Western United Weekly Wrap: February 21-25

Western United travelled to Preston Lions in VPL 1 Men action last week while the Junior Academy teams faces off against St Albans Saints.

The Western United futsal teams continued their seasons in Round 6, while Calder United’s junior teams played at home for the second week in a row, taking on Alamein FC.

Western United VPL 1 Men

Preston Lions 2-1 Western United

Goal scorer: J.Najdovski (90’+3)

Western United’s start to the VPL 1 Men season has a sense of déjà vu about it with three straight positive performances, but three straight 2-1 defeats.

The latest of those came on Friday night against Preston Lions, who took a 2-0 lead on home soil with a quickfire double early in the second half.

The Green and Black continued to push for a goal as young substitutes Noah Spaseski and Sammy Dib gave the team a further impetus off the bench.

*Two goals in three games for Jake Najdovski*

The latter ultimately created United’s late lifeline with an excellent run into the box down the left wing before Jake Najdovski did the rest, latching onto Dib’s cutback before swivelling and shooting into the bottom corner.

A couple of hopeful launches forward were cleared by Preston in the final seconds, seeing United leave BT Connor Reserve empty-handed.

Western United U23 VPL 1 Men

Preston Lions 1-3 Western United

Goal scorer: O.Tanic (14’), D.Mayen (41’), A.Marmura (77’)

Max Clarke picked up his second win as Western United Under 21’s boss with a 3-1 triumph over Preston Lions earlier on Friday.

Oscar Tanic put the visitors into an early lead after capitalising on a turnover to score in the 14^th minute before Preston equalised before half-time.

Parity didn’t last for long, though, as Deng Mayen scored his first Western United goal to ensure the Green and Black held the lead going into half-time.

The win was capped off by Alex Marmura’s goal in the 77^th minute, with the young star finding the net on his Under 21’s debut having progressed rapidly through United’s Under 16’s and Under 18’s sides last year.

Western United Junior Academy teams

There were goals galore and another three wins for the Western United Junior Academy sides when they played host to St Albans Saints.

The Under 14’s kicked things off in style with a 4-0 triumph on the back of a brace from Alexander Karaiskos. Aleksandar Bateson and Baran Aras chipped in with the other two goals.

The Under 15’s also scored four times, rallying from a goal down to end up 4-2 winners. The goals were spread evenly across the team’s top four scorers so far this season – Jordan Vonja leads with three, with Matthew Catalano, Christian Lykopoulos and Alex Tewalde level on two.

As if four goals weren’t enough, the Under 16’s plundered 11 unanswered in a dominant performance. Karl Leban scored four on his own, Tobias Servin struck a brace and the rest were spread across five different players.

The Under 18’s are currently feeling a similar sense of déjà vu to the senior team. For the second week in a row, United took the lead but ultimately fell to a narrow 2-1 defeat. Joseph Lettieri got his name on the scoresheet for the second time this season.

Western United Junior Academy final results

Under 14’s

Western United 4-0 St Albans Saints

Goal scorers: A.Karaiskos (4’, 60’), A.Bateson (43’), B.Aras (55’)

Under 15’s

Western United 4-2 St Albans Saints

Goal scorers: M.Catalano (16’), J.Vonja (33’), C.Lykopoulos (43’), A.Tewalde (60’)

Under 16’s

Western United 11-0 St Albans Saints

Goal scorer: N.Emtsis (3’), I.Gayed (13’), T.Servin (15’, 27’), K.Leban (47’, 70’, 73’, 80’), Z.Kaddour (55’), M.Di Lorenzo (60’), A.Islam (67’)

Under 18’s

Western United 1-2 St Albans Saints

Goal scorer: J.Lettieri (22’)

Western United Futsal

Speaking of goal gluts, the Western United women’s futsal team scored an incredible 19-1 victory in their Round 6 encounter against Hume Futsal Club last week.

Laila Abdullatif was the Player of the Match with six goals and three assists, Amanda Eoraha scored five and Balqis Waljairin added three to highlight the rampant display.

The men’s team fell to a third straight one-goal defeat with a 3-2 loss to Western City FC. Cooper Halfpenny and Elias Parthimos scored the goals to continue their strong individual seasons.

Overall, it was another positive week for Western United in futsal land with a 4-2 win for the youth team against Northern Phoenix. Parthimos was the Player of the Match in that game, while Erkan Bayakli impressed with a brace.

Through six rounds, the youth team is now level on points with Northern Phoenix at the top of the league after that win, the women sit in fourth and the men’s side is sixth.

Western United Futsal Final Results

Women

Western United 19-1 Hume FC

Goal scorers: L.Abdullatif (x6), A.Eoraha (x5), B.Waljairin (x3), E.Fehmi (x2), Y.Sargin (x2), A.Sargin

Men

Western United 2-3 Western City FC

Goal scorers: E.Parthimos, C.Halfpenny

Youth

Western United 4-2 Northern Phoenix

Goal scorers: E.Bayrakli (x2), Y.Suster, N.Casale

Calder United junior girls

It was a perfect weekend for the Calder United junior teams with three wins, 13 goals scored and none conceded across the three games against Alamein FC.

Violet Smith led the Under 13’s with a hat-trick in a 5-0 win and Isabella Joveska also notched a treble for the Under 15’s, helping her side triumph 4-0.

The Under 17’s rounded out the day with a 4-0 victory as Olivia Lazareska added to her Round 1 hat-trick with another two goals.