Mark Torcaso’s Western United are built on collective effort, and the results have been remarkable writes Tom Smithies.
Sydney FC had the stars – the “best players” and the “best coach”, according to the coach of the Semi Final rivals. But Mark Toscano’s Western United side had unbeatable, unsurpassable unity.
If a football match is a blur of individual tussles, the context is how they join together in a whole. When a team is utterly invested in itself, when its players do everything to support the collective, then the sum can be so much greater than the parts.
At no point of their Liberty A-League Semi Final at Allianz Stadium did Western United look like losing it. They gave up possession, they gave up territory, they defended desperately at times. But never did it feel like a given that Sydney FC would ultimately score.
At the end of an exhausting season, with a squad of players at least half of whom are still finding their way at this level, there was no physical capitulation from a Western United side that didn’t exist last year. The team structures and combinations that have served them so well all season sat easily in place.
“We might not be overly entertaining in the way that we play but we’re definitely going to give a fight and we’re going to work hard for each other every game and literally just fight right to the end of every minute,” said Toscano afterwards, literally shaking his head at the scale of his team’s achievement.
In fact he might be doing his side a little disservice. They are undoubtedly efficient rather than elegant, but there is a beauty in seeing a group of players working incessantly to back each other and offer support on and off the ball.
They play without fuss, but with heart. In Angie Beard they have a feisty, combative, inspiring kind of figure, the sort whose work ethic is a call to arms in itself. In Hannah Keane they have a goalscorer whose only real concern is the team’s results, who set herself a nominal target of at least 10 goals but seemed genuinely unfussed if she didn’t make it so long as the team was winning. In Chloe Logarzo – even in a non-playing capacity as she was here – they have a personality with massive experience at the highest level.
These are the leaders, the players to calm any nerves with they way they talk and the way they play. But so many of the rest haven’t played to this level previously. “A lot of these girls come from an NPL set up and have never been exposed to this A-League environment,” Toscano said. “So I love it just for them that they get this opportunity to play in a big game like today, and then another big game in two weeks’ time. It’s an amazing achievement for the club but (also) for those individuals.”
Perhaps the most striking aspect of their performance was its consistency. The occasion, the pitch and the preceding season were all taking a toll on players from both sides. Sydney poured forward time and again in a bid to find an equaliser, but each time the tired limbs of the visitors stuck to the script they have come to recite so well. There were no nerves, or at least no manifestation of any.
“Our staff have put together a really good program for them throughout the year, they’ve worked extremely hard since day dot,” said Toscano of the squad he has taken in part from Calder United in Victoria’s NPL and lifted into a professional environment.
“For us, it’s just a matter of working hard for each other week in week out. We’ve had that sort of mentality pretty much all season and, you know, total respect for Sydney FC, (they’ve) probably been the best side in the in the competition the last three or four years.
“But it was just about grinding out games for us week in week out. (Nerves) were definitely a thought and that’s why having people like Angie Beard, Chloe Logarzo, even Jess McDonald early in the season, having them involved in these type of environments is very important for us, because they can talk to these young girls about what it’s like to be at this stage. We weren’t sure how we were going to approach it and how it was going to be, but they all stood up and that was amazing for me. They’ve got a chance to play in the big game now.”
