Western United was irrepressible in a comprehensive 3-0 win over Adelaide United at Ironbark Fields on Sunday evening, rising to third on the Isuzu UTE A-League Men table.
John Aloisi, celebrating his 100th league match at United, saw his side dominate proceedings from the very beginning to return to winning ways at home in Tarneit.
Noah Botic found the breakthrough just before the half hour mark before Hiroshi Ibusuki converted a penalty soon after half-time, scoring against his former team for the first time.
Riku Danzaki completed the rout with a goal off the bench late on and Matt Sutton held onto his clean sheet, securing a fantastic win for the Green and Black.
Western United Team News
John Aloisi made three changes to the starting XI for his 100th Isuzu UTE A-League Men match in charge with Matthew Grimaldi and Tate Russell coming back into the side, while Angus Thurgate returned after serving his suspension.
Danzaki dropped to the bench where Ramy Najjarine was also named, with Sebastian Pasquali and Charbel Shamoon dropping out.
First half
Western United got off to an electric start, immediately getting on the front foot to pen Adelaide back in their own box.
Dylan Leonard, Rhys Bozinovski and Abel Walatee all had efforts on goal before Botic had the ball in the net after 12 minutes, though the offside flag was quickly raised.
It wasn’t long until the Western United frontman was busting out another of his array of celebrations, though, as he finished off a quite magnificent team move in the 26th minute.
Holding possession for almost a minute, United built the play all the way up from deep in its defensive half, exchanging passes between almost every outfield player before Matthew Grimaldi burst forward to feed Walatee in behind.
Within three touches of the ball the net was breached as Walatee pulled it back for Garuccio who crossed perfectly for the on-rushing Botic to strike on the bounce.
Aloisi’s men didn’t let up for the entire first half and Ethan Cox became the sole reason that the lead didn’t balloon before the break.
Walatee forced another two good saves from the Reds’ keeper, the second of which came at the end of another sweeping move where Botic teed up Walatee with a lovely backheel.
Adelaide youngster Harry Crawford came close to an equaliser, but overall the Reds were relieved to hear Shaun Evans’ whistle in the end, with Western turning the attention to finding more goals in the second half.
Second half
The front-footed mentality merely changed ends at half-time as Western stayed as the team carrying all the impetus after the interval.
Grimaldi and Walatee continued to stretch the play out wide with support from Russell and Garuccio, creating threats from all angles.
Walatee and Ibusuki had a goalmouth scramble that just wouldn’t turn into a goal, but it was all worth the wait when Ibusuki got on the ball again a couple of minutes later.
After being fed through by Grimaldi, who had done brilliantly to win possession high up the pitch, Ibusuki was sent to the floor by a desperate challenge from Isaias before dusting himself off and dispatching the spot kick against his former side.
That was the bit of breathing space that the Green and Black craved but the foot remained firmly pressed on Adelaide’s throat in search of further damage.
Danzaki came off the bench and very nearly scored with his first touch, breaking clear before drawing arguably Cox’s best save of the afternoon.
The Japanese winger would win out against Cox eventually, though it was cruel on the Adelaide stopper who had a sensational game until he let Danzaki’s effort trickle between his legs and over the line.
There could well have been more goals in the dying minutes but Western stopped at three, holding onto the clean sheet and securing another big three points at Ironbark Fields.
