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Wanderers start worst in A-League history

Thursday, December 04, 2014

by
The Wanderers start to the 2014/15 season is officially one of the worst beginnings to a campaign for any team in the history of the A-League. Hindered by their inability to win matches, after eight games they have lost five and drawn three, placing them at the very bottom of the ladder with three points. 

It's one of the worst starts for a club in Hyundai A-League history, equal to the New Zealand Knights who in their first season only won one game out of eight and their lack of positive results effected the remainder of their season.

This was infamously the only game the Knights won in the entire 05/06 season, against the Mariners in Round Three. But at least they'd won a game by this point in the season.

Similarly, the Melbourne Heart sat on three points after eight games in the 13/14 season and had their first win in Round 15 against the Newcastle Jets.

Scarily, following both these bad starts to the season these clubs were either disbanded or rebranded the following year.

The Wanderers continued one of the worst starts in A-League history by falling to Brisbane Roar within the first minutes of the opening half.


Seyi Adeleke in a desperate attempt to stop the Roar’s momentum managed to slice down one of their players, that ultimately resulted in a penalty being given.

Brisbane Roar’s key forward Henrique capitalized on this and shot the ball straight past Wanderers keeper Ante Covic declaring the first and only goal of the match.

A recurring pattern for how the Wanderers concede goals has been seen in their most recent home games. It is the scenario where the team makes a rare and minor mistake which is out of character for the Wanderers and the opposition instantly use this to their advantage and quickly score a goal. Setting the tone for the remainder of the match.

Mateo Poljak tried his luck to equalise but shot the ball right over the net with the Wanderers still unable to find their way into the goal throughout this entire match.

Wanderer Vitor Saba later tried to curve the ball in from the side but this deflected into the feet of Labinot Haliti who then shot towards the goal. Unluckily for the Wanderers, the ball went wide.

The Western Sydney Wanderers dominated majority of the first half and created a variety of chances yet the goal in the 5th minute certainly clouded over their performance. The attacking momentum of the Wanderers that was seen in the first half was not emulated in the second.

A cross by Adeleke almost gave the team from Western Sydney the opportunity to score as it enabled Matthew Spiranovic to head the ball into the far right bottom corner.

In a desperate attempt to increase their lead Solorzano shoots the ball with sheer force and precision and would have been a goal if the ball didn't fly directly into the cross bar.

One of the biggest chances of the game saw Nikita Rukavytsya go on a spectacular run that saw him pass the ball to Haliti who then tried to pass the ball back which ended up in the ball rolling past everyone on the field.

Similarly, Dimitri Petratos misses a great opportunity for the Roar shooting the ball too high from outside of the box concluding the match at 1 - 0 with the Brisbane Roar defeating the Western Sydney Wanderers.

It seems that for the Wanderers their inability to win games could potentially be their ultimate demise this season with their final game in 2014 against Adelaide United on Saturday becoming a crucial game for the Wanderers to win.


This is their final domestic game before embark on their Club World Cup journey, representing Western Sydney against some of the biggest clubs in the world. Regardless of the results in this case, they have made Australian football very proud.

Western Sydney Wanderers: Nikolai TOPOR-STANLEY (C), Shannon COLE (Brendan HAMILL 67'), Labinot HALITI, Mateo POLJAK, Vitor SABA (Nikita RUKAVYTSYA 59'), Matthew SPIRANOVIC, Romeo CASTELEN, Mark BRIDGE, Seyi ADELEKE, Kearyn BACCUS (Iacopo LA ROCCA 71') and Ante COVIC (GK).
Unused substitutes: Jaushua SOTIRIO and  Dean BOUZANIS (GK).

Brisbane Roar: Matthew SMITH (C), Corey BROWN, Mensur KURTISI (Jean Carlos SOLORZANO 45'), HENRIQUE, Jade NORTH, Daniel BOWLES, Matthew MCKAY, Luke BRATTAN, Dimitri PETRATOS, Brandon BORRELLO (Kofi DANNING 64') and Jaime YOUNG (GK).
Unused substitutes: Steven LUSTICA, James DONACHIE and Matthew ACTON (GK).