Summary
Hard not to feel a bit for Wanderers after that. They only had one really clear chance that went begging, when Baccus was put through, but they took the game to Sydney, dominated possession and got hit with a gut-wrenching sucker punch from Smeltz. Sydney were a model Arnie team: disciplined, strong at the back, strong mentally, extremely hard-working and a bit hard for neutrals to love. But obviously he won’t care much about that. They soaked up huge pressure and took their two chances from set pieces. Now Sydney are level on points with Wanderers, both just one behind Brisbane, and the title race looks like a thriller from here. Thanks for reading.
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Matt Jurman is the Powerade Ion 4 man of the match, or something. He’s very happy with the three points.
Smeltz: “Really pleased.” Not a man for overstatement.
FULL-TIME: Wanderers 1-2 Sydney
It’s all over! Sydney have stolen this one and Western Sydney will be distraught.
92 min: Four minutes of added time and WSW have a corner. Mebrahtu delivers, Smeltz heads clear and Jamieson pumps it over the goal line. Sydney almost there.
GOAL! Wanderers 1-2 Sydney (Smeltz 89 min)
Free kick to Sydney, Jurman heads it down and Smeltz rams it home from just inside the area! Oh, that hurts Wanderers. Another set piece.
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88 min: Topor-Stanley gets a yellow for hanging on to Blackwood’s jersey.
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83 min: And now Sydney’s final change: Blackwood for Holosko. Blackwood has shown some exciting touches this season, but desperately needs a goal if he wants to regain his starting spot.
82 min: Harps is giving that clearing header to Jurman, who has been outstanding.
80 min: Castelen wins a free kick on the left - he’s been more effective second half. Mebrahtu with it, seems to be cleared inadvertently by Topor-Stanley, and Sydney breathe again. Under the pump though.
78 min: Final change for Wanderers. Piovaccari for Nichols.
77 min: Huge chance for Baccus! Lovely exchange with Nichols and Baccus is clean through, but he hits it straight at Janjetovic. Good save, but should have scored.
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75 min: Into that last 15 min period when WSW score a lot of their goals. Mebrahtu wins a corner, but Faty clears, and Janjetovic tidies up.
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72 min: Free kick for Sydney. Abbas drills it in low - too low, as it’s easily cleared.
71 min: Crowd is 19, 627, a record home attendance for WSW that presumably will stand for all time at this stadium.
68 min: Popovic doesn’t think so! Vidosic comes off, replaced by Mebrahtu. And Ali Abbas is on for Naumoff. Boos from the Wanderers fans, which is, as Harps says, disappointing. But not surprising.
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66 min: Terrific move by Wanderers involving Jamieson, Castelen, Nichols, Neville and Vidosic, but the final ball again finds Jurman in the way. That was lovely - Vidosic seems visibly lifted by his goal.
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65 min: Castelen pops up suddenly on the left and finds Nichols, but he’s offside (and rams the ball into a defender anyway).
64 min: Redmayne takes well from a Naumoff corner as he is collected by Yurman.
62 min: Sub for Sydney. Matt Simon departs to loud boos and is replaced by Shane Smeltz (one goal in 11 games this year). Simon ran himself (and sometimes other people) into the ground, but didn’t have a sniff of a chance.
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60 min: Wanderers predictably with their tails up now. Neville tries to set Castelen free, but it’s just too strong. Nervous times for Sydney.
GOAL! Wanderers 1-1 Sydney (Vidosic 58 min)
Vidosic all alone on the left and he curls it past Janjetovic. It’s on! Neat passing and movement from Castelen, but Sydney will want to know where, er, Seb Ryall was.
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56 min: Another quarter chance for Wanderers. Bouncing ball wouldn’t quite fall for either Nichols or Castelen and Sydney get it away.
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55 min: Great ball from Ryall releases Holosko, whose cross eludes Simon and Naumoff can only head weakly. Ryall, for all his limitations, is having a top game.
53 min: Castelen has a ping from outside the box, but over the bar. Castelen always looks dangerous, but the end product hasn’t been there so far tonight.
52 min: Sub for Wanderers. Kearyn Baccus for Dimas. Only the second appearance for Baccus.
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48 min: Dimas clunks Ninkovic on the forehead with his outstretched toe. He’s tapped the claret, as the boxing commentators used to say. Ninko’s cornermen apply some substance.
47 min: Jamieson, by far Wanderers’ best outlet so far, gets in down the left and puts a fair ball in, but Janjetovic has it covered.
Second half is under way
Sydney have lost only once in the past 27 times they have led at half-time. Off we go again.
Fifa apparently unpeturbed by flares.
LIVE: Crikey, some atmosphere at the #SydneyDerby! Follow along with our World Match Centre: https://t.co/jpkiKCN278 pic.twitter.com/G2YbQILSlK
— FIFA.com (@FIFAcom) January 16, 2016
The world is watching. Bits of it anyway.
HALF-TIME | @wswanderersfc 0-1 @SydneyFC Jacques Faty a débloqué la situation pour les Sky Blues.
— A-League France (@ALeagueFR) January 16, 2016
Just on Sydney’s goal, credit to Seb Ryall for his header that set it up for Faty. Naumoff’s corner was all but overhit, but Ryall rescued it right on the line.
HALF-TIME: Wanderers 0-1 Sydney
Two minutes of added time are up, and it’s hard to imagine a half that would please Graham Arnold more (other than his restricted movement). Wanderers hugely on top in possession stats, but Sydney have defended well, forced errors and scored from a set-piece.
43 min: Yellow card for Grant who lunged in on Nichols. Not the worst you’ve seen, but his studs were clearly up. A bit of a flurry. Nichols simultaneously calms the situation and gives Grant a sly dig in the ribs.
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42 min: Dimas shoots wide from a reasonable position. It’s opening up again.
40 min: Grant does exactly that, but Sydney’s attack fizzles out, but Wanderers give it away again to Holosko in a heap of space, who hits it straight at Redmayne. Another chance!
38 min: Redmayne gives away a corner after he gets an awkward backpass and Simon puts the press on. It comes to nothing, but Sydney are starting to win some possession by working hard and hustling Wanderers into errors.
36 min: Holosko flashes one across goal after Ninkovic plays him in neatly. Not that far off.
35 min: Ref! The assistant puts his flag up and Bridge stops to complain, but Delovski calls play on and Janjetovic has to come to Sydney’s rescue. That was a strange one. Arnold in his tiny zone is not happy.
33 min: A lull. Everyone is having a bit of a think. Then Jurman goes on a huge gallop up the left, but eventually loses it to Alberto. Fox Sports call him Yurman, and I think that’s because they’ve done some research.
29 min: Andrew Harper points out that Ninkovic has barely touched the ball. Despite their lead they don’t look in control by any means, and are offering nothing coherent up front.
26 min: Janjetovic tips over from Vidosic’s header. Another corner for WSW but Faty clears from the near post comfortably.
24 min: Simon tries to lob the keeper almost from his own half. “Audacious” is about the most generous you could be about that.
23 min: Now Faty clears at the other end. Wanderers are ropeable. Sydney have had 26% possession, one corner and one effort on target. It was a goal.
GOAL! Wanderers 0-1 Sydney (Faty 21)
21 min: A corner from Naumoff, headed back into the middle and Faty nods home! Massively against the run of play.
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19 min: Yellow card for Simon. Who could have predicted that? Although actually the replay of an aerial challenge doesn’t look that bad. It was a couple of earlier challenges that put him in Delovski’s sights.
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18 min: Big chance for Castelen! He’s freed by Neville on the right and tries to squeeze it in at the near post, but just wide. Janjetovic positioning a bit odd there.
15 min: Great run by Jamieson down the left, and Faty can only put it out for another corner, the third for WSW. They take it short, but Ryall heads clear when the cross finally comes in.
12 min: Wanderers are on top so far, with Sydney struggling to get much good possession. Matt Simon is throwing his weight around, as he does. Delovski has a word.
10 min: Almost for Wanderers! Rhyan Grant blocks a shot from Castelen in the area after Bridge breaks and pulls it back.
8 min: Apparently Graham Arnold has complained that his technical area is too small. That’s the extent of the controversy so far.
7 min: Vidosic! Makes himself a good chance with a neat turn, but bundles it wide from not that far out.
6 min: Another corner for Wanderers. Jamieson swings it in, bodies go down in the area, but again Sydney tidy up without much trouble.
2 min: A cagey start, then Wanderers win a corner on the left, but Jamieson’s effort comes to nothing, except from abuse from his former fans in the Sydney FC corner.
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And we're off!
Fashionably late, as is the A-League way, Wanderers get us under way. Tonight’s ref is Strebre Delovski - a solid choice.
The teams are out, words like “iconic” and “passionate” are being thrown around, and we’re only minutes away.
Mark Rudan reckons the form book goes out of the window in derbies. Both teams are in pretty good form, so he’s probably on safe ground.
Good question.
Kid wearing a Sydney FC jersey with a WSW scarf and hat. Why. #SydneyDerby pic.twitter.com/B0kPLY3tEe
— Matt Bungard (@TheMattBungard) January 16, 2016
In the early game Adelaide have beaten Central Coast 3-1, after making pretty heavy weather of it for large parts of the game. Plenty of work at the Mariners for Luis Garcia.
The form:
Of the 12 players who scored in last season’s three classic derbies (Sydney winning 3-2 at home and 4-3 away, with a 1-1 draw also in Parramatta), only three are involved tonight - Mark Bridge, Romeo Castelen and Vedran Janjetovic - which gives some idea of the rapid turnover at both clubs since then. Castelen and Janjetovic both put through their own goal, and Ante Covic bagged another OG in the crazy 3-4 game at Parramatta.
The first clash of this season was much less memorable, other than tifogate and the very late goal from Milos Ninkovic that gave Sydney the points. But after that Wanderers went on an eye-catching 10-match unbeaten streak until defeat by Melbourne City last week, while Sydney have been solid at best and stodgy at worst, although they have lost only twice in the same period.
Wanderers have scored at least two goals in nine of their past 10 games, and an impressive nine in the last 15 minutes of matches over the season. By contrast Sydney have struggled to find the net, at least until the past three weeks, and two of those games were against the Mariners and the Jets.
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For Wanderers Jaushua Sotirio is with the Olyroos, but Sydney’s losses are greater, with Alex Gersbach, Brandon O’Neill and Andrew Hoole away, and Alex Brosque still out with a hamstring injury.
Although he starts on the bench, all eyes will be on Ali Abbas, who marked his emotional return from 14 months out with a goal against Newcastle last week. Of course his terrible knee injury was sustained in this very fixture (the 1-1 draw in November 2014) – and he has an a lot of other derby history.
This excellent profile of Abbas by Andrew Webster in today’s Sydney Morning Herald tells how he posted on the wall of Sydney’s dressing room pictures of the tackle by Iacopo La Rocca that resulted in the injury, social media hate messages he got from Wanderers fans – and the date of today’s game.
So many subplots that will guarantee Abbas a warm/hot reception from both sets of fans, but he is also a huge plus for Sydney tactically, especially with Gersbach absent.
The teams:
For Wanderers Scott Neville is back from suspension and comes in for Jacob Pepper, while Romeo Castelen replaces Federico Piovaccari. (No-nonsense team sheet style.)
BENCH: Liam Reddy (GK), Jacob Pepper, Kearyn Baccus, Golgol Mebrahtu, Federico Piovaccari #WSW #SydneyDerby
— WS Wanderers FC (@wswanderersfc) January 16, 2016
Sydney have gone with Matt Simon instead of George Blackwood up front, otherwise unchanged from last week’s win over Newcastle. (Fancy eastern suburbs graphics.)
LINE UP | Here's how the boys shape up for tonight's #SydneyDerby! Thoughts? #SydneyIsSkyBlue pic.twitter.com/fxDJYhjZKs
— Sydney FC (@SydneyFC) January 16, 2016
Hello and welcome to tonight’s game.
So much to look forward to in the 11th edition of the Sydney derby. The first 10 have been packed with goals, red cards, bust-ups and drama of various kinds, but the difference tonight is that both teams are strong contenders for a high finish in the A-League as we head for the home straight. We haven’t seen that before in the three completed seasons of the Wanderers’ existence, so the temperature should be raised a few notches tonight, if that’s possible.
After Melbourne Victory’s demolition of Brisbane last night, a draw in the derby would be enough to put Wanderers top, but a win for Sydney would bring them level with their local rivals, just a point behind the Roar. Whatever the result, there’s a decent chance these two teams will meet in the finals for the first time, a prospect that must warm the heart of the FFA.
It’s the Wanderers’ (and Tony Popovic’s) 100th A-League game and this will be the last derby at the current Pirtek Stadium, if plans to demolish and rebuild it with a 35,000 capacity go ahead on schedule.
Mike will be here shortly to guide you through proceedings in Parramatta tonight. In the meantime, have a chuckle at David Squires’ latest cartoon, which this week includes four lizard men, the Western Sydney Wanderers social media guy (again) and a complex scientific theory involving Perth Glory.
