Western Sydney Wanderers 5-1 Western United
by Joe Rosedon (14/12/24)
Above: Sienna Saveska (left) celebrates for Western Sydney Wanderers today. Photo: A-Leagues.
Sienna Saveska’s first-half hattrick helped to earn Western Sydney Wanderers first win of the season, dismantling Western United 5-1 at CommBank Stadium.
The first goal of Saveska’s hat trick and the Wanderers’ first goal in four games came in notable fashion. Directly from the corner, she somehow squeezed the ball between Sasha Grove at the near post and Chloe Lincoln in goal. It seemed fitting that Western Sydney’s goal drought would end spectacularly, and more would soon follow.
With a one-touch pass, Sophie Harding set Cushla Rue away on the right side. The winger looked up and picked out Saveska’s darting run in the box. With a delicate finish, Saveska angled the ball past Lincoln to double her personal tally and the home side’s lead.
Two was to become three for Saveska and Western Sydney. This was the pick of the crop. Saveska unleashed a thunderous strike on the edge of the box into the top left corner that gave Lincoln no chance of saving. For a team that has struggled to find the back of the net all season, they were making goalscoring look second nature.
Western Sydney’s first-half scoring had not concluded just yet. Amy Harrison’s direct pass from deep caused all sorts of issues for Western United’s defence. The ball landed at the feet of Rue who was bearing down on goal. She held off Grace Maher and poked the ball through Lincoln to remarkably give Wanderers a four-goal lead at halftime.
Western United did have chances to make the score line more respectable before the break, with Kahli Johnson unable to get enough on Aimee Medwin’s deflected cross to direct into the goal but could not cope with the attacking onslaught.
Harrison had a golden opportunity to add to her assist in the opening stages of the second half. Rue was brought down in the box by Grove, and the referee Casey Reibelt showed no hesitation when pointing to the spot. However, Harrison could not score, missing the target comfortably.
Incidentally, Western United were soon to gain some form of consolation from the penalty spot. A somewhat dubious handball from Ella Buchanan was enough for Reibelt to award a penalty once again. This time, Matilda Chloe Logarzo converted to reduce the deficit and give the visitors a faint glimmer of hope.
The visitors were starting to show more attacking intent following the goal. Johnson had her close-range flick cleared off the line by Amy Chessari following Logarzo’s dangerous corner and Emily Roach’s downward header. Johnson again could have scored, her curling effort from just inside the box forced Sham Khamis into a good save.
Yet Western Sydney had not finished scoring just yet and Harrison’s passing proved influential once again and this time Matos was the target. The pass first reached Lincoln who spilled the ball into the path of Matos. Her persistence was rewarded, taking the ball past both Lincoln and Alana Cerne to score her first A-League Woen goal and round off a tremendous performance from the Wanderers.
Teams: WESTERN SYDNEY WANDERERS (4-2-3-1): Khamis, Matos, Harrison, Ferris, Buchanan, Chessari, Harada, Rue, Saveska, Younis, Harding. Substitutes: Segavcic, Bennett, Price, Trew, Kapetanellis.
Scorers: Saveska 10’, 24’, 27’. Rue 38’, Matos 82’.
WESTERN UNITED (3-5-2): Lincoln, Sardo, Cerne, Maher, Medwin, Eggesvik, Taranto, Hieda, Grove, Logazo, Johnson. Substitutes: Dall’Oste, Roach, Prakash, Cortellino, Dehakiz.
Scorer: Logarzo 64’ (pen).
Referee: Casey Reibelt
Attendance: 2,225.
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