With the longest pre-season in world football, it would be understandable for last season’s grand finalists to be more than a little rusty. But there were no such problems for the Mariners and Wanderers as they underlined their championship pedigree with a pulsating 1-1 draw at a sold out Bluetongue Stadium.
They say titles are won on the back of defence and if the match last night is anything to go by, both sides will again be there at the pointy end of the season.
Despite Central Coast and Western Sydney fielding largely different teams from the decider, the mantra of organisation and structure was again at the forefront of play.
The discipline of both teams culminated in a tremendous physical contest which became a real battle of attrition, especially in an up-tempo second half.
In the end it took moments of brilliance from Mariners Marquee Marcos Flores and Wanderers livewire Youssuf Hersi to provide the creativity to unlock the respective defences.
Flores prized the Wanderers defence open with an incisive through ball in the 55th minute putting Mitch Duke in behind, who finished with a sublime chip over Ante Covic.
Shinji Ono and Tomi Juric were surprise omissions from the starting lineup, but Tony Popovic introduced them in the 60th minute and it provided much needed impetus for the Wanderers attack.
A period of sustained pressure by the Wanderers ultimately bore fruitful after a pin point cross from Hersi picked out Tomi Juric on the six yard box who volleyed home.
Mariners boss Graham Arnold was pleased with the result and felt his team will continue to improve as the season progresses.
“Overall I think it was a good point, were disappointed that we didn’t keep the three,” he said.
“We’re still a work in progress, seven different players we had out there tonight from the grand final team.”
Wanderers coach Tony Popovic conceded it was a fair result but was disappointed his troops didn’t make the most of their early dominance.
“I thought we probably deserved a bit more, but we didn’t score when we were dominating in the first half,” he said.
“The character they showed after they conceded was excellent, even after the goal I felt our team was trying to win the game which was another positive.”
Although disappointed for different reasons, both managers would be satisfied to walk away from such an absorbing contest with a point.
Come the end of the season it could make all the difference.Western Sydney Wanderers
Ante Covic, Adam D’Apuzzo, Nikolai Topor-Stanley, Michael Beauchamp, Jerome Polenz, Labinot Haliti, Mateo Poljak,Aaron Mooy, Youssuf Hersi, Iocapo La Rocca, Mark Bridge.
Subs: Tomi Juric, Brendan Santalab, Jerad Tyson, Shinji Ono, Dean Heffernan
Justin Pasfield, Trent Sainsbury, Josh Rose, Zac Anderson, Storm Roux, John Hutchinson, Nick Fitzgerald, Nick Montgomery, Mile Sterjovski, Marcos Flores, Mitch Duke
Subs: Matt Simon, Marcel Seip, Anthony Caceres, Liam Reddy, Brent Griffiths
Enjoy this content? Support The Football Sack
Due in part to COVID and lack of current sponsorship we are at risk of not having the funds to continue running The Football Sack. If you enjoy our content and support our work in training talented young writers, please support us with a donation. If every reader contributed just $3, our funding would be covered for over ten years.
