Western United Weekly Wrap: February 7-12

Western United kicked off its VPLM 1 campaign this weekend, hosting Kingston City at Saltwater Reserve in Point Cook.

It was a busy day for the Western United Academy will all six teams playing at Saltwater as the junior teams faced off against North Geelong Warriors.

United’s futsal teams also continued their seasons with each squad finding their feet in the opening weeks of their campaigns.

Western United VPL 1 Men

Western United 1-2 Kingston City

Goal scorer: J.Najdovski

Aiming for another successful season, Diogo Ferreira’s senior side was ready to go for Round 1 with a number of young players called into the team.

With Jordan Lauton, Charbel Shamoon and Zach Lisolajski all involved in the Isuzu UTE A-League Men clash against Wellington Phoenix on Saturday, there were opportunities for other players to stand up.

Jake Najdovski got United off to the perfect start with an early goal but Kingston City hit back to equalise before half-time.

The Green and Black played positively but ultimately fell to defeat as Kingston netted a second late on to take all three points.

United will look to bounce back immediately when hitting the road to face Northcote City on Friday night.

Western United U23 VPL 1 Men

Western United 4-1 Kingston City

Goal scorer: C.Dovison (x2), H.Lumu, G.Aldieri

Western United’s Under 21’s team – now competing in a revised Under 23’s competition – had no such struggles in their Round 1 fixture.

Carrying on from his excellent campaign in 2023, Campbell Dovison made the perfect start to the new season with two goals.

The young gun scored 13 goals in 15 appearances and made his Senior’s debut last season, looking to pick up where he left off and find even better form in 2024.

Continuing the theme of promoting younger players through the Academy ranks, the other two goal scorers both netted having emerged from the Under 18’s in 2023.

Hasani Lumu and Gabriel Aldieri each scored their first goals in the reserve side as United took control of the match and coasted to an opening day victory.

Western United Junior Academy teams

Western United played out a number of brilliant battles against North Geelong Warriors across all age groups, and that continued in the first meeting between the two clubs for this year.

Christian Lykopoulos had a day to remember in his debut for the Club, scoring twice in a 2-0 win for the Under 14’s before finding the net again for the Under 15’s.

Matthew Catalano scored his first Western United goal after dominating for FC Bulleen Lions in 2023 and Jordan Vonja scored for the second week in a row as the Under 15’s triumphed 3-1.

A five-goal second half brought chaos in the Under 16’s match as United ran out eventual 4-3 winners in a frantic affair.

It took four individual goal scorers – Matthew Di Lorenzo, Karl Leban, Zain Imran and Christian Fruci – to get the job done.

United fell just short of a perfect run of results for the junior sides as the Under 18’s were defeated 3-1. The damage was done with all of North Geelong’s goals coming in the first half, but Joseph Lettieri found a consolation goal for United after half-time.

After the first two weeks of the season, the Under 14’s, 15’s and 16’s have won both of their matches while the Under 18’s lost in their first game of the campaign having had their Round 1 fixture postponed due to extreme heat.

WUFC Junior Academy scores

Under 14’s

Western United 2-0 North Geelong Warriors

Goal scorers: C.Lykopoulos (x2)

Under 15’s

Western United 3-1 North Geelong Warriors

Goal scorers: C.Lykopoulos, M.Catalano, J.Vonja

Under 16’s

Western United 4-3 North Geelong Warriors

Goal scorer: M.Di Lorenzo, K.Leban, Z.Imran, C.Fruci

Under 18’s

Western United 1-3 North Geelong Warriors

Goal scorer: J.Lettieri

Western United Futsal

It was an agonizing week of results for Western United’s futsal teams with two narrow, one-goal defeats last week.

It started with the women’s team falling 4-3 against Preston Futsal Club, with Balqis Waljairin scoring a brace and Amanda Eoraha netting the other.

On Friday night, the men’s team threw everything at Moreland Blues FC but couldn’t break through the defence that has conceded just one goal all season, losing 1-0.

After those two heartbreaking results, the youth team brought a happy ending to the week of futsal action with a 6-3 win over Fitzroy FC.

Star recruit Elias Parthimos was Player of the Match again after booting four goals with Darcy Skopelitis and Aden Hagi scoring the other two.