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Western Sydney Wanderers fans are a life force of their own. They are passionate, loud, colourful and strong in number, as energetic off the park as the players they support so well are on it.
The A-League Sydney derby on Saturday night was a coming of age for club football in the Harbour City. A crowd of 40,338 was the all-time largest crowd for a regular season club game in Sydney.
The atmosphere inside the ground was unlike anything that most Australian sports fans have ever experienced. I went with two relative A-League “rookies” who were spellbound from the start by the colour and noise, so much so that all three of us missed Iacopo La Rocca’s opening goal given we were watching the Red and Black Bloc do their stuff.
The action on the pitch didn’t tell a cheery story for those from the blue half of the city.
Sydney FC were inept in the opening half, toothless in attack and disjointed in defence. The Wanderers were able to switch the point of the attack with clever and swift movement in the middle third of the pitch, often managing to isolate Yousseff Hersi on the right flank, ensuring left full back Marc Warren endured a torrid time.
Shinji Ono is wonderful at drifting between the lines and making himself available in positions that have him facing goal. he delivered the cross for the Wanderers opener and scored the second himself, almost stealing a play from those of another code who grace the Sydney Football Stadium turf, with a chip and chase that thoroughly bamboozled the central defenders. At 2-0 after 25 minutes, it was virtually game over, as it ultimately proved to be.
At the other end of the park, two defensive rocks anchored the Wanderers back four. That Michael Beauchamp and Nikolai Topor-Stanley were once Sydney FC players must be especially galling for Sky Blues fans. Their authority and positioning ensured that Ante Covic in the Wanderers goal hardly dirtied his gloves. Frank Farina would no doubt swap either one of them for the woeful Tiago Calvano, who moves about as quickly as the statue of Dally Messenger outside the stadium. He must be Sydney’s marquee backpacker.
The Sky Blues were better in the second half but the Wanderers were content to sit back and hit them on the break. Two more ex-SFC players in Shannon Cole and Brendan Santalab were deployed to good effect in the second stanza, and for their statistical superiority in possession, Sydney did not fashion a clear-cut chance.
At the other end, it was Calvano who almost gifted the Wanderers a third with a nonsensical back heel which had goalkeeper Vedran Janjetovic rushing out to clear from the flying studs of Wanderers Number 9 Tomi Juric. The youngster, a star in the making for sure, was lucky to stay on the park with his studs-up challenge clattering Janjetovic and earning him one of a deck of yellow cards handed out in the last 45 minutes.
While Farina has a lot to work on, the loss of Alessandro Del Piero was an on-field blow for the hosts, but did not appear to affect the numbers who surged into the stadium. There have been the usual murmers about “fan behaviour” and one of the friends who attended with me described the letting off of a flare as a “bit naughty” (which I agree with).
However, there were very few incidents in a crowd of 40,000 plus and fans of both teams entered and exited the ground together, mixing before and after the match, creating an unforgettable atmosphere and making the Sydney derby a must-see event.
The Cove’s unveiling of a huge banner pre-match saying “There Are Some Things You Don’t Turn Your Back On” was a wonderfully cheeky repost to the RBB who nonetheless “did the Poznan” at the 80 minute mark to the delighted astonishment of those who’d never seen it before.
The way the Wanderers are growing, the government might need to fast-track plans for a capacity upgrade of Parramatta Stadium. Their fans deserve a bigger Wanderland.
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