Western United have half a dozen games left to make the men’s top six. Anchored in last place, can they prove the impossible can happen?
Until recently, John Aloisi’s men were contemplating the wooden spoon. Yet suddenly, a late surge of magic has resulted in two wins and two draws, giving hope to their patient fans that they can rise from the basement to the penthouse.
Remember folks, this is the same talisman who sent the Socceroos to the World Cup in 2006. Luck is on coach Aloisi’s side.
The last four A-League games have certainly turned United’s season around. Other clubs, such as the Wanderers, languish in mid-table purgatory, momentarily exiting the finals race.
Even Melbourne Victory’s run has stuttered. Not long ago, after amassing a combined eleven draws, the club was leap-frogged into first place. Things change quickly in this competition.
High-flyers Central Coast might be leading the league in goal difference, but lately, last year’s champions have kept a low score sheet. Winning, but with minimal margins.
Since their impressive 4-0 AFC Cup game against Phnom Penh in mid-February, the Mariners have only averaged 1.5 goals in the domestic competition. Comparatively, Western United‘s higher median was two balls in the back of the net instead.
The green and black also took more shots on target than Wellington, hitting the mark 5.75 times, compared to four, over the same period.
It paints a stunning picture as to why the Tarneit lads have enough momentum to challenge for silverware.
Until the end of the season, 18 more points are on offer, and although a flawless winning streak would be miraculous, over half of the remaining games seem entirely winnable.
Enter Adelaide. Two of these matches are against the Reds, who after weeks of winless displeasure, finally scraped together a narrow triumph over Newcastle last Friday.
Let’s chalk those up-and-coming Adelaide games as wins, shall we? Six points already in the bag. No time for modesty.
Western United coach John Aloisi. (Photo by Scott Gardiner/Getty Images)
Currently, the Jets are only one point above Western United, easily within touching distance. That’s doable.
Then, one more rung up the ladder is Perth, an underachieving club, who are also experiencing a purple patch of luck. Stand aside, Glory.
Playing against a wounded Wanderers this weekend, Perth would naturally need to lose, allowing the result to go in Western United’s favour.
Granted, it’s a defining round for Western Sydney. For coach Marko Rudan, allowing Glory to dominate would appear unfathomable, even unforgivable, resulting in increased animosity between Wanderers’ fans and management.
Next week, football fans, may Western United’s bright stars align at Hindmarsh Stadium. The city of churches is ready to answer John Aloisi’s prayers.
Brendan James
Roar Rookie
From one Brendan to another I agree – let's all dream together!
Brendan James
Roar Rookie
This year I predict Sydney and Wellington in the final. Would love to see the Phoenix come 2nd.
Brendan
Roar Pro
I agree. As football fans, we should be allowed to dream.
Grem
Roar Rookie
Good crowd of over 2000 for the women’s game at their new home ground on the weekend. Looking forward to seeing the men play at home too. Hopefully a packed stadium with 5000.
Sheffield WesDay
Roar Rookie
What is the point of supporting a team if we cant dream of the fairytale finish. All professional sport would be dead and buried if we didn’t all believe our team could get there. As a Bne Roar supporter, we have to believe that.
NickA
Roar Rookie
Ruhs works hard and I really like him but he's not a consistent goal scorer. We also all jumped on the Botic bandwagon way too quickly after a few tap ins last season
Grem
Roar Rookie
Our U20s Matildas have just come 3rd in the Asian Cup. That’s a great effort – beat S Korea 1-0.
Brendan
Roar Pro
I’m happy if WU find a late surge of momentum and play final’s football. Looking at the current top six, there’s still a lot of movement happening. WSW want a place too, & are only a whisker away.
Brendan
Roar Pro
Mathematically it’s possible. Let’s look at the lower-middle of the table. 5) Sydney FC 6) Melbourne City 7) WSW 8) Roar 9) Adelaide Excluding Sydney FC, the other four teams will have a minimum of 2 extra points, signifying draws. Admittedly, It’s almost impossible not to get points. However, it’s also likely at least one of these teams will lose more games than they win.
mrl
Roar Rookie
I knew you would get it Grem. Of course I was more proud of my son….just!
Brendan
Roar Pro
Cheers, Grem. As an underdog story, WU making the final six would be a fairytale finish. However, I won’t be predicting a championship. The silver toilet seat can go to another club.
jbinnie
Roar Rookie
Waz- nice to see something positive about Fowler's brief stay at Roar. You mention him setting up a 3-5-2 formation, a system being widely used in Europe even until today. He even brought 4 players to the club with only one, the centre- forward, failing to make an impression. However results showed the defence proved to be the most efficient in the league With Fowler's resignation player Gillesphy, one of the centre- backs he brought to Australia, left to return to England, where he is still playing today Since Fowler's departure in 2020 (4 years) Roar have used 6 different coaches not one of whom have managed to match the performance figures attained by Fowler's teams. Is there a lesson to be learned ??????, jb
Harry Brill
Roar Rookie
If they had an extra five matches on top of what they have, potentially. But they’ve left it too late to make a good run of it I think. They’ll need a stronger CB pairing next season, too many goals leaked and also not enough bite in the final third. When Penha is firing they look great, but without him there really isn’t anyone else who has dragged them over the line this season.
Waz
Roar Rookie
Interesting observation jb. When Fowler arrived at Roar he got the reverse treatment, shown zero respect and zero analysis of what he was trying to do. By the time COVID shut down the season prematurely he had Roar as the form team in the competition, had introduced a sophisticated 3-5-2 system, brought in a concept learned in England (of the underlapping CB), and demonstrated that the English coaching education system is light years ahead of Australia’s. It’s no coincidence that FA this week announced an overhaul of coaching in Australia, a 10 year plan with some pretty steep goals.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
I dont know about the famous Socceroos theory, Aloisi, Sterjovski, Popovic, Vidmar famous but all assistants at clubs when managers left , Zadkovich , Rudan, Veart they were second choice Socceroos. Talay the best player not to be a Socceroo , and Stanton was a NSL player . Stajic is a state league player who would have put in the hard yards when coaching women was unpaid. Giancarlo Italiano is the strangest one, he is a football manager geek, started coaching his team while playing when the coach didnt turn up at who knows what level grassroots. My suspicion is that he made it into the Sydney FC setup because of his proficiency with software. Yet Wellington Phoenix have the sharpest shooting in the A-league.
mrl
Roar Rookie
Aloisi....!!!! Great guy. Returned to our club years ago in Adelaide, where he played one season in under6s....and then went elsewhere when they realised his potential. Gave my son his trophy for most improved player...I was in tears, it was John Aloisi. Oh, I was proud of my son as well.
coolncold
Roar Rookie
A football pro has written such an essay. As there is no need of rocket science to know WU’s incapability to reach the top 6 this season, what is the implication of this essay?
jbinnie
Roar Rookie
Waz - I have often wondered if anyone had noticed the shift in Australian coaching from the habits of yesteryear , getting a foreign educated coach into our top leagues so that player education can continue unabated. F. Lowy started something off when he issued an order that we needed to recognise ex Socceroos and make sure they were raised to "hero" levels so that youngsters could be impressed by our standing in the world game. Has Frank's edict gone too far? Today we have 12 teams playing in our top league and 9 of those are coached by local ex-Socceroos, that is not ex-Socceroos who have built up a huge amount of learning time in coaching environments but rather in localised coaching jobs and that raises the question, how well are our top teams being kept up to date in the latest tactical knowledge from elsewhere? It could be co-incidental but one of today's top teams, CCM have performed extra well under 2 'foreign" coaches these last 2 seasons whilst other teams have struggled to maintain standards. Every game I watch I see an absence of technique, especially in the basic skill, shooting .Week after week I see young , promising ,local players balloon shots over the bar or way wide of the goal and yet I have heard it said that "shooting" is not included in many of today's local coaching sessions. jb
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
The commentators were mentioning this as well which I thought was bonkers so you never know. With the way teams mysteriously perform one game and dont in others, how various strikers are left unmarked at times, the refs are dodgy on occasions even with the benefit of var. I think Western United are better without Botic this season , he was ineffectual, weak,lazy while he got some headers he and Wales are the chief culprits as to why Penha has so few assists. Ruhs he works harder , Botic last season looked stronger fitter performed better, its very weird what happens to these players.
Stevo
Roar Rookie
WUN are gone. No way can they make the 6 from their current position. They are 10 points from 6th and would need to win at least 4 in their last 6 games to overtake 6th and other teams to fall into an abyss or be taken by aliens. Not gonna happen for them.