The 2025/26 season is officially underway for the Western Sydney Wanderers and Head Coach Alen Stajcic has plenty to reflect on after the team’s opening fixture.
Facing last year’s champions, Melbourne City, the Wanderers showed flashes of the quality and resilience members and fans have come to expect, even if the result didn’t quite go their way.
The opening round highlighted both the strengths of the squad and the areas that need improvement, an early benchmark for what promises to be a long and competitive season.
“There’s a lot of positives to take away from Round 1,” Stajcic said.
“A lot of things we need to work on and improve, but the result wasn’t the worst in the world. We all know we can do better, and we all want to do better, albeit against a top-quality outfit like Melbourne City.
“We saw their quality again in the Champions League this week, so that puts things into perspective. It was a reasonable starting point for us, but we know there’s plenty to improve.”
After facing last season’s Champions in the opener, the Wanderers now head across the Tasman to take on the reigning Premiers, Auckland FC, another stern early-season test.
“It’s been a brilliant start to the year for us in terms of the challenges,” Stajcic said.
“We’ve faced the champions last week and now the premiers this week, two of the heavyweights from last season. It’s a really good test of where we’re at this early in the campaign.
“Auckland had a good, tight game against Victory last week, and honestly, every match so far has been on a knife’s edge. It’s another tough challenge for us, but I can’t wait to get there. They’ve built such a great atmosphere and done a fantastic job with their club. I think it’ll be a big occasion.”
The Auckland fixture kicks off a month-long stretch away from home, but Stajcic isn’t concerned by the travel, insisting the team’s mindset remains the same no matter the venue.
“I really don’t care where we’re playing, our expectations are always the same,” he said.
“To keep improving, to keep playing the football we want to play, and to stay positive.
“We’ve got a match at Campbelltown next week, which I don’t classify as an away game at all. That’s part of the Western Suburbs and part of our homeland.
“Hopefully, we see another massive crowd there like we did last year when we smashed their home record and, as we all know, it was probably 90% Wanderers fans. Hopefully this time that percentage is even higher.”
Reflecting on individual performances, Stajcic praised forward Kosta Barbarouses, who opened his account for the season in Round One.
“I thought all the new players who’ve come into the team did really well,” he said.
“Building that team chemistry is a massive priority for us. The sooner we gel, the sooner we’ll start reaching our potential.”
