Western Sydney Wanderers defender Anthony Pantazopoulos would love nothing more than to add to Sydney FC’s recent woes by handing them another Sydney Derby defeat this weekend.
The 22-year-old was a central figure during the first Sydney Derby of the season, playing a pivotal role in helping the Wanderers defeat the Sky Blues 1-0 at CommBank Stadium back in November.
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Having fanned the flames in the lead up to kick off, Pantazopoulos then copped his fair share of abuse from the travelling Sydney FC fans as his side celebrated their hard-fought 1-0 win in front of an adoring crowd.
Speaking at a joint Sydney Derby press conference on Wednesday afternoon, the 22-year-old admits he’s happy to play the pantomime villain once again.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t mind it,” laughed Pantazopoulos when asked if he’s ready to get under the skin of the opposition once again.
“I enjoy being hated, I guess, by the opposition, and being loved by my own.
“And if that’s something that can then help us get the win and get the three points, that’s all I care about.”
The Wanderers head into enemy territory off the back of a hard-fought win over Perth Glory in Round 13 in what was also new head coach Gary van Egmond’s first game in charge following the sacking of Alen Stajcic.
“I think we’ve had a tough season in terms of we haven’t felt that we’ve been as poor as you know, what it might seem,” said Pantazopoulos.
“To be honest, we are where we are because of a reason, and that’s because we’re not scoring enough and we’re not playing well enough.
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“And I think we needed that win last week one for us to get that kind of belief back that we actually can win games.
“I think we showed in the last 30 minutes, even on an extremely hot day, that we had the legs to do it, and we can overrun teams, and that’s something that we’re going to pride ourselves on, really working harder than the other team.”
Key to that win over Perth was new signing Ryan Fraser, who bagged the only goal of the game on his debut after joining the Wanderers on loan from English Championship side Southampton.
“Yeah, he brings a lot of energy. Obviously his pedigree is what it is. He’s played at the top level, and he’s experienced things and gone through good stages and bad stages as well,” said Pantazopoulos of Fraser.
“So he’s really helping us, in terms of mentally and also on the pitch, just giving us that confidence, you know, where we can just give him the ball and let him do what he does.
“That’s something that maybe we’ve been missing a little bit, a little bit of X Factor. So he’s definitely bringing that.”
Sydney FC head into the Derby off the back of their 4-0 Big Blue shellacking at the hands of Melbourne Victory, a result which led to heavy criticism of his own side from Sky Blues boss Ufuk Talay.
However Wanderers boss van Egmond admits he and his coaching staff are now wary of a reaction from their fiercest rivals, especially with the game being played at Allianz Stadium.
“It’s a derby (and) they’re playing at home,” said van Egmond when speaking on Wednesday afternoon.
“The fact that they lost that game against Melbourne, which is also a fairly integral rival between Sydney and Melbourne. So we’re expecting a response.
“But on the flip side, the way in which we won, the performance that we had, and the momentum that we gained, or are going to gain for that win, going into the game, I wouldn’t miss this game for anything.”
Whilst the rivalry runs deep between Sydney’s two biggest sides, there is room for a little sentiment between the two coaches heading into Saturday’s showdown at Allianz Stadium
“Uffie and I go back a long, long way.” said van Egmond, when asked about his friendship with the Sydney FC boss.
“When I was at Marconi, Uffie was a young player coming through, and it was up to us older boys to protect him.
“So I’ll always have that feeling for him. But you know, at the moment, we’re friends, but come Saturday night, it may be different.”
“We’re always friends off the field,” added Talay when asked about his relationship with the new Wanderers boss.
“I think we all have white line fever. I think once the whistle goes, we all want to be successful, and we want to win games.
“We won’t be friends for 90, 95 minutes, and then after the whistle finishes, we’ll be friends again.
“You know, the footballing landscape isn’t a massive landscape in Australia. I played with ‘Dutchie’ (van Egmond) back in the old NSL days.
“He would have been around 28, I would have been 16 at the time at Marconi in the first year when we won a title with Marconi.
“So yeah, look, we’ve known each other for a long time. But like I said, once the whistle goes, that friendship ends.”
