Western Sydney coach Marko Rudan will shoulder the blame for his side’s disappointing 4-1 loss to cross-city rivals Sydney FC.
In his first match back since serving a two-game ban for his explosive comments on referees, the Wanderers were monstered by a rampant Sky Blues unit from the first whistle at CommBank Stadium on Saturday.
Down two goals in the opening seven minutes of the derby, the men in red and black could not fight their way back into the game.
“I’ll take full responsibility for tonight,” Rudan said after the match.
“It’s my team – the way I prepared them, the team that I put out there, how we wanted to play and win tonight. It’s on me.
“We spoke about it all week. We have to match the intensity and the fight, making sure that we’re mentally prepared for it.
“We didn’t show up and we lost the game in the first two minutes of both halves.”
Stand-in Sydney captain Rhyan Grant lit up the stadium in the third minute of their wet-weather skirmish with an electric header followed by a Fabio Gomes goal from the penalty spot.
Sydney’s Slovakian import Robert Mak then put the game to bed in the 50th minute by making the most of a poor pass to Wanderers winger Lachlan Brook before Gomes notched his brace nine minutes later.
Ryan Grant scores at CommBank Stadium. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Though Rudan admits his role in the defeat, he still expressed disappointment over the lack of character his team displayed on the field.
“Every coach will tell you this, I can’t coach that,” Rudan said. “I can’t coach what’s inside of somebody, how big their heart is, how much they want to win a ball, how much they want to get back, how much they want to make a forward run.
“There was not much that I could say to them. Sometimes you have to harness the energy and the anxiety throughout the week.
“They’re on socials, they read things, they hear things – they knew there was going to be a good atmosphere tonight, so that’s disappointing. They know themselves the effort that was lacking tonight. I don’t have to tell them anything.”
Sydney may have been without influential skipper Luke Brattan on Saturday, but it mattered little for Ufuk Talay’s men, who are now undefeated in seven games.
And as if boasting bragging rights wasn’t enough, the Sky Blues have also leapfrogged their cross-city rivals into fifth spot on the table.
Stand-in captain Rhyan Grant lit up the stadium in the third minute of their wet-weather skirmish with an electric header following Joe Lolley’s corner.
Before the Wanderers could regroup, Sydney doubled their lead four minutes later thanks to a handball by Nicolas Milanovic in the penalty area.
Fabio Gomes took the penalty and found the back of the net, bamboozling Western Sydney goalkeeper Daniel Margush with a staggered run-up.
“The two early goals really hurt their spirits,” Talay said.
“This is the way we want to play.
“We want to be the protagonist and make sure we’re defending forward, and if we’re going to fall over, we’re going to fall forward.”
Playing in front of an empty stand after their supporters walked out in the opening 20 minutes, a bad pass to Lachlan Brook made Rudan’s frustration worse.
Young defensive midfielder Corey Hollman was able to steal the ball in their attacking half, allowing Robert Mak to put the game to bed.
The Slovakian launched it home in the 50th minute and made a bee-line to the Wanderers’ fans for a self-indulgent gloat.
Not yet done adding more salt to the wound, another poor pass by Thomas Beadling to Margush gave Sydney a goal to spare.
Under pressure, Beadling’s ball deflected off Margush’s boot to land at the feet of Gomes and gift the Brazillian a brace in the 59th minute.
Gomes could have made it 3-0 for Sydney in the first half after another faulty kick to Jorrit Hendrix from Margush in front of goal, but the keeper managed to redeem himself.
Zachary Sapsford pulled one back for the Wanderers at 72 minutes, and while it may not have salvaged points, the consolation goal did deny their foes a clean sheet.
Even sweeter for Western Sydney was that it was registered as an own goal to Jake Girdwood-Reich.
“It’s just one of those games,” Rudan said.
“It’s about regrouping. One game is not going to define our season.”
Stevo
Roar Rookie
Hey Rudes, take a leaf out of Ange's coaching manual. Stop balming refs, the APL and God knows who else. Yes, it's actually you and the players that affect the result of a game.
AGO74
Roar Rookie
Rudan is a poor poor man’s Mourinho with chips on both of his shoulders. For a guy who says he will take blame for last night he sure seemed to spend a lot of time talking about players lack of effort…. The wanderers performance was one of the worst I’ve seen from any a-league team in recent years.
AGO74
Roar Rookie
First ten minutes was sublime to the ridiculous. Two goals in a blistering 6-7 minute period was heaven for us Sydney FC fans. Then on about 10 mins the ridiculous of the RBB walking out. Both sides will no doubt point fingers at each other (with the truth probably somewhere in between) but there was a bit of a weird vibe in the stadium. Ufuk Talay is fast creating a few man-crushes in the Sydney fanbase with his results and performances.
Marcel
Roar Rookie
I thought the RBB tifo was impressive….even if the wording itself was juvenile.. At least they spelt it all correctly…which isn’t a given based on a quick view of their socials sites.
Sheffield WesDay
Roar Rookie
Did they walk out on the team, or did they walk out in protest against again heavy handed stadium staff? I think there is more here than meets the eye.
Para+Ten ISUZU Subway support Australian Football
Roar Rookie
Great presentation on Ten Bold. Good atmosphere and a good game to watch. The only blemish was to see the RBB walk out of their block behind the goal. Showing no character supporting their team.
Chris Lewis
Roar Guru
28,000 last night, good crowd :thumbup:
NoMates
Roar Rookie
With the ref and VAR on there side, SFC were always going to win. Another typical SFC win.
Marcel
Roar Rookie
Rudes may be taking responsibility....but I suspect the team will be running laps at training on Mon.
Waz
Roar Rookie
Hope so.
Chris Lewis
Roar Guru
Go Sydney
Grem
Roar Rookie
I think he’s looking for a way out and probably has another option. Comparing himself to Ange indicated that to me. Off to China?
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Its an interesting view on the game by Rudan I dont see how making mistakes playing out under pressure is going to be solved by greater intensity and effort. I thought when Rudan said he was taking responsibility he was going to say its my fault I made them always play out despite knowing the Sydney press and didnt change the tactics at any time. Rudan could have then blamed the players for not being good enough and making mistakes with his game plan. Instead Rudan has really put the whole blame on the players , blaming it on a lack of effort and intensity and being asleep at the start of each half. The hardest time to play through a press is the start of each half. Marcelo was the one player in the back four that played well under the press, Rudan could have also switched Hendrix to center back as the other center back was the major offender. The simplest solution would be to hit the ball long. Sydney FC once pressed they play the ball back to Redmayne who then hits the ball long. With this new style of pressing it works better without Brattan. With Brattan there Holman has to do most of the pressing and gets tired out, in this case Caceres and Holman split the effort and the press lasted a lot longer and into the second half. Tapp had some of the most hilarious acting one will ever see, he goes down like Rivaldo clutching his head not realising it was his own player Ryan Edmonson who touched him on the face when he went to pull him out of the melee. The commentators then try to pin the pathetic acting attempt on a micro headbutt with a slow motion examination and suggesting Kranjic lucky not to be sent off. These commentators seem to be in cahoots with the CCM sinking to new lows. Newcastle as long as one doesnt concede goals early its an easy win. It was a dull game otherwise. Perth escaped criticism for their lamest home performance yet against Wellington, they seem to have the commentators excusing them for a fairly lame away performance because of arriving in Ballarat at 9pm. Two huge sitters misssed each and Perth should have got a goal to Williams but a mysterious fou was called, but Western United totally dominated otherwise.
Waz
Roar Rookie
Rudan is an absolute embarrassment to the A League and to coaching in general. If he’d taken this approach months ago when Wanderers slide began he could have worked on the fixes in training and addressed the slide. Instead he chose to blame referees - his only coaching response was to create a siege mentality and damage the game of football generally. Nothing changed. For the good of football wanderers need to miss finals and Rudan be given the boot.
mrl
Roar Rookie
How did the referee allow those four goals!!