Tickets on sale for semi-finals pitting City v Victory in Melbourne derby followed by premiers Sydney FC against Western United.
The Liberty A-League Finals are here – and so are all the hopes, dreams and fears of players and coaches within touching distance of glory.
Nothing can be assumed, which is why you could hear the wariness in the words of Ante Juric moments after his Sydney FC team had won the Premiers Plate on Saturday. “The football gods have hurt me in the past,” said a coach who knows how triumph can be snatched away.
Now the source of much of that angst looms into view – the fact that Sydney have won the Premiers Plate for the past two seasons as well, a magnificent achievement, yet not converted either into victory in the grand final. The pain of two defeats on the biggest stage will surely bubble away in the background in the fortnight until the Liberty A-League finals series begins, if only as the ultimate source of motivation.
That’s why it’s important to recognise now the unprecedented achievement of winning the Premier’s Plate three times in a row, especially in the context of how Juric’s squad has changed in that time – only nine players of the 24 he had in 2020-21 are still at the club. In a league where consistency is often just a pipedream, their blistering start of six wins in the first seven games proved enough to get them over the line despite the best efforts of Western United.
They should be confident, but then they were last year. In fact there are demons studded all over the top four, which make for the most unpredictable set of playoffs imaginable. Sydney have the weight of recent history to carry but at least they bring some form to the table in their semi against Western United. Melbourne City haven’t won in four games, and Melbourne Victory have won one game since Round 13 in early February.
Western United, meanwhile, the debutants who dared to dream, were top for 12 of the competition’s 20 weeks but ended up second. Whether that’s in their heads as cause for celebration or a case of what might have been won’t become clear until the finals start.
At least they are in the finals. Poor Canberra United are in a world of pain, missing out by a goal differential of just two. So many questions will plague United over coming weeks – how could they score three goals away to Melbourne City in the final game but lose? How did they manage to beat both of the top two but then lose 5-0 in consecutive weeks? How did they throwaway a 2-0 lead at Perth and lose, when even a point there would have secured fourth place?
It’s a unique set of circumstances that will hurt for some time. “There’s bigger things in life that are more important, I guess than football,” said a rueful Canberra coach Njegosh Popovich. “They won’t know that at this present time but they’ll all be better for it and I think they’ll all be stronger players moving forward.”
The margins are microscopically small but the outcome is brutally clear. Four teams get into the finals, and there’s no reward for coming heroically close. The seasons for seven teams are over, while the four still standing have to reset and regroup.
It’s fitting that Sydney FC host Western United in one semifinal, after the two fought for months to be Premiers, while the other semi will finalise which of the Melbourne teams gets to fight another day.
Juric knows this path better than most and might even dig out the video of last year to show his team – not the game itself, but the moments after the final whistle when their faces told the story of falling at the final hurdle.
Now we’re back at the business end of the season, and everyone has their own motivation.
Click here to buy tickets for Semi Final 1: Melbourne City v Melbourne Victory.
Click here to buy tickets for Semi Final 2: Sydney FC v Western United as part of the double-header with Sydney FC v Perth Glory in the Isuzu UTE A-League Men beforehand. Standalone tickets for the Liberty A-Leagure Semi Final can be purchased from the Allianz Stadium box office starting at $20 for adults, $10 junior and $40 a family.
