Western Sydney Wanderers collected their first victory of the season, registering a 2-0 derby win over Sydney FC in front of a record crowd at Allianz Stadium.
Western Sydney Wanderers collected their first victory of the A-League season, registering a comfortable 2-0 derby win over Sydney FC in front of a record crowd at Allianz Stadium.
The Wanderers dominated from the outset and made their pressure count with first-half goals to Iacopo La Rocca and Shinji Ono giving them a deserved victory.
Without skipper Alessandro Del Piero, the Sky Blues again lacked a cutting edge up front, managing just a single shot on target throughout the 90 minutes.
After back-to-back draws to open the season, the Wanderers certainly deserved their breakthrough win and showed the type of hunger and quality which served them so well last season.
Ono was superb for Tony Popovic’s side, providing the cross for La Rocca’s opener before producing a moment of magic for his own goal.
The crowd of 40,388 was the Sky Blues biggest-ever home attendance for a regular season match, beating the previous record of 35,419 for the clash with Newcastle Jets in round 2 of last season.
But the supporters following the Sky Blues went home disappointed after they were totally out-played by their cross-town rivals in a performance which is already set to turn up the heat on coach Frank Farina.
Sydney fans would have expected a response after last weekend’s 4-0 drubbing to Brisbane but it was more of the same and they will hope Del Piero can shrug off his calf injury in time for next week’s trip to Perth.
After a typically frenetic start it was the Wanderers who settled better and they capitalised with La Rocca on hand to nod him the fourth goal of his A-League career inside 11 minutes.
The Italian, who was sent off in the most recent derby at the end of last season, out-foxed Sebastian Ryall to get on the end of Ono’s pin-point free-kick.
Only the off-side flag denied Youssouf Hersi from doubling the visitors’ lead just four minutes later, when he failed to time his run from Tomi Juric’s defence-splitting pass.
But the Wanderers were clearly the dominant side and they eventually got their second on 26 minutes after another individual piece of brilliance from Ono.
Receiving the ball just outside the box, the Japanese veteran tried a cheeky chip over the defence which Sky Blues defenders Sebastian Ryall and Tiago Calvano both failed to deal with.
Ono controlled the loose ball on his thigh before steering it past Vedran Janjetovic into the corner of the net.
Sydney’s best chance of the half arrived on 33 minutes, when Nikola Petkovic’s rasping 30m free-kick cannoned back off the crossbar.
It was the only real moment of concern for the Wanderers defence and they continued to trouble the home side at the other end after the break.
Brendan Santalab replaced the injured Hersi (foot) at the break and scuffed two shooting opportunities early in the second half.
Sydney tried hard to find a route back into the contest but found the Wanderers defence too hard to breach and it was only some wasteful finishing from the visitors that prevented a heavier defeat.
Sydney FC 0
Western Sydney Wanderers 2 (La Rocca 11, Ono 26)
Crowd: 40,388 @ Allianz Stadium
HAVE YOU POWERED THE GAME YET
Sydney FC fan Rachel Taylor cheers on the boys by…
“TURNING UP TO THE SYDNEY DERBY 8 MONTHS PREGNANT & ON CRUTCHES AFTER AN OP. GOTTA SUPPORT MY BOYS IN BLUE!”
