It’s final day drama as the Wanderers sit on the cusp of finals football.
Kids Go Free and Adult tickets are only $10 to the match. Get yours here.
In football, there’s always a fine line between making the grade and falling short.
It’s a game where emotions can turn in an instant, where things can be decided by the nest of margins, the smallest of moments.
And this Sunday night at ANZ Stadium, we’re set to sample a taste of the theatre that makes football the greatest game of all as the Wanderers fight for finals football.
A win on Sunday against Adelaide United and Josep Gombau’s men will have locked up sixth place after what’s been a roller-coaster season to say the least.
Though anything but a win and the Red & Black may be staring down the barrel of missing out on the finals for only the second time in their short but illustrious history.
It’s a precarious scenario and one that will no doubt have the Wanderers faithful on the edge of their seats for the whole 90 minutes.
And although sixth place on the ladder is a position that is well below the club’s now lofty standards, a tilt at finals football would be deserving for a team that has had to contend with more twists than most this season.
The departure of Tony Popovic on the eve of the season caused quite a stir right around the league but for a club that has built itself on resilience, the Red & Black kicked-on and began the 2017/18 season with a six-game unbeaten run.
Things have been up and down ever since but the Wanderers have maintained one thing right throughout the season: belief.
The belief that things will turn, the belief in the quality within the side, the belief that something can be achieved this season.
It’s a theme that has come to a climax where victory on Sunday grants the Wanderers a ticket in the lottery that is finals football, where a place in the Grand Final is just two wins away.
Not that the Wanderers will be getting ahead of themselves.
Standing in their way is an Adelaide side who have already bested them twice this season – once in the Westfield FFA Cup in October and once at Coopers Stadium back in Round 8.
In the last meeting between the two sides, which was at ANZ Stadium at the beginning of the year, the Wanderers were headed for the three points after Jack Clisby had given the Red & Black the lead before Adelaide stole a point with an 86th minute equaliser from Apostolos Stamatelopoulos.
The Wanderers will be desperate to avoid a repeat of that night and will be hopeful of closing things out after a morale-boosting win over Brisbane last week.
Leading the charge is, of course, the Red & Black’s man of the moment, Oriol Riera.
The marquee man snatched the club record for most goals in a single season with his 17th and 18th goals of the season against Brisbane.
The number 9 has emerged as a prolific goalscorer the likes the club has never seen and Gombau will be hoping his star man has more left in the tank.
Adelaide come to Western Sydney having already sewn up their place in the finals though the Wanderers won’t be buying into any talk of complacency.
For this is football – the game where things can turn in an instant, where nobody is ever safe and where nothing is certain.
Get ready Western Sydney – this could be just a little bit exciting.
