A night of football with optimal playing conditions welcomed a desperate Western Sydney Wanderers and Melbourne Victory at CommBank Stadium on Wednesday.
Wanderers’ head coach Mark Rudan, who has shifted the dynamics of his team, with better performances and higher energy was hopeful for another three points in his fourth consecutive home game as head coach.
In just the seventh minute James Troisi was in a good position of scoring an opener, but let the ball get away from him with what looked like a case of overthinking.
Two minutes later Troisi found the first real chance on goal with a 30-metre shot that flew straight into Victory’s Ivan Kelava’s hands.
Keijiro Ogawa saw a great run but looking for Troisi gave Matthew Spiranovic a chance to deny the opportunity.
Victory’s Ben Folami attempted a strike at Daniel Margush but it flew over the net at the 22nd minute mark.
A set piece for Victory was found and executed from a corner before the final strike flew over for the second time.
Western Sydney’s final chance during the dying minutes of the first half constituted an on-target free kick by Dimitri Petratos, followed up by a header by Hemed that was denied again by Kelava.
By half time, neither team had scored in what felt like a very cagey, rigid, and flat 45 minutes. With both teams coming off back-to-back defeats and low on confidence, very few chances were created, and no real excitement was in the atmosphere.
With the second half resuming, the Wanderers came out firing with a fantastic run by Troisi, passed to Terry Antonis, who finds the back of the net. Unfortunately, the ball crossed the field line before the pass.
In the 56th minute, Phillip Cancar set up the perfect assist for Tate Russell’s header to open the scoring for the Wanderers.
An unlucky collision between Bernie Ibini and Kelava gave Western Sydney a free-kick right in front of goal. Petratos scored his second goal with the shot from the advantageous position, giving his team a 2-0 lead.
Victory scrambled for an equaliser in retaliation, however, they were stopped by Cancar’s line clearance where he deflected the ball from going into the net.
The remainder of the game saw the rising frustration in Victory who were unable to snap their losing streak with Western Sydney, taking the win with a 2-0 score.
Western Sydney have won two of their four games under Rudan, their new coach, taking away another three points.
Western Sydney Wanderers: 2
Melbourne Victory: 0
 CommBank Stadium
 Referee: Alireza Faghani
 Western Sydney Wanderers: Daniel MARGUSH (GK), James TROISI (c), Adama TRAORE, Tomer HEMED (Bernie IBINI-ISEI 61’), Keijiro OGAWA (Ramy NAJJARINE 71’), Terry ANTONIS (Steven UGARKOVIC 71’), Keanu BACCUS, Phillip CANCAR, Ziggy GORDON, Tate RUSSELL, Dimitri PETRATOS
Unused subs: Tomas MEJIAS, Daniel WILMERING, Nectarios TRIANTIS, Alexander BADOLATO
Melbourne Victory: Ivan KELAVA, Francesco MARGIOTTA (Nicholas D’AGOSTINO 72’), Ben FOLAMI (Marco ROJAS 66’), Jake BRIMMER (William WILSON 87’), Leigh BROXHAM, Birkan KIRDAR (Robbie KRUSE 72’), Jason DAVIDSON (Stefan NIGRO 66’), Christopher IKONOMIDIS, Roderick MIRANDA, Matthew SPIRANOVIC, Jason GERIA
Unused subs: Matt ACTON, Aaron ANDERSON
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