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Some kind of Wanderful: Western Sydney 5-4 Brisbane

Roar Guru
24th April, 2016
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Will Wanderers fans show up in Perth? (AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts)
Roar Guru
24th April, 2016
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In years to come, 20,054 lucky fans will be able to say to their friends, “I was there.”

The Western Sydney Wanderers-Brisbane Roar semi final at Wanderland was not a game – it was a religious experience. Quite simply, it does not get better than this.

Sure, coaches would pull their hair out at some of the early defending but if this is finals football, if this is Australian football, then we’ve got it right, don’t touch it, nothing needs to change.

You could have heard a pin drop when the Roar opened the scoring from the penalty spot, dispatched with clinical aplomb by Dimitri Petratos, after a handball from a corner conceded in bizarre circumstances by Brendan Santalab. By the 20th minute, the Roar were 3-0 up and out of sight.

Well, almost. Parramatta Stadium was stirred into life by a Romeo Castelan free kick which disintegrated the sandcastle posing as a wall erected by the Roar defence. When Santalab paid back the debt owed due to his foolish clearance by scoring a second, Wanderland was pumping again.

By the 60th minute, incredibly, the Wanderers were 4-3 up and commentators and pundits alike had run out of superlatives to describe this amazing game. Roar goalkeeper Jamie Young had kept his side in the game with a string of brilliant saves but he couldn’t keep out Castelan’s hat-trick strike.

Now it was the Roar who looked gone. We should have known better. Brisbane Roar have garnered a reputation for never being out of the fight, ever since that stirring comeback in the now second-best A League game of all time, the 2011 grand final. Tommy Oar’s introduction gave the Roar some zip down the flanks when they sorely needed it, and his cross from the left found Jamie McLaren who swept the ball home to make it 4-4 in the 80th minute.

What the Roar really needed was some guile and guidance in the middle third, and in Thomas Broich, they would normally have had that. Puzzlingly, he was subbed in the 63rd minute for Henrique, who may well have benefited from Broich’s attacking passes.

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As this epic contest headed to extra time, Wanderers coach Tony Popovic still had two substitutes up his sleeve. He introduced Shannon Cole as extra time began and immediately the fresh legs helped. Cole made a nuisance of himself with and without the ball. But it was other sub Dario Vidosic who scored the winner in the 102nd minute. Not even the Roar’s vaunted powers of recovery were enough to force the game to penalties.

If a script writer submitted this game as a synopsis for a play or movie, they’d have it thrown back at them for lack of realism. There was a sense of unreality watching it unfold. The fact that six goals were scored before either keeper made a save is testament to the bizarre nature of the football on display. Bizarre, yet truly exhilarating.

A word on the referee. Peter Green officiated this game superbly. He was unflappable, often playing the advantage to perfection. No decision was controversial, every player booked deserved their ticket, and his calmness kept a lid on a game that could have exploded in the wrong hands.

A DVD of this match should be posted to EPL referee Jon Moss who ruined the Leicester City-West Ham United game last week with a total lack of control, a slew of rash decisions, and a terribly obvious “square-up” in the last minute.

On this night, 28 players contributed to a classic that will last the ages. If the upcoming grand final between Adelaide United and the Wanderers is half as good, the city of churches will be rocked to its catacombs.

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