Maroc - WESTSYDNEYFOOTBALL.COM - reports. - 11/Apr 11:40

"Decider" Goes To Sydney FC

With the finals flicker of hope extinguished by a mid-week win for Melbourne City, the Western Sydney Wanderers had nothing to play for but pride, the chance to avoid the wooden spoon and hoping to dent Sydney FC's finals spot, only for Sydney to come away with a straight-forward 2-0 win as the Wanderers looked hopeless and incompetent all across the park. Sydney FC had the first chance of the game, breaking the Wanderers defence with Ben Garuccio getting on the end of a mis-hit that turned into a long diagonal pass, he beat Jarrod Carluccio the right fullback and delivered a low cross to the back post where Apostolos Stamatelopoulos dove in hoping needing just a tiny touch to turn it home but was agonisingly late. Carluccio could have had the Wanderers first shot on target with Bozhidar Kraev and Jai Rose playing a neat series of passes that drew the SFC defence in, but the fullback took his eyes off the ball, missed making contact and the ball ran out for a throw. SFC had the better of the chances and they made the Wanderers pay for a stupid attempt at a dummy from Jai Rose. When a simple touch and pass back to Carluccio would have sufficed Rose tried to fool Garuccio by stepping over the ball, it didn't work, Garuccio found Wataru Kamijo in open space in the middle of the pitch, who found a gap in the left side of the defence. Anthony Pantazopoulos had run upfield in anticipation of helping the attack but this left the one cap Socceroo Al Hassan Toure open. The first touch killed the momentum of the ball, the second was a hammer blow to the near post, Lawrence Thomas was in position but the ball whistled past him before he could get his arms in the air, tearing into the net as Toure ran off to celebrate in front of the home supporters. Ben Garuccio and Brandon Borrello went into the notebook in the 33rd minute, Borrello for being judged to have clattered recklessly into a Sydney FC player standing on the sideline with the ball, Garuccio for rushing in to create a melee. Pantazopoulos went into the book for a foul on a lone Sydney FC striker despite having defensive help around. 2 minutes before half-time Borrello had the best chance of the half for the Wanderers, a turnover by Grant was quickly passed to Borrello and his shot had power and swerve and needed a tiny touch from Harrison Devenish-Meares in goal to turn it over the bar but none of the officials noticed the touch so he was rewarded with a goal kick. Cancar received a card of his own seconds before half-time and it was his final action with Alex Gersbach coming on in his play after the break. Out of nowhere the Wanderers thought they were back level, a goal against the run of play with SFC wasting several good chances to get two ahead, instead lost their lead before the VAR intervened. It came from a simple cross into the box from Ugarkovic, Borrello was back to goal, managed to flick the ball toward the top corner. Devenish-Meares jumped to stop Borrello scoring but Kraev reacted quickly and headed home. Unfortunately for the Red & Black, the replay showed the ball coming off his hand first before he nodded it home. The VAR chalked off the goal and ignored the SFC defender who whacked Kraev in the back to stop Kraev being able to jump cleanly. Gary van Egmond reacted with a triple change, Hiroshi Ibusuki, Kosta Barbarouses & Ryan Fraser on, Borrello, Rose & Ugarkovic off. Ibusuki had an impact straight away, getting on the end of a Fraser cross but he was a way out and couldn't get much power on the header. As the match closed in on the final 15, Sydney reacted with three changes of their own, Toure, Kamijo and Ahmet Arslan off, Akol Akon, Rhys Youlley and Tiago Quintal on. Thomas kept the Wanderers in the game with a save in the 80th minute, the first shot was a long range effort by Quintal, Thomas pushed the ball into the path of Akol and his second effort was blocked by Pantazopoulos, a third also fell to Akol but once again the defence was lined up and kept the match at 1-0 to Sydney FC. It wasn't 2-0 for long. Sydney doubled their lead from a simple route one long ball off a goal kick, Pantazopoulos had front position but was weak, falling over from a light tap in the back expecting a free kick that WSW will never get from an A-League ref who isn't Alireza Faghani, then Dylan Scicluna had a chance to clear but muffed his lines, missing the bouncing ball twice and ending up lying on the grass. Quintal played a ball in behind Joshua Brillante who was slow and caught on his heels, leaving Apostolos Stamatelopoulos to take advantage of Thomas being too slow to close down the angles and lobbing it over his head. WSW had shown little in attack the first 85 minutes and they showed nothing in the last 5 & stoppage time, they barely made a dent on the shots stat, let alone coming close to scoring, and the so called "decider" went to the away team, putting them into 3rd place and leaving the Wanderers 3 points adrift of Perth Glory with the WA team playing on Sunday. With only two more games left, this godawful season can finally end and yet another rebuild can start. If anyone will care by Round 1 2026/27 is yet to be seen. The Wanderers next match is against the Wellington Phoenix, in Christchurch New Zealand on Saturday the 18th of April with kick-off at 3pm Sydney time.