Wanderers create new milestone for Aussie football

It seems somehow appropriate that Western Sydney Wanderers created a new chapter for Australian football by winning the AFC Champions League almost ten years to the day since the passing of local icon Johnny Warren. The former Socceroo captain was the loudest and most consistent voice calling for the country to embrace “the world game”.

The speed of change in those ten years has been phenomenal. Perhaps Warren would have envisaged Australia participating in the FIFA World Cup™, however no one – not even Australian soccer’s great visionary – could have imagined a local club being crowned kings of Asia. Thousands of fans were literally dancing on the streets of Parramatta in western Sydney’s heartland celebrating the final whistle in far-away Riyadh. In other words, more people rose from their beds at 4am on a Sunday than attended national league matches in the same city a decade ago. It is a perfect metaphor for the growth in Australian football

The fact that the Wanderers didn’t exist three years ago makes this fairytale all the more unbelievable. The tough 1-0 aggregate win over Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal was a backs-to-the-wall display, and may have offered little for the connoisseurs to enthuse about. But few can deny the Wanderers are worthy winners. After all in the knockout stage they eliminated the J.League champions (Sanfrecce Hiroshima), Asian champions (Guangzhou Evergrande) and last season’s Champions League runners-up (FC Seoul). Now the FIFA Club World Cup awaits.

Hail the new king 

Adelaide United had been the only previous A-League club to reach an AFC Champions League final. However, their dream ended in despair with a 5-0 aggregate defeat against Gamba Osaka in 2008.

Now, the unprecedented success of a team that is just two and half years old is being hailed as a new landmark Down Under. Melbourne newspaper The Age described it as “surely the greatest triumph of an Australian club in a sporting competition”.

The Sydney Morning Herald was equally fulsome in its praise, suggesting the win meant far more than just a case of adding silverware to the trophy cabinet: “It’s a fantasy, but it’s real. The Wanderers have changed (Australian) football irrevocably. First at home, and now abroad.”

Football Federation Australia chief executive David Gallop said: "This triumph will resonate throughout the game and across our nation. The impact will be felt beyond sport and will speak to Australia's future in the Asian century and football's pivotal role.”

Against the odds 

Western Sydney Wanderers seemed to be underdogs in every match they played in Asia. It seems that is just how they prefer it. Coach Tony Popovic has created a team with indefatigable spirit and belief in themselves. The fact their squad is built within the constraints of a salary cap just adds another layer to a remarkable story.

Former Socceroo John Aloisi, who famously scored the penalty which lifted Australia into the 2006 FIFA World Cup, likened the club to Atletico Madrid in its characteristics. The former Osasuna striker suggesting that Popovic had, much like Diego Simeone, created a team greater than the sum of its parts, and one able to compete against better resourced rivals.

Popovic holds a similar view. “We don’t have the resources or the funds that some of these other teams have,” he said. “But we have something that money can’t buy - the desire to win.”

Mexico’s Cruz Azul are the opponents in store at Morocco 2014 next month. Awaiting the winner is Spanish superpower Real Madrid. Dreams, it seem, can come true.