Jamie Maclaren and City storm WSW’s fortress Bankwest on spiteful night in the A-League
Kwame Yeboah scored a brace and looked to have rescued a point for Western Sydney before Jamie Maclaren, as he has done so often this season, had the final say for Melbourne City.
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Welcome to Bankwest Stadium, where Western Sydney start with a bang but fade like smoke, then snatch a draw from the jaws of defeat, and lose anyway.
Sounds like a seesaw, and it was.
A pendulum of fire and spite, and a head-turning performance from Kwame Yeboah, whose brace brought his third-placed Wanderers back from the brink with 10 minutes to play but couldn’t quite get them over the line once Jamie Maclaren had his final say.
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A brace of his own, started with a controversial penalty and completed in injury-time, gave Maclaren a new A-League record as the first to score multiple goals in four consecutive games, and sandwiched his assist for a Josh Brillante tap-in to seal a 3-2 triumph.
And so City climbed four points clear at the summit and the Wanderers will wonder how they managed to get done over at the impenetrable fortress that hadn’t yet been pierced.
Markus Babbel was irate afterwards, saying to media “do you have two eyes? F***ing have a look” when asked what he thought of referee Chris Beath’s 55th-minute penalty decision and whether Denis Genreau took a dive.
The Wanderers had been 1-0 up since the second minute.
“Everything, it changed the whole game,” Babbel said.
“Before then I never had the feeling they could score a goal … but I promised I would not say anything about the referees.
“I’m very happy with the performance today. The result is not good, but the performance was.”
KWAME THE KILLER QUEEN
Yeboah started and finished a mint move for Western Sydney’s opener inside 90 seconds, chesting the ball down for Mitch Duke, who passed off to Bruce Kamau.
Kamau hit eject on a first-time cross for Yeboah to finish at the far post, and the forward wheeled away in a celebration that bordered on a race-walk, wiggling his hips in delight as he went.
The VAR review to check for off-side lasted longer than the entire passage of play, before getting the green light.
Yeboah made it a double in the 80th minute, just in time for the Poznan – and to save the day.
Daniel Georgievski teed up substitute Alex Meier and the big German striker displayed wonderful awareness to head it back into the path of Yeboah for a first-time left-footed finish.
WHO KIDNAPPED KAMAU?
Injury was supposed to be the reason Kamau was out of action until now.
For all we know, Markus Babbel might have had the talented but inconsistent winger cryogenically frozen and injected with samples of surreptitiously cloned Messi DNA, so dramatic was the transformation in his first start of the campaign.
The 24-year-old was quick as the lightning that delayed the W-League curtain-raiser, with the movement of a gazelle and a first touch soft as a Pomeranian pup.
His volleyed cross to Yeboah was a deserved assist, moments later he would have had another had Mitchell Duke netted his header.
Later he grazed the post, then turned Scott Jamieson inside out to allow Georgievski a stinging shot that forced Dean Bouzanis into a top-draw save.
MACLAREN ADDS TO GOAL GLUT
It was a penalty, and it was questionable – a shirt tug on Denis Genreau – but Maclaren still made it count and it was the turning point in the match.
Cool as you like, he sent Daniel Lopar the wrong way before sounding the death knell in injury-time with a sweet strike from a Lachlan Wales cross, his 19th goal in 12 games for both club and country, ninth from four A-League outings and 12th from 12 meetings with the Wanderers.
Then add his quickness of foot to beat Dylan McGowan and offer up Brillante his first goal since scoring against the Wanderers for Sydney FC more than two years ago.
THEY DIDN’T GO DOWN WITHOUT A FIGHT
Tempers flared after heavy contact between Rostyn Griffiths and Georgievski that felled the latter.
McGowan took issue with the City midfielder’s challenge and he lost his head not for the first time, sparking an all-in melee and a booking for both Griffiths and McGowan.
And don’t forget Georgievski’s general combustibility and sideline application of a self-made muzzle to stem the bleeding inflicted by Griffiths’ elbow.
Oh, and former Wanderers Jamieson having a crack at his old fans post-match.
SCOREBOARD
MELBOURNE CITY 3 (Jamie Maclaren 56m pen, 90+2m, Joshua Brillante 73m) bt WESTERN SYDNEY WANDERERS 2 (Kwame Yeboah 2m, 80m) at Bankwest Stadium. Crowd: 12,078. Referee: Chris Beath.
Originally published as Jamie Maclaren and City storm WSW’s fortress Bankwest on spiteful night in the A-League