By Greg Blake
To steal a quote from the late E.J (Ted) Whitten, “we stuck it up ‘em”. The match schedule a near catastrophic burden, fatigued, emotional and haunted by the spectre of back-to-back morale-crushing defeats, on Tuesday evening Heidelberg United conjured a win for the ages. As my old grandpa would say of it, ‘an absolute bottler’.
The Australia Cup creates heroes and stories that become legend. This game produced both. In simple terms Alexander beat the Western Sydney Warriors 3-0 and slipped into the quarter finals of the 2025 national knock-out series. But this was so much more. It was a triumph to swell the hearts of the Alexander faithful like no other this season, or last.
That first-pumping, heart-pounding, “yyyeeeess” moment when Anthony Lesiotis cut through the drizzle and slush to spear home Alexander’s third goal in stoppage time, just wow. Unforgettable. After last Satuday, that is wasn’t disallowed was a relief in itself! And it was Heidelberg United’s collective raised middle finger response to all those recent travails and those who rejoiced in such.
Bul Juach enjoyed his role on the national stage and was pivotal in Alexander’s 2-0 lead inside the opening half hour. The Warriors stole a 12th minute lead, Juach pouncing on an errant Anthony Pantazopoulos back-pass and crashing through a goalkeeping Lawrence Thomas detour, before trundling wide and sweeping an angled left-footer off a defender and in.
That opener marked the point when heavily-favoured Western Sydney became almost incidental to the overarching narrative of Heidelberg’s disaster response to the events of recent weeks. With the focus very much on coach, John Anastasiadis, and, to what lesser footballing minds – well, mine – considered massive selection gambles by going in without about half of his regular first team against WSW quality.
Now think poker-faced J.A emptying his wallet on the table, nonchalantly picking up his cards and confidently playing the hand he’s been dealt. For good reason. They were magnificent. The likes of Johnny Apostolopoulos, Choc Dau, Akiel Raffie and Jay McGowan hardly missed a beat.
Near on half an hour in a defensive header to clear a launch from McGowan looped for a swooping Raffie. His blast off one step from just outside the area careened off a defender’s hand. The Bul, the ball and the penalty spot are very comfortable with each other. The goalkeeper did well, but Juach did just a little better.
The pedigree of Western Sydney Wanderers combined with Alexander’s recent run of calamitous and controversy-riddled second halves left the Warrior faithful sharing a sense of unease and potentially impending doom, despite the 2-0 interval lead.
The Wanderers were hardly impotent, but Yaren Sozer was one of Alexander’s blue-ribband heroes in this extraordinary against-the-odds triumph. WSW were at their most dangerous for a period in and out of half time and only Sozer’s deft and desperate goalkeeping kept the Sydneysiders off the scoreboard.
The anticipated tidal rush of A League ascendancy simply didn’t eventuate. For the most part the game just ambled toward the finish line, with Alexander defending adroitly whilst slowly subbing in its more seasoned regulars and WSW, while still in the contest, rarely looked like making a contest of it.
In a match as much about redress as simply consummating a moment, the outcome was hard-won, but deserved. It was a game where some heroes simply had to stand up and defiantly plant the flag.
Mister fix-it, Anthony Theodoropoulos, was terrific. Although in massive credit over the season, Ben Collins returned from suspension and played as if he owed the team something for missing the Dockerty Cup final. And Fletcher Fulton. He’s only a kid, but he is relentless. Like an 18-wheeler going downhill without air brakes.
And then there was Anthony Lesiotis. Again! On a night when failure couldn’t be contemplated and the stakes were massive, Lesiotis was end-to-end energy, precision, positioning, decision-making, timing and toughness.
And the defining moment after his goal to seal it had to be the massing of the troops high-fiving, whooping, grinning wildly and celebrating this night to remember with renewed gusto. The Band of Brothers is back in town, and just in time for a Friday night showdown with Oakleigh Cannons. Warrior Nation!
