Western United scored one of the grittiest, bravest and most special wins in its history in the Isuzu UTE A-League Men, defeating Sydney FC 4-3 at Allianz Stadium on Saturday night.
A game full of twists and turns started with Noah Botic opening the scoring inside two minutes before Sydney took a 2-1 lead into half-time.
Abel Walatee restored parity immediately after the break and Rhys Bozinovski made it a double of Western United Academy graduate goal scorers.
Despite being pegged back again, United never let up and secured its remarkable victory in the 87th minute thanks to a deadly, ice-cold finish from Michael Ruhs.
Western United Team News
John Aloisi went unchanged from last week’s 0-0 draw with Macarthur FC, sticking with the same side that dominated that match but couldn’t find the back of the net. How that was about to change.
Walatee continued in the starting XI for the second straight week with Tomoki Imai again leading the team out as captain.
First Half
Matt Sutton would be a consistent feature of the first half and was thrust straight into the action with a superb close-range save that helped set up Botic’s opener.
Charbel Shamoon and Walatee were instrumental in its construction, the former winning the ball back and linking up with the latter down the left-hand side.
Walatee switched the play to Riku Danzaki and after the Japanese’s initial shot was blocked, Botic was alert to poke the loose ball into a vacant net.
Sutton then began to tally up the saves – first from Segecic, then from Lolley, Grant and Lolley again as he almost single-handedly kept United in front.
The visitors had plenty of moments with the ball despite the waves of Sydney pressure with Hiroshi Ibusuki firing one over the bar and Shamoon forcing a good save from Andrew Redmayne.
The Green and Black’s sturdiness was ultimately undone by a sloppy turnover, inviting Sydney forward and allowing Segecic to get his revenge on Sutton with a tidy finish into the bottom corner.
There was time for one more outstanding save in the first half with Sutton flinging a leg out to deny Patryk Klimala, making it a remarkable nine saves in the first 45 minutes.
Cruelly, though, Sutton’s hard work couldn’t stop United from falling behind before half-time as Segecic scored again, leaving Aloisi’s men to chase a route back in the game after the break.
Second Half
Just as was the case in the first half, Western United wasted no time in getting on the front foot and Walatee had his reward for a superb first half.
The young winger was a thorn in Sydney’s side throughout the first 45 minutes and picked his moment perfectly with an exquisite header, arriving to meet Danzaki’s cross at the back post and finish from an acute angle.
Klimala thought he had responded in double quick time when he slammed a bouncing ball into the roof of the net, but the referee’s whistle halted his celebrations as he had controlled the ball with his hand in the build-up.
More evidence of United’s strength in adversity came when Shamoon was first off early in the second half, forcing a reshuffling of the back four but doing nothing to change the Green and Black’s endeavour.
Ibusuki scored a thunderbolt from an offside position just before the hour mark, and just after it he had a hand in helping Bozinovski give Western United the lead.
The Japanese striker kept the ball alive and his countryman Imai put it back in the mixer. Bozinovski kept fighting after his initial header was blocked and fired into the back of the net for his first professional goal.
Sydney’s captain Grant scored a header from a corner soon after but only served to delay United’s joy that little bit further.
The impact came from the bench as Jordan Lauton picked the ball up in midfield, looked ahead and bent a delicious pass around the last defender and into Ruhs’ path on his opposite foot.
There was still plenty of work for Ruhs to do and he did with aplomb, using his pace and strength to get away from his marker while maintaining the grace and poise to dink a lovely finish over Redmayne and into the bottom corner.
United then managed the game through seven minutes of injury time and held on for a famous win, jumping to eighth place on the live ladder at the final whistle.
