GEELONG’S GMHBA Stadium became the scene of a chaotic A-League classic on Saturday evening, with Steven Lustica the hero as Western United overcame Perth Glory in a 5-4 goal fest.<\/p>\n
United snatched the lead through Victor Sanchez after just 10 minutes, before the teams traded eight goals in the space of half-an-hour in an enthralling second half with United youngster Dylan Pierias and Perth’s Carlo Armiento each scoring a brace.<\/p>\n
“It’s gonna take a bit of time to calm down from that one,” United coach Mark Rudan said.<\/p>\n
“You don’t coach many nine-goal thrillers and for it to have see-sawed the way it did… all I can say is I’m glad that we’re on the right end of those goals.”<\/p>\n
The home team made their early dominance count when Connor Pain squared the ball to Lustica, who cleverly left it for Sanchez to curl a delightful shot into the top corner.<\/p>\n
During the week, Rudan had demanded more from skipper Alessandro Diamanti and the Johnny Warren Medallist responded, returning to his captivating best as United’s midfield outhustled their Perth opponents.<\/p>\n
Glory boss Richard Garcia switched out Daniel Stynes for Armiento after just 38 minutes, then swung another two changes at the break.<\/p>\n
Then, Uruguayan Bruno Fornaroli sparked the contest to life.<\/p>\n
The Glory marksman shuffled on the ball then laid it off for Armiento to fire home from an angle in the 56th minute.<\/p>\n
Two minutes later, Armiento repaid the favour, cutting the ball back for Fornaroli to cheekily back-heel the Glory in front.<\/p>\n
In response to the goal, Rudan made three changes, bringing on Pierias, Lachie Wales and Brendan Hamill in one move.<\/p>\n
They paid off immediately when Wales burst down the left wing and lifted a cross over the Glory defence for Pierias to head home on 60 minutes.<\/p>\n
Four minutes later, the young attacker – who hadn’t scored in his previous 26 appearances – controlled Tomoki Imai’s cross, outmuscled his opponents and smashed home his second to regain the lead.<\/p>\n
Perth responded in the 69th minute when skipper Neil Kilkenny floated a free kick to the back post, where Nicholas D’Agostino snuck in to head home.<\/p>\n
In the 75th, United regained their lead when Wales whipped a ball across the face of goal, with Imai pouncing at the far post.<\/p>\n
“At 4-3 I turned to Richard Garcia and I said ‘this is crazy,” Rudan said.<\/p>\n
Three minutes later, Armiento snared his brace when he reacted quickest at a free kick, drilling home a spilt ball to level the scores again.<\/p>\n
But it would be United who had the last say in the 84th.<\/p>\n
After a pack of players met Diamanti’s corner, the ball spilled out to Lustica, whose shot took a deflection and rattled home to hand United their first win of the campaign.<\/p>\n
“It was a crazy game – I thought we did well to get ourselves to where we wanted to be in the second half,” Garcia said.<\/p>\n
“The little things that we did wrong came from our fatigue so we’ve got to improve on that.”<\/p>\n
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