Before Saturday’s match, John Aloisi asked his Western United players: “Why don’t we be the first team to beat Auckland?”.
History-making newcomers Auckland FC had gone seven games without defeat to start their inaugural Isuzu UTE A-League season.
But Western United head coach Aloisi believed the Green and Black could pull off an upset at Go Media Stadium on Saturday. He was right.
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In fact, visiting Western put Auckland to the sword in a remarkable 4-0 victory.
“We spoke about it after the game last week that the performance and result against Sydney FC should give them confidence,” Aloisi told reporters, reference Western’s thrilling 4-0 win over Sydney FC in Round 8.
“I said during the week, ‘why don’t we be the first team to beat Auckland?. I believe that we can and I believe that we will’. I just wanted the boys to believe it. I could sense it in training that they did have that belief.
“Whether that’s from the result from the week before but we performed well most of the season.
“As soon as we started the game, I thought we’re on here. We’re going to really give it a good shake and we did.”
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Riku Danzaki, Noah Botic and Hiroshi Ibusuki struck in the first half, while Matt Grimaldi found the back of the net in the closing stages of the clash in New Zealand.
Western, who have now scored 10 goals in their past three away fixtures having scored 18 in their previous 15, provisionally climbed up to fifth in the table – seven points behind leaders Auckland FC through nine rounds.
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Aloisi said: “It’s a really good feeling the way we played. Especially that first half, we were outstanding.
“Even when we went 1-0 up, away from home but the boys kept going for the game, pushing and wanting a second. Then when we got the second, wanting a third. Then we still had chance to make it four in the first half.
“It shows we’re a team who want to play our football and our way. The younger boys are picking that up and doing really well.”
“He continued: “Pleased on all aspects of the game. An outstanding performance.”
