On this week’s episode of the Official Isuzu UTE A-League Podcast, host Daniel Garb was joined by KEEPUP’s Tom Smithies and Matt Comito to discuss a mouth-watering final round of the season and Jamie Maclaren’s historic feat. Listen below.
Western Sydney Wanderers fans have been starved of finals football for five straight Isuzu UTE A-League seasons but that drought is finally ending this term, and with it, could come a coveted top-two berth.
Marko Rudan has overseen not only a drastic squad overhaul, but a resurgence of a team that not had participated in a Finals Series since 2017-18.
The Wanderers recruited no less than 18 players in the off-season and mid-season – including Milos Ninkovic, former Manchester United midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin, ex-Lyon defender Marcelo, Lawrence Thomas and Tunisia international Amor Layouni.
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Western Sydney are in the running for their first top-two finish since 2015-16, when they were beaten Grand Finalists under Tony Popovic, heading into a mouth-watering final round of the regular season with the top-four teams playing simultaneously on Friday night. The Wanderers visit reigning premiers Melbourne City while Adelaide United host Central Coast Mariners.
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And they’re peaking at the business end of the season following their 4-0 demolition of Wellington Phoenix and it was a rout headlined by the fact their front six players were all signed this season – Layouni, Ninkovic, Schneiderlin, Romain Amalfitano, Brandon Borrello and Calem Nieuwenhof.
Joining host Daniel Garb on this week’s episode of The Official Isuzu UTE A-League Podcast were KEEPUP’s Tom Smithies and Matt Comito and while looking ahead to a thrilling 26th and final round, the Wanderers came in for significant praise.
“They’re certainly growing at exactly the right time. All the things that we talked about at the start of the season are all coming to pass,” Smithies said when it was put to him that Western Sydney were arguably the second-best team in the competition.
“Their defensive solidity has largely been there but the attacking prowess of that wonderful group of attacking players, they’re really starting to get to know each other and understand each other.
“Some of the one-touch stuff against Wellington was just phenomenal. You know when you get a good group of players playing five-a-side and they’re just doing stuff off the cuff cause they’re starting to understand each other.
“They have got such a squad – the players they can bring off the bench. Phenomenal to watch and I love watching them.
“They could beat, literally anybody, in the finals quite easily.”
The Wanderers are set to play a massive part in Friday’s football feast.
While Melbourne City are 10 points clear atop the table, only a point separates Adelaide, Central Coast and Western Sydney with one round to play.
A spot inside the top two secures a week off, a Semi Final berth and an AFC Cup berth.
There is also a big mental aspect around these two fixtures as the Wanderers visit AAMI Park, while the second-placed Reds welcome the Mariners to Coopers Stadium, with all four sides attempting to plant seeds of doubt among their rivals.
“These four teams are quite evenly matched going into the finals, so little mental wins will be important for them,” Comito said. “They will be a bit cagey and a bit tense.
“Both managers – Marko (Rudan) and Rado (Vidosic) – will want to take three points from this game, regardless of top two or top four whatever because of that mental edge they can get.”
Smithies added: “If you think of those four teams… the history beyond this season. Adelaide and City met in the finals last season and Adelaide came away smarting they didn’t take chances in the first leg at Coopers Stadium.
“They went down to a Maclaren goal finally in the second leg. They were furious with themselves not to have taken advantage of a phenomenal atmosphere at Coopers Stadium.
“If they meet again, we’ve already seen this season what they can do to City at home, so I think they are very evenly matched. Any of those four you could quite easily see winning the title.”
The magnitude of an A-Leagues record but where will Maclaren end up?
Jamie Maclaren stands alone as the all-time leading goalscorer in Isuzu UTE A-League history.
He eclipsed Besart Berisha with a hat-trick against Western United that took the Melbourne City talisman to a record-breaking 143 goals in the competition.
The 29-year-old achieved the feat in just 201 games across stints with Perth Glory, Brisbane Roar and now City, with the Socceroo only second to Damian Mori on the all-time Australian domestic list.
Smithies, Comito and Garb all marvelled at the achievement, with still so much football left in his career.
“Jamie Maclaren, what a star. What a legend. A genuine legend. We knew it but now it’s official, the all-time leading goalscorer,” Smithies said.
“This is something that you have to really sit back and take in the scale of the achievement.
“I was speaking to (City veteran) Scott Jamieson, who was on the pitch when Maclaren scored his first ever A-Leagues goal for Perth Glory against, ironically, Melbourne Heart.
“He just talked about the work ethic on the training ground Maclaren has shown ever since he has turned up to Perth from Blackburn Rovers, having spent four years at Blackburn. (He) played his first professional match for Perth and a couple of weeks later scored his first professional goal and then a decade later, he has that ridiculous record.
“A ridiculous achievement and the fact is, he can keep going. He has years ahead of him. So who knows what he will get to.”
Maclaren, who has won four Isuzu UTE A-League Golden Boots – including three in a row and he is set to wrap up a fourth in succession, has dominated the competition after bursting onto the scene with Perth Glory in 2013.
There have been spells abroad with Darmstadt in Germany and Hibernian in Scotland, but he has still managed to chase down Berisha for that historic position.
Comito said: “It’s even more mind-boggling that he came back to the league in 2018 (after his loan spell with Hibs) and he has since, in five seasons at City, has now got the record himself as not only the A-Leagues’ all-time top scorer but the one-club top scorer, eclipsing Archie Thompson too on the same night.
“His legendary status, he put a couple of big stamps on it.
“He sometimes doesn’t get his plaudits from fans and what not. Some people who chose to openly disregard the achievement but the truth being he is a goalscorer and he takes advantage of what’s given to him which is exceptional service. His status is assured as a legend of the game.”
A predator in the box, Maclaren has made a living inside the penalty area, scoring goals at will.
He has 23 goals this season heading into Round 26.
“We’ve bemoaned in Australian football, the absence of those kind of players,” Garb said.
“Where have the strikers gone? where have the finishers gone? Jamie Maclaren isn’t Mark Viduka, Harry Kewell or Tim Cahill, we know that. But he is still a damn good finisher and a throwback to players of the 80s and 90s.
“There are too many players who have become robots… here we have a unique talent in our own league who executes a skill that very few players do master. Not just in Australia mind you, but the world over.
“Being that 18-yard predator. It’s not a position that is plentiful in world football because you have to be an all-round striker these days. We should be applauding that and enjoying it.”
