As anticipation continues to build for the Wanderers’ clash with Leeds United at Bankwest Stadium on Saturday 20 July, it’s not just the players preparing to battle it out with the English Championship side.
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The Wanderers fans will be out to create a vibrant atmosphere in their first taste of football at their new home, but with more than 7,000 Leeds fans set to descend on Wanderland they’ll be up against a raucous army of opposition.
It’s set to be a fresh start for the Wanderers faithful at Bankwest Stadium but they’re sure to feel at home at the Northern end of the ground, the same end they occupied in Parramatta.
And as far as fresh starts go, the Wanderers have a history of beginning with a bang.
In the club’s first two seasons, the Wanderers won the Hyundai A-League Premiers Plate and Asian Champions League, and accompanying the on-field success was a crescendo of passionate support that stuck a Red & Black stamp on Australian football.
Now the fans have the opportunity to do it all again and they’ll have to bring their A-game if they hope to drown out the noise of thousands of Leeds fans when the English come to town.
Leeds will travel to Sydney in the midst of a transformation of their own, as they continue their push to reclaim their seat at the top table of English football in a second season under coach Marcelo Bielsa.
Their Australian tour coincides with the beginning of the club’s centenary celebrations, where Leeds fans will reflect on their rich history which has garnered three English League titles, an FA Cup, a semi-final and final appearance in the old European Cup and most recently, a Champions League semi-final in 2001.
With one of the most studious footballing minds in Bielsa at the helm, Leeds fans are optimistic of a return to the Premier League after coming so close last season and this will be reflected in the upbeat feel in the crowd come Saturday 20 July.
The travelling support will occupy the Southern end of the ground and will bring with them all the gusto and passion of an English crowd.
Chants, songs and tongue-in-cheek humour are all to be expected from the Lees fans who will try pull out every trick in the book to try and make their voices heard with more than 20,000 locals trying to drown them out.
The pre-season clash is not a Cup Final, it isn’t a derby or a promotion play-off, but the context of what fans of both sides desire from the season to come makes this game a high-stakes affair, as we wait to find out who will come out on top in the battle of the stands.
