the second half. Deserved win.

     

    See you all on the 26th. Very excited!!!!

     

    You get used to the at times ordinary commentary provided by Foxtel but those two Kiwi idiots are possibly the worst sports commentators I've heard since Kate Fitzpatrick was used at the cricket. Uninspiring and biased...even Robbie Slater would've been more bearable.

     

    We need these two commentating on any Wanderers V Phoenix games...

     

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    weeMan

    The wind made the game very scrappy and it took the us the first half of the game to get used to the conditions but once we did, we basically took the second half out.

    Good effort although we could've had more if not for the final ball. But then again, conditions weren't the best for a top passing game.

    Well done popa and the boys. It gets better with every game!

     

    Anyone know how we can catch A-league games online overseas? Foxtel Go isn't going to work!

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    matty

    Poor first half but great second. Really strangled them. Credit to Popa.

     

    PS the afl Jersey :( better off going starkas next time

    Link to comment
    Sub

    Poor first half but great second. Really strangled them. Credit to Popa.

     

    PS the afl Jersey :( better off going starkas next time

     

    +1 Especially the AFL part.

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