Two world class strikes from marquee Ono overcame stubborn Melbourne Victory resistance to win 2-1, lifting and lift Western Sydney to 3rd place on the A-League ladder.
On a beautifully clear but scorching afternoon, Shinji Ono opened up the shooting gallery early, scuffing his shot after a Dino Kresinger flick-on. The 10th minute saw Mark Bridge take on a spectacular side-swinging volley on the end of a Jerome Polenz cross. His connection was powerful but lacked direction and the ball flew high into the hot summer air. This occurred while Melbourne Victory were down to 10 men as Guilherme Finkler went down with a severe looking knee injury that suggested a possible anterior cruciate ligament injury, but was later reported by Melbourne officials to be a medial ligament strain, however post game scans indicated that it was in fact an ACL injury and will keep Finkler out for up to a year. Finkler was replaced by Andrew Nabbout.
Nabbout had an immediate impact with two shots inside his first minute on the pitch. The first corner for the Wanderers was too long from Ono, missing all the players in the box. Shannon Cole chested down the bouncing ball and struck a sweet volley with his left that flashed just wide of the far post. The Victory philosophy of playing out at the back at all costs nearly cost them the lead, La Rocca robbed Jonathan Bru deep in the Victory half of the pitch, the ball wormed it's way back to La Rocca after a midfield tangle between Kresinger and the defensive cover of Melbourne. La Rocca touched the ball out of his feet and lined up his effort from distance. Victory keeper Nathan Coe dove to his right and beat the ball around the post.
The 21st minute saw the first card of the contest. A mis control by Polenz saw Adama Traore go in studs first with a high boot that caught the defender. Referee Lucien Laverdure quickly went for the yellow card. Kresinger's late tackle on Marcos Flores put the Victory playmaker on the turf and Kresinger into the notebook alongside Traore. The trend continued as Youssouf Hersi dragged Rojas to the ground, a stupid yellow card to give, another example of his trait to give away silly fouls when they aren't needed.
Ono blasted a warning shot at the Mariners when his left footed drive went wide of the mark, but his next attempt was right on target. Kresinger pressured Coe into an aimless central clearance. Topor-Stanley thundered into midfield and headed it toward Ono. The Japanese international juggled the ball twice with his right foot, the second juggled setup the strike on his left, going between the legs of Leijer and beating Coe who couldn't get down low enough to block the ball. Parramatta Stadium has seen many sporting events in different codes over the years and that goal would stand against any other demonstration of skill and technique in the history of the stadium.
The sun began to set over the stadium and the game took a long time to regain the same intensity it had before the break. TV viewers were shown vision of the half-time team-talks. Ange Postecoglu was pacing back and forth, absolutely ropable with his team while the Wanderers were in high spirits. A dangerous moment early in the half was Hersi breaking down the right and crossing along the ground into the box, Dino and Ono both not able to get on the end of it. A succession of fouls on both teams broke up many attacking moves before they had the chance to develop, Nabbout, Archie Thompson and Bridge both opened up on goal but weren't much trouble for the opposing keepers.
Controversy struck in the 60th minute, Mark Bridge placed a shot that appeared to be on track for goal, Adrian Leijer got his arm in the way of the ball but the referee didn't agree and waved away the penalty claims. From the resulting corner Michael Beauchamp stabbed at goal on a deflected shot by Cole, that won another corner off Coe. The barrage continued from the corner with Polenz having his shot blocked, and Cole taking a shot that spooned over the bar. The best chance of the half thus far went to Hersi, Poljak threaded a through-ball to Hersi, it was slightly heavy, forcing Hersi wide, and despite rounding the keeper the time taken allowed Traore to clear it out for a corner.
The marquee man from Japan then struck for a second time. La Rocca found Ono with a simple pass, faked a pass onto the wing which took Flores and Foschini out of the defensive equation and cut back inside onto his right foot. With a wide open goal to aim at Ono bent the ball into the side netting and not even the full length dive by Coe could prevent it. His 85th minute substitution was met with a standing ovation across the stadium, including Jerrad Tyson the reserve goalkeeper. The last shot of the game was an 88th minute effort by Thompson that went nowhere near goal.
The Wanderers were better at taking their shots and putting shots on target, with 22 shots, 8 on target and 6 blocked compared to 14 taken, 5 on target and 7 blocked by Melbourne. The possession was 43% Western Sydney and 57% Victory as could be expected based on the two playing philosophies. This match was decided by the brilliance of Ono and the lack of brilliance from the top level players wearing the storied fluro yellow of Melbourne. Thompson and Rojas never got the chance to launch one of their deadly length of the pitch sweeping counter-attacks, and Flores was the exact opposite of fluro yellow by being completely invisible. Whatever happened in China has destroyed his confidence and Postecoglu cannot persist with a passenger in such a key area.
Western Sydney kept to their system as opposed to the earlier season loss to Melbourne and they came away with three points as a reward for stopping the potent attack lined up against them. The win catapults them into 3rd position on 23 points by goal difference over Victory, 7 behind Central Coast and 5 behind Adelaide United.
The Wanderers next match is against the Central Coast Mariners at Parramatta Stadium, Parramatta, on Sunday the 6th of January at 6:00pm Eastern Daylight Savings Time.
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