Western United’s entry into the A-League has become one of the intriguing headline stories during the opening two rounds of the season and the new expansion club were again at the centre of more milestones in Round 2 of the A-League season.
Settling into their new home in Geelong at GMBA Stadium, Western United’s clash with Perth Glory produced an entertaining and competitive encounter – and delivered two key player highlights.
Firstly, Western’s inaugural signing, Panagiotis Kone fittingly netted the club’s first-ever goal on home soil and his first for the Green and Black. Judging by the execution of the classy right-footed strike that nestled in the top corner, Kone will no doubt score more during his first season for the Western-suburbs-based club, and the finish will live long in the memories of the fledgling club’s new fans.
However, United’s hopes of a historic first home win were thwarted by Tony Poppovic who injected his football progeny into the encounter, with 18-year-old son Kristian entering the match as a second-half substitute. Repaying dad’s faith, Popovic junior snatched a vital equaliser for the reigning Premiers within eight minutes of his introduction, nodding home a nicely executed header from Neil Kilkenny’s pinpoint cross.
In a seemingly endless rich vein of form, Jamie Maclaren continued his exploits for club Melbourne City after netting four goals for his country – a hat-trick against Nepal and a goal against Chinese Taipei.
The pair of goals – which came four minutes and 28 seconds apart – were Maclaren’s first goals for City this season and his second brace for the club, having netted five times in nine appearances last season.
On Friday night, Western Sydney Wanderers’ German marquee Alex Meier netted his first goal in the A-League in a 2-1 win over Melbourne Victory at Marvel Stadium, with a classy lob to give Markus Babbel’s team a 2-0 lead.
In Wellington’s 1-2 loss against Sydney FC, Ulises Davila became the A-League’s first-ever Mexican to score in the competition. Davila tucked away a neat equaliser for Phoenix, but Rhyan Grant’s finish from a Sydney set piece gave the home side all three points.
In the NWSL, Sam Kerr was again on the scoresheet after sealing the competition’s Golden Boot for the third season running, scoring the decisive goal in a 1-0 win over Portland Thorns to fire her team into its first-ever NWSL championship final.
