The Western Sydney Wanderers put themselves into a position of hope after defeating Kawasaki Frontale.
There are more questions than answers at this stage of the season, and that’s something to be excited about in the Wanderers’ camp.
After a fairytale first season of existence, the test was always going to come when the Western Sydney Wanderers came up against adversity and whether the club’s fans would stay in a fickle Sydney sports market.
This match elevated the Wanderers clear into second place in the Asian Champions League group H. Kawasaki, as a result of the loss, sit in third on three points.
Kawasaki coach, Yahiro Kazama obviously believes things aren’t over. When questioned about his side’s return of three points in three games he responded, “We didn’t execute but we have two home matches coming and we definitely need to win these matches.”
Their very next home match will, coincidentally, be against the Wanderers side that beat them tonight. Kazama is betting the side he fields at home will not allow the Wanderers to defend a one goal lead for 87 minutes.
Ascension from Group H is no certainty yet for the Wanderers, but there will be hope. Among players, coaches and fans will be a feeling the best results are still out there this year.
10 points is usually enough for qualification, so the Wanderers need to find a win and a draw out of the next three games, which include trips to Kawasaki as well as Ulsan Hyundai.
The interesting thing about this win was the manner in which it was executed – almost to a tee how the win in China came about and how Tony Popovic probably envisioned the loss to Ulsan Hyundai might end up as well.
When Ulsan visited, the Wanderers scored after 46 seconds, but defensive mistakes – egregious ones – plagued the side on the way to a 3-1 loss against a team in the final stages of their offseason. Those defensive issues dogged the team for the next few weeks in the A-League as well, leading to losses against Newcastle Jets and Sydney FC.
However, on Wednesday night last week, the Wanderers scored away to Guizhou Renhe – although in only the 19th minute – with a team made up of largely second-stringers and managed to avoid any fatal mistakes, especially the type of gifts being offered the last few weeks.
The game against Adelaide United on the weekend was the perfect tune-up for the ACL clash with Kawasaki. United dominated possession and territory but the Wanderers returned to the same compact formation that served them well in mid-week – and if we’re honest, all of last year too.
Suddenly the Wanderers were playing a true counter-attacking game and relying on their sturdy defence to win matches.
Against United, the difference they were defending a draw. Against Kawasaki the early dash forward by Kwabena Appiah, splitting open the defence for Tomi Juric to toe past the keeper to the waiting Labinot Haliti for the finish, was the difference, giving a one-goal lead to defend.
From the third minute on, the Wanderers dashed around the field like a team that was hoping. Hoping their effort would be rewarded another time. Hoping the many players selected by Popovic as a result of their China exploits would be able to keep the ball-dominating Kawasaki attack at bay.
This time they did.
As it relates to the A-League and the urgent rush to finish in the top two, there is hope as well.
Appiah, one of the hardest working and most relentless during his time on the pitch, hesitated when I asked him if the team could finish in the top two as well as progress in the ACL, “Uhhh… we’re certainly good enough. So I guess we’ll be put to the test.”
That isn’t a confident declaration; it’s a player living in the hope they have what it takes. As good as Appiah was, he knows he’s got a long way to go himself and there’s a lot of water to pass under the bridge before the Wanderers can call this season a success.
And that’s OK.
The ACL is tough, playing in that while trying to succeed in the A-League is hard. Nothing is a given. Hope will encourage the players to work harder.
Popovic is aware of how tough this is. He’s picking players like Antony Golec, Daniel Mullen, Jason Trifiro and Tomi Juric, who haven’t played much in months. hoping they’ll gell together and work for the team.
He praised Juric, saying, “him playing 90 minutes tonight was crazy, but unfortunately we had to leave him out there.”
On the toughness of the game, he mentioned they, “rode our luck a bit out there, towards the end especially but we made it difficult for them as well.”
Hope is of course paired with incredibly hard work, the kind that defends a 1-0 lead for 87 minutes.
So, after three ACL matches and 23 A-League fixtures, there’s hope yet for this Wanderers side in both competitions.
Chowder
Guest
Selfish? Did you not see how he selflessly passed to Haliti to set up the goal? And in any case, he is our only pure striker so he should be taking those 'miracle shots' on ahead of anyone. If there is one frustrating habit wsw have gotten into lately it's holding the ball up too long looking for that perfect opportunity when it would be better to just test the keeper with a shot. So if the only criticism if juric is that he takes shots then there really aren't any negatives. Wsw are a far better team with Juric!
nordster
Guest
Bringing the teams close to each other may work in afl and nrl. In football its damaging....the quality is spread out too thinly. To compete with other Asian teams and ultimately challenge the euros some day, we need to catch up not remain equal. Equality is a negative for quality.
nordster
Guest
A salary cap in europe will destroy those leagues. It aint broke, dont fix it haha....could not be more true in this case. Mutli division leagues with pro/rel make a salary cap unnecessary. Very hard to regulate a cap system across divisions. Plus with overseas owners there are many loopholes and the system would be a joke. All about window dressing for socialist technocrats...like your good self? :P In some ways for us it would be good to cap euro leagues as the top talent will flock to unrestrained Asian leagues. And spreading the best talent around is a Negative fuss....this isnt some socialist fantasy land, its competitive sport.
nordster
Guest
But the salary cap spreads those skillful players out too thinly. This isnt just about wages. We need to end the culture of equalisation....the level playing field.,..in order to condense the best talent at the best clubs.
nordster
Guest
Realfootball....i also started HAL life in favour of the salary cap. It was a reasonable enough way to establish the teams in the initial phase. Now they are up and running, you're right it is time to release the shackles on the top clubs. It already sort of is, but its confined to the elite marquee players. That needs to spread to the base squad. The floor of the wage system also needs removing though, because even with "the cap covered" clubs like CCM are still struggling financially. A club like that needs to be able to choose to spend on coaching perhaps, or other things to remain viable, rather than be forced to spend to the wage floor (85pc). There are a lot of potential areas for new regions as well, and deregulating the labour market at the bottom end will help more CCM size clubs to join the league some day. Hopefully a two division one:) Importantly removing the floor will help enable promotion and relegation....which itself will make removing the cap at the top viable. The two are linked.
Matthew Skellett
Guest
Was at the game wednesday night AZ and I must say even though there was only 9,000 odd people there it was great to see the RBB back to their normal selves and leading the noise factor -lots of Japanese WSW supporters in evidence too :-)
Adrian
Guest
the Salary Cap is the best thing for A-league...it bring all ten team close to each other ..it why A-league now is in top 15 football average (association) football attendance leagues in the world Japan We all forget after watching a J-League team in ACL, that there are 14 other teams not as good as those ACL J-league teams ...the differences between Sanfrecce Hiroshima (top J-league 2013) and Oita Trinita (last 2013) was 49 pts in 34 games , Oita Trinita won 2 games out the 34 games season Japan team at hal way point of Group stage of ACL is 3 wins 3 draws and 6 loses ...so how bad would Oita Trinita be A-league 4 wins 1 draws , 4 lose
Adrian
Guest
several goals last night???? not counting, the very close off side goals not aloud for WSW
bill boomer
Guest
THEIR national team is better by far than ours.
AZ_RBB
Guest
hate to put a downer on the conversation. but i've heard from a number of people today that young children, some under the age of 10 were frisked by security last night alongside every adult in the RBB. the club has apologised and have promised to conduct an investigation. but i would be curious to hear from anyone else who knows more about this.
Towser
Guest
Been saying for a while realfootball that eventually the penny will drop regarding the ACL and our competivity in it. Some concrete action will need to be taken to raise level of all our teams(I gave a proposal the other day ,but reality is it involves a lot of moolah) or if that is not possible allow some of them to raise themselves. Nordster has his view & as I have pointed out to him in an historical football sense he is spot on. Unfortunately we dont have the luxury of Promotion & relegation over a long period to sort out the wheat from the chaff,the big market from the small,CCM from Sydney FC. Speed of ball movement comes from better players on the ball ,in fact better quicker thinking players on the ball,no rocket science Australia as a whole hasn't produced them,even Rogic IMO. For me it's either find a way to raise all teams to the potential of the teams in the biggest(population,football savvy markets) in a limited team wise competition(14 maximum) or bite the bullet and let those who can do. Guess it boils down to what the game wants to achieve here,an also ran Asian League or one of the top Asian Leagues. To compare to Europe a Spain,England,Italy ,Germany whose teams are always in the mix for top honours or the next group France, Portugal Netherlands who have an outside chance or the outsiders like Greece,Belgium, Austria. Personally I"m sick of after 10 years Australia(As it often is in the broader world) being in the Austrian category.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Really happy to see all 3 A-League clubs doing well in this ACL campaign. Still a long way to go in the Group Stage, but imagine if 3 of the final 8 teams in East Asia were from the A-League. I'm now a committed fan of the Salary Cap. It's highly likely a salary cap will be introduced by UEFA nations. I don't follow Serie B in Italy, but it was announced 12 months ago that "Italy’s Serie B to introduce player salary cap" http://www.goal.com/en-za/news/4633/soccerex/2013/03/27/3857051/italys-serie-b-to-introduce-player-salary-cap Anyone who has played any Fantasy Football will understand how effective a salary cap is at spreading the best talent around.
realfootball
Guest
Yep, that's the simple argument. And like all simple arguments about complex issues, it is far from adequate. The consequence of the cap is that we are stuck with a substandard A League. We can see this in the ACL. Yes, we've had some wins. They have all been lucky wins where our teams should have lost. We are long way off the J and K leagues and don't even talk about Evergrande. As long as our bigger clubs are hobbled by the cap, as it is now, our code in this country will never have an answer to the derisory jibes about the status of the comp. AFL and NRL never have to face this issue. I will go further: as long as the cap is in place, no A League club will ever win the ACL. And yet winning the ACL is by far the best thing that could happen to the code in this country. I'm with Nordster: I would rather see us take the risk OR as a minimum go part way, say by allowing 4 senior players outside the cap plus a youth marquee.
striker
Guest
Aljay Juric sefish haha good, without Juric up front they are not the same side everyone knows that.
Elisha Pearce
Expert
The simple argument for the salary cap is it guarantees everyone a chance. If the cap as is now, say $X1, is covered by the tv money thats fine. Take away that cap and you'll have Melb Victory spend $X15 to lure a few more good players. Not only with a club that can only afford $X2 be thrashed, there will be an incentive for management to spend beyond their means. Do you REALLY trust clubs who can only afford $X2 to stick to that? I look at sports management and would argue there will be many poor managers. So, in the form of a salary cap, the league as a whole takes away that risk.
Brendo
Guest
I am still very much pro salary cap. Yes it does have a impact on AFC but less than people think I believe. The problem I believe lies in a cultural where our young players look to overseas from about 20 - 26 years of age. Higher wages will have some impact on this but a lot will still go chasing that overseas dream. We need to lift the grassroots skill level. The facts are on a player to player basis we are not as skillful as the Japanese, SK homegrown players. I certainly believe though that the Min-Max for the Salary cap needs to change. I would like to see the max amount increase another $1M from where it is today but the min remain where it is. I also think a third AFC Marquee outside cap is needed to encourage clubs to scout within Asia more. Another idea that I have seen floated is a AFC Subsidy to the Cap. If you make the AFC you are allowed to sign 3-4 extra players for the following 2 seasons and you also get an additional $500K on your cap for a period of two years.
striker
Guest
Real football its not our fault the japanese cannot score goals its the same with there national team, if they could score they would be on par with Brazil.
Aljay
Guest
Juric has a lot of positives - his shot, runs he makes, defending but he is an incredibly selfish player who would rather try for a miracle goal than lay it off to a teammate.
Melange
Guest
That's one of the most exciting things about Aus soccer at the moment, witnessing the improvement, the evolution of teams, individual players, coaches. WWS will be an interesting watch over the next few seasons as we see how Popovics coaching improves, will he move to a more proactive style? Will new owners improve the club? Who will they replace Ono with? Love it
realfootball
Guest
No we're not. We've simply got very, very lucky. One thing about luck - it always moves on (to quote Tim Winton).