EYDERBY N TH #SYD 88EDITION VS 15 DECEMBER 2018 SEASON 2018/19 SEASON ROUND 8 150 MATCH MAN 02 REGULAR COLUMNS THIS THE LETTER 5 MATCH WARM UP 6 FIVE THINGS 11 PLAYERS TO WATCH 13 FEATURES Brought to you by Turner and Freeman THE WANDERER BECOMING JANJETOVIC 8 TODAY’S MATCH 16 The views in this publication are not Vedran's remarkable comeback to necessarily the views of the Western Sydney football has defined him as a person JUNIOR WANDERER ZONE 18 Wanderers FC. Material in this publication is copyrighted and may only be reproduced ZIEGLER FINDING FORM 14 TAKE FIVE 25 with written permission from the club. Markus Babbel was delighted that Patrick Brought to you by Turner and Freeman Ziegler was finally able to make his Hyundai ADVERTISING A-League debut for the club IN THE COMMUNITY 27 For all advertising enquiries for The Wanderer or partnership with the WANDERERS TO COME BACK WITH CORPORATE NEWS 29 club contact the Corporate Partnerships A VENGEANCE 20 Team by sending an email to We wrap up the Westfield W-League OUR PARTNERS 31 [email protected] or team's season so far visit corporate.wanderland.com.au NIZIC'S WHIRLWIND PHOTOGRAPHY ENGLISH ADVENTURE 22 All photography in The Wanderer is courtesy From penalty practice with Kanu to of Ali Erhan, Getty Images, Kellie Lemon and brutal non-league football Steve Christo. WANDERERS SHOP TRAINING DAY GRAB YOUR NIKE TRAINING RANGE TODAY WANDERERS SHOP.COM.AU AQUALAND AUSTRALIA HAS BEEN DELIVERING PROPERTY DIFFERENTLY SINCE 2014 Nestled in the heart of Norwest, plant the seeds for an incredible future. Now Selling. The Aster Collection, comprising 14 grand land lots from 705m2. Secure your place in this coveted new neighbourhood with our stage one limited release. Sales Suite open 7 days, 10am to 4pm. 64 Mackillop Drive, Baulkham Hills. bellevueresidences.com.au • 1800 958 074 Aqualand are proud to be Senior Partners of Western Sydney Wanderers 2018/2019. 05 Today’s match is exciting time for the Wanderers community to come together and not only support the team during the Derby but also the Wanderers Christmas Appeal with Foodbank. Foodbank does a fantastic job in providing food to people who need it, especially at this time of the year. To team up with my favourite Hyundai A-League club, the Wanderers, has been a dream come true. We’re so pleased be working with the Wanderers tonight in making sure that we get more food to people for Christmas, as everyone deserves to have food at Christmas. Last week, we had both the Westfield W-League and Hyundai A-League teams at our warehouse in Glendenning, packing hampers for #SYDNEYDERBY distribution. To have a team like this who have given back the way they have with their volunteering is exciting and fantastic. Without volunteers, especially volunteers like this, we aren’t able to get our hampers out to people during Christmas. There are families who are doing it really tough so this is for them. Come on you Wanderers! John Robertson, Foodbank NSW & ACT Executive General Manager VISIT WANDERLAND.COM.AU WANDERLAND.COM.AU VISIT THE LETTER 06 Corica’s men will be disappointed with the result and will no doubt be aiming to bounce MATCH back against the Red & Black. Of major concern is Sydney’s normally resolute defence which opened very easily PREVIEW against Wellington and will need to tighten up against the likes of Alex Baumjohann, t's Derby Day, one of the most important Oriol Riera and the new generation of days in the Hyundai A-League calendar. Wanderers that have been firing including IIt's the day where two of the fiercest Bruce Kamau, Keanu Baccus, Jaushua Sotirio cross-city rivals come together to battle it and Jordan O’Doherty. out on the turf of ANZ Stadium. If past Derbies are anything to go by, get If this match was played a few weeks ago, ready for one massive night. you would tip a Sky Blues win. But on current form the Wanderers might just go into this Derby as slight favourites, how the tables (Left to right) Tarek Elrich leads have quickly turned. the line at training; Markus Babbel Markus Babbel’s men have picked up their looks over the session second win of the season, as well as their second clean sheet, on Friday night in their 2-0 win over the Mariners to sit outside the top six on goal difference only. The return of central defender Patrick Ziegler was hugely significant with the German adding some composure and steel to Western Sydney’s defence. Ziegler made a massive 17 clearances during the Wanderers win over the Mariners, shattering a 20-month record on his Hyundai A-League debut. While the Sky Blues have recent history on their side – they’ve just lost one of the last 14 Derbies in the Hyundai A-League – they were very underwhelming in their upset 3-1 loss to the Phoenix on Saturday. GO TO THREE MORE BECOME A WANDERER AND GO TO THREE MATCHES OF YOUR CHOICE AT SYDNEY OLYMPIC PARK THIS SEASON FOR ONLY $60 YOU WILL ALSO RECEIVE A MEMBER KIT AND ALL THE OTHER EXCLUSIVE MEMBER BENEFITS ADULT JUNIOR* FAMILY* $60 $30 $155 * TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR A JUNIOR TICKET YOU MUST BE UNDER 16 YEARS OF AGE. A FAMILY PASS CONSISTS OF TWO ADULTS AND TWO JUNIORS. JOIN ONLINE TODAY VISIT WANDERLAND.COM.AU 07 SUPPORT OUR WANDER WOMEN BY TUNING INTO THE WESTFIELD W-LEAGUE ROUND 8 MATCH AND ON THE FIELD MYFOOTBALLLIVE APP CATHERINE CANNULI REPORTER @CANNULI_13 s there any day better than Derby Day? I'm really looking forward to watching the Hyundai A-League team in action Itonight and I'm confident they can secure the three points against their cross-city rivals after a great performance in last week's double header. Our Westfield W-League girls, on the other hand, have a week off this week due to a bye in the fixture and similarly had a fantastic performance against ON THIS Canberra United last Friday night. The girls came from behind twice to hold Canberra to a thrilling draw and it was COURTESY OF ANDREW HOWE a relief to finally get our first points of the season. DAY @ANDYHOWE_STATTO Four second half goals, including two in the final 10 minutes, did justice to what was a physical and hard-fought match at Spotless Stadium. Christmas at the Khamis household will certainly be interesting after our Leena Khamis was cleaned up outside the box by her sister Sham during the opening minutes of the game. We also celebrated Leena Khamis' 100th Westfield W-League match and there was no better way for her to celebrate than to get on the scoresheet, scoring her first goal for the Red & Black. Kylie Ledbrook also continued her goalscoring form, getting a head to Georgia Yeoman-Dale’s cross and beating Shaam Khamis to ensure that we didn’t leave empty-handed after another dominant performance. Despite not having a game this weekend, the girls have been training hard to Over 9,000 packed into Marconi Stadium with another 3,000 prepare for their match on the 20th against Brisbane Roar at Dolphin Stadium. locked out to watch the Australian U20-side play Brazil in the The Roar will be coming into the game after a match against Victory tomorrow last game of the four-match SBS Youth Challenge on this day afternoon and have had some mixed results so far this season. in 1992. With the Under-20 World Youth Cup being hosted by Brisbane have won only two of their five matches so far this Westfield W-League Australia the following March, excitement was high among season and the results are certainly not reflective of their performances. Australia's football fans and a two-week national tour by the The Roar have proved time and time again that they are a real force to be reckoned Brazilian youth side had received tremendous support. with when they turn up - much like most of the teams in the competition. #SYDNEYDERBY GROUP WANDERERS MEMBER ALERT LEADER FILL IN YOUR GROUPING FORM BEFORE MONDAY 17 DECEMBER TO SECURE YOUR SEAT AT WESTERN SYDNEY STADIUM FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT WANDERLAND.COM.AU/WESTERNSYDNEYSTADIUM US @WSWANDERERSFC FOLLOW UP WARM 08 09 BECOMING JANJETOVIC VEDRAN'S REMARKABLE COMEBACK TO FOOTBALL HAS DEFINED HIM AS A PERSON Exacerbating Janjetovic’s woes was the medication that he was on, which meant that physical activity could wear down his hip bones and force him to require a hip replacement. Janjetovic said it was “the darkest place I’ve ever been”, but, with the benefit of hindsight, is now able to reflect back on the strength he showed in what was ultimately a highly successful return to football in 2012. “For me, it was an overnight thing. My hands stopped working and I didn’t have function in my fingers,” he said. “It scared the hell out of me, to be fair. he 31-year-old shot-stopper spent “Just looking back on all the hard work, all about two years on the sidelines after the training sessions, all the sacrifices, and Ta scary nerve injury robbed him of all the effort that you put in, it just gets all movement in his hands and fingers when he taken away from you like that. That was very #SYDNEYDERBY was a Sydney FC youth player. scary for me, as a young kid as well. WATCH WSWTV WSWTV WATCH FEATURE 10 “So many people were saying that ‘you can’t make it, you can’t do it, like, just give up’ or ‘your injury’s happened again, you’re going to spend so much time on the sideline and what not, not playing, go find a job, go do this, go do that’ … it was all, like, negative stuff towards my career - not towards me.