Western Sydney Wanders fielded a young side but were given all they could handle by a determined Canberra Olympic side on Wednesday night at AIS Athletics Field in Canberra. In the end, with more senior players on as second half substitutes, last season’s A-League premiers found the goals necessary to leave the capital with a 3-1 pre-season victory.
Western Sydney earn Canberra Olympic friendly win
Labinot Haliti, Tomi Jurić and Mark Bridge scored in the Wanderers’ pre-season win in the capital city.
1900 turned out in poor conditions to see the 2012/13 regular season champions but manager Tony Popovic mostly kept regular starters out of his starting XI except in defense. Labinot Haliti opened scoring for the Wanderers in the 13th minute but Olympic’s Mark Shields pulled the hosts level on 25 minutes. Despite a bevy of second half substitutions for the visitors, the score remained 1-1 until very late in the game.
While holding a clear majority of possession, Western Sydney could not open up Olympic until the insertion of star midfielder Shinji Ono half-way through the second half. Over the final half-hour the Wanderers finally found their footing and ultimately got the match-winner in the 81st minute from new signing Tomi Jurić. The 22-year-old joined Western Sydney after playing the end of last season with Adelaide United. Mark Bridge, the club’s leading scorer last season with 11, finished off the game with a 90th minute goal.
Scoring:
WSW Haliti 13’
CO Shields 25’
WSW Juric 81’
WSW Bridge 90’
Starting Lineups:
Olympic: Konstantinou, Valtonen, Shields, Deeley, Tanoski, Popovich, Domenici, Cattanach, Spaleta, Grbesa, Pavlak
Wanderers: Tyson, Cole, Topor-Stanley, Beauchamp, Gersbach*, McGing*, La Rocca, Appiah, Minniecon, Mooy, Haliti
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