Western Sydney sit in the box seat to make the Asian Champions League decider, holding FC Seoul to a scoreless draw in the first leg of their semi-final clash in South Korea.
The Wanderers had scored in every match of their maiden ACL campaign until Wednesday’s stalemate at Seoul World Cup Stadium where the hosts were left to rue several spurned chances.
Western Sydney will now host last year’s ACL runners up at Parramatta Stadium in the second leg on October 1 where victory will ensure the Wanderers join Adelaide United as just the second A-League club to make the ACL final.
The Wanderers displayed all the confidence of the side who’d knocked out the ACL champions Guangzhou Evergrande last month, dominating possession in the opening stages before the five-time K-League champions began to take hold of the match.
Western Sydney lacked firepower up front without key strikers Tomi Juric and Brendon Santalab along with utility Shannon Cole, who were all suspended, but their defence delivered.
All three will be back for the return leg in a fortnight.
Labinot Haliti led the attack and created the first chance of the match just seven minutes in, which was easily saved by FC Seoul keeper Yu Sang-Hun.
Soon it was the hosts on the attack with Park Hee-Seong attempting a strike which deflected wide.
Striker Sergio Escudero capitalised on a defensive error from Nikolai Topor-Stanley and Brendan Hamill to make a charge for goal moments later.
Luckily for the Wanderers Hamill caught up with the Spaniard to deflect his shot wide.
The Wanderers’ bearded Brazilian Vitor Saba, making his starting debut, then had the Seoul gloveman scrambling with a dangerous slice which went just wide.
FC Seoul looked like breaking the deadlock just before halftime when Park Hee-Seong struck but Wanderers keeper Ante Covic saved the effort.
Seoul coach Choi Yong-Soo made his attacking intent clear after the break, bringing on dangerous Colombian Mauricio Molina and lighting fast Brazilian Everton Santos. Both threatened.
Molina tested Covic with 20 minutes remaining, launching onto a well-placed cross from Cha Du-Ri and the Colombian drew another save from the gloveman just minutes later.
Saba showed his crafty skill to shake three markers in the dying stages and attempt a strike which sailed over the crossbar.
Haliti could have scored the crucial away goal in the final minutes, getting onto a great ball to the back post but miss-hit it.
Seoul would have one last crack before the final whistle with Covic diffusing a Santos strike to keep the score 0-0.
Leonardo
Roar Guru
If they win that one then they have a date in the first leg of the final on the 25th Oct which will be even bigger, despite where they play it. http://www.the-afc.com/en/acl-2014-schedule-n-results.html?view=all&id=154&type=Stage Unfortunately they play the 2nd leg of the final away to the West Asian SF winners on 1 Nov. They are supposed to play SFC derby on 18th Oct, Mariners on 25 Oct and Roar on 1 Nov and away to Phoenix on 8 Nov. Might need to do some re-scheduling if they make the final. .
Squizz
Guest
Mariners with the playoff spot
Josh
Guest
Our club is only 2 years old, what on earth are we doing in the last 4 in Asia ? The party next match if we win is going waaaaay into the night, can't wait.
Steve
Guest
If only. That was for the Final last year, not the semis. Every sporting tournament around the world sees a significant jump in TV Ratings from semis to Finals. So you can already cut that figure down significantly (at least 3 or 4 times). They also only show Chinese ratings, because the Chinese ratings are so far ahead of everyone else as to make them irrelevant. It's not like China is only 20% of the equation. Coming from someone who has spent quite a bit of time in Asia working on this stuff, the Chinese also are the country that most watches their own play. So a game between Aussies and Koreans won't be anywhere as popular there as a Final that features a team from China's most popular province. Just like Australians don't really watch NZ vs. Argentina in Rugby compared with a Bledisloe Cup match (which is already not that popular in Australia). So you cannot use last years Grand Final as a proxy for Wednesday nights game.
JohnL
Guest
I dont think Mariners qualified. Roar, WSW direct and Victory with the play off spot.
Adrian none
Roar Rookie
ACL change the rules this year, so that West Asia (Middle East) team don't meet East asia on till finals , in other years it was Q/F stage....why they made this change, i can only guess, but Middle east teams where losing more marchers then they should But this new rule change, make ACL really Just 4 league comp for Aussie teams
bemused
Guest
We have to remember that the lads are in pre-season...
Leonardo
Roar Guru
There were tens of millions of people around the world watching the Asian Champions league games last night - about 30 or 40 times more people than watched the AFL grand final last year. http://www.the-afc.com/en/about-afc/afc-departments/marketing/27198-acl-tvrecord-131113.html It is an international game after all. Unfortunately I couldn't find any ratings for the South Korean AFL League.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Fantastic TV ratings on Foxtel. Wonder what the Foxtel ratings would be if the best team from NRL, AFL, SuperRugby or BBL played the best team from Korea in the respective sports?
AZ_RBB
Guest
Appreciate the support mate. I was thinking about how CCM could have knocked Seoul out in the group stage. That Hutchinson own goal was killer. See you in ACL 2015. 4th time in a row for you guys? Are you aware of any measures the club will take to improve attendance? I hope WSW success has some flow on effects for our next campaign.
AZ_RBB
Guest
Never understand these responses. You're just validating his claim. Out of the 30 WSW fans I'm close to. Only a few, maybe less than 5, have foxtel. The fan pages I frequent is flooded with pubs and web streams to watch the game. Same goes for most A-League fans I know. Return leg will be huge in Sydney despite it being NRL grand final week.
Midfielder
Guest
Go the Drive Bys ... I hope they win the whole thing...
Bondy
Guest
TahDan You dont make a lot of sense . Imagine what its like for us when we hear results of 138 pts - 36 pts in an AFL match ,at what point was that a competitive contest ?, at no stage has that been a close contest . To each their own, different sports do different things for people .... This ACL tie is beautifully posed if Seoul score the Wanderers need two to their every one to advance to the Final ....
Punter
Guest
Has the Western bulldogs been knocked of the AFL finals again? Some AFL fans are spending alot of time in the football tab.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Good ratings last night with 45k
souwalker
Guest
Don't forget about the away goal rules. We cannot concede unless we have a 2/3 goal margin?
Scott
Guest
What a strange opinion, I thought it was one of the more entertaining nil all draws. Both teams are well drilled in defence, so it was always going to be tough to score for either team, especially with WSW missing both strikers. With WSW running out of gas later in the game, and Seoul bringing on Molina the game opened up a bit. I'm sure the Oct 1 game will be more entertaining for you.
Chowder
Guest
True that, I was hoping for the 1-1 (thought much more was a stretch away, with our suspensions) Well said. Bring on 1 OCT!!
pete4
Guest
Poppa would be very happy with the result. Thought WSW defense was very good although looked like a few players where running out of gas in the end Missed either Juric or Santalab's presence up front could have pinched a goal. Can't ask for much more with 2nd leg to come!
gwagh
Guest
Fair enough, but a 1-1 draw would have been better than a 0-0 one. I guess both teams failed to capitalise on their respective advantages.