THE Western Sydney Wanderers made plenty of shots on goal against Sydney FC, though none made it past the net in the 0-0 Sydney derby draw at the weekend.
In the lead up to the game, Sydney’s coach Graham Arnold boldly predicted his keeper Danny Vukovic would not even have to make a save, though that was proved wrong, with Vukovic being credited with three saves.
He ought to have had to work harder, with the referees missing a clear handball by Sydney’s Michael Zullo in their own box in the 21st minute.
Wanderers coach Tony Popovic blew up on the sidelines, and was clearly still upset by it after the game.
"I'm getting sick of talking about it. It's a penalty, It's clear, it can't be clearer than that. Teams are getting affected every week," he said.
Despite the missed penalty, the Wanderers had to be happy to come away with a draw against Sydney, which has not lost in 15 matches, and tore the Wanderers up in a 4-0 win in the opening round of the season.
Wanderers keeper Vedran Janjetovic became the first player to switched directly between the two cross-town rivals, and the crowd at Allianz stadium reminded him about it whenever he became involved in the action.
Janjetovic was not bothered, and made five saves, including one spectacular one, which saw him dive backwards, extend his arm and just tip a ball over the net.
Despite his pre-game shots, Arnold credited the Wanderers after the draw.
“A good derby, a passionate derby, a lot of fight. Two teams that played well and West Sydney Wanderers performed well,” he said.
“You’ve got to give them credit, they made it hard for us at times. They performed to their best tonight, but [Sydney FC's] execution let us down tonight.”
The Wanderers will play the Newcastle Jets at Campbelltown Stadium on Sunday, January 22 at 5pm.
It will be a double header fixture, with the Wanderers women hosting Canberra United at the same venue, with the women starting at 2.30pm.
Meanwhile, it was a different story entirely in the women’s league at the weekend, as the Wanderers were crushed 10-2 by Adelaide United.
Adelaide scored eight second half goals in the drubbing of the Wanderers women on Saturday afternoon.
Things actually got off to a good start for the Wanderers, as Sarah Willacy accidentally scored an own goal in the 17th minute.
However, two minutes later Adelaide’s Rachael Quigley struck back with a goal of her own.
Things remained close, with Adelaide going up 3-1 in the 49th minute, and the Wanderers closing the gap through Erica Halloway.
From there, however, Adelaide sent seven more goals into the back of the net.
