Round 11 of the Isuzu UTE A-League has drawn to a close with plenty to dissect from all the weekend’s action. Here are some of the major talking points.
15 minutes of utter devastation from Melbourne City
Melbourne City well and truly dropped the hammer on Saturday evening.
The reigning premiers and league leaders made a statement in the Grand Final rematch against Western United, crushing the defending champions 4-0 in a stunning 15 minute burst in the first-half.
City had Western reeling early, attacking them with ferocity down the flanks and carving open their defence with ease via their fleet-footed attack.
REACTION: ‘WITH THE WORLD AT HIS FEET’, TILIO BACKED TO DO ‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’ AFTER CITY EXPLOITS
After Marco Tilio opened the scoring off the back of a mazy run in the ninth minute, the floodgates opened when Leo Lacroix scored a calamitous own-goal and red-hot Golden Boot leader Jamie Maclaren added a third in the 24th minute.
The game was over before anyone could really catch their breath and to make sure of it, substitute Andrew Nabbout added a fourth to wrap up the 4-0 scoreline late in the game – in turn, opening up a six point gap on top of the table with a game in hand.
Tilio was particularly brilliant, putting together a Man of the Match showing on the right-flank that won plaudits from former A-Leagues striker Bruce Djite – who showered him with praise post-game on Network 10.
“This is a 21-year-old player with the world at his feet. He really can go on and do something special, and I love the mentality,” Djite said.
In a further boost to City’s already incredibly talented squad, Florin Berenguer, who was arguably their best player last season, returned from injury as a substitute – playing 23 minutes at the end.
With Valon Berisha and Richard van der Venne also in sensational form, it creates a welcomed selection dilemma for coach Rado Vidosic in the coming weeks – with Berenguer’s return ensuring there’s yet another ultra-talented player at his disposal going into the half-way point of the campaign.
Horror weekend for Victory capped off with huge blow on injury front
While one side of the city is revelling in a successful start to the campaign, Melbourne Victory have been left to count their losses.
Victory suffered a third straight defeat on Friday night, falling to a 1-0 loss to Brisbane Roar – which, coupled with Perth Glory’s 1-0 win over Western Sydney Wanderers later in the night – succumbed to equal-bottom of the table with only a better goal-difference keeping them in 11th.
Tony Popovic’s Victory have struggled to get out of first gear this season, only scoring nine goals despite having a smorgasbord of quality attacking options at their disposal and have shown signs of brittleness defensively which has plagued their opening ten games of the campaign.
Victory fans’ frustrations are clear too, with boos ringing around AAMI Park when the final whistle sounded.
“That’s normal and you’ve got to expect that,” Popovic said. “We can’t expect them to be cheering us off the park when we lost a game at home.
“So I understand their frustration, I share their frustration but certainly we’re working hard next week to make sure that we can turn this around.”
In a further blow, Victory will be without star attacker Luis Nani for the rest of the campaign after he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the dying moments of Friday night’s contest
Nani had also struggled to get off the ground during his stint at Victory, not scoring in nine starts and only talking the one assist.
And with further sanctions from Football Australia over last month’s pitch invasion during the abandoned Melbourne Derby to come, the question remains: how much worse can it possibly get, before it starts to get better for Victory?
Has there been a more crazy finish in A-Leagues history?
“I see it, but I do not believe it! I am utterly, utterly speechless.”
Network 10 commentator Simon Hill summed it up best. What on earth transpired in the final minutes of Sydney FC v Wellington Phoenix on Saturday evening?
Wellington hung on to an incredible 1-0 win over the Sky Blues, after Adam Le Fondre missed not one, but two penalties in second-half stoppage time that quite literally, stunned everyone who were either inside the Sydney Football Stadium or watching at home.
The Phoenix were already up against it prior to the penalties after going down to nine players following second-half red cards for Bozhidar Kraev and Nicholas Pennington.
REACTION: ‘WAKE ME UP DURA, I THINK I’M DREAMING!’: RE-LIVE THE WILD SYDNEY-PHOENIX FINALE
But the drama wouldn’t stop there. It was just building towards an unbelievable crescendo.
Sydney were given their first penalty in the 96th minute when Tim Payne handled the ball inside the area, only for goalkeeper Oli Sail to deny Le Fondre with a sensational save to his left – which for a split-second seemed to be the match-winner.
It proved to be ultimately the first act of a rollercoaster minute of action, with Shaun Evans pointing to the spot again after VAR consultation deemed Callan Elliot had handled the ball to stop a cross back across the face of goal.
This time, Le Fondre went for power, blasting his spot-kick well over the bar – much to the delight of Sail and the Wellington players who hung on to a huge three points on the road.
“Wake me up, Dura, I think I’m dreaming!,” Hill continued on commentary.
“What are we watching here? What a game of football. What a game of football we are watching. It’s had everything,” his co-commentator and Wellington Phoenix legend Andrew Durante said.
Could this be the victory that helps the ‘Nix begin to find some consistency in their game and make in-roads on the table?
They have the quality and have shown that they can match it with the league’s best – taking points off City, Adelaide United, Wanderers and Central Coast Mariners.
The issue has just been closing games out, dropping 12 points from winning positions already this season while, only winning three out of their opening 11 games.
But conversely, they’ve only lost three too, with many of those games dropped ending up as draws (five for the season). Get maximum points in some of or all those games and they’re right up there with City at the top.
Meanwhile, for Sydney, it’s the all too familiar tale of one step back, after taking one step forward, with Steve Corica’s side still yet to win back-to-back games this campaign.
Brisbane’s Streak continues
Make that eight consecutive games unbeaten for Brisbane Roar.
The streak continued on Friday night, with Brisbane seeing off Victory late in the game thanks to a deflected strike from Jay O’Shea that helped Warren Moon’s side to surprisingly, only their third win of the season.
REACTION: O’SHEA ENDS 595-DAY DROUGHT IN ROAR WIN
And while the wins haven’t been coming in the bucket-loads, nor have the losses, with Brisbane continuing to get points on the board – mainly via draws (league-high six).
Even defender Connor Chapman even poking fun at their recent run of stalemates by calling them “Brisbane Draw” – but given how tight things are on the table, points are points and those results are helping them right up the table.
These results have been built off their equal-best defence in the league, only shipping seven goals in 10 games – with the likes of Chapman, Jordan Courtney-Perkins, Scott Neville and captain, Tom Aldred (who missed out on Friday due to injury) keeping things sturdy.
In fact, only one team, Melbourne City (the league leaders) are the only team to score more than once against them and it’s no surprise that, as a result, they are still the sole side to beat Brisbane.
Other than that, no one has been able to quite work out how to break down their back-five and make them pay on the scoreboard.
“I think it’s a big togetherness that we’ve got,” O’Shea said on Paramount+. “Today we didn’t have our skipper and (Chapman) came in and played brilliant. We’re looking forward to having Tom back whenever he’s fit.
“We do a lot of work defensively, getting in a block and getting compact. We’re hard to break down, obviously we’ve only lost one game this season against Melbourne City, so hopefully we can continue the way we’re going.”
However, questions still do remain in attack, as the Roar have also struggled to put the ball in the back of the net (nine goals this season) – also, ranking 10th among all sides in the competition for shots on target per match (3.4).
But that fact isn’t lost on the Roar, with Moon continuing to hammer home the point his side need to find a replacement for outgoing marquee striker Charlie Austin in January.
Rampant Mariners flying high
Playing the kids, Central Coast Mariners have emerged as one of the entertainers in the Isuzu UTE A-League. They also find themselves second in the table and chasing leaders Melbourne City.
The Mariners were merciless and devastating in their 4-0 demolition of 10-man Adelaide United in Gosford on Saturday.
A pair of own goals and strikes from Beni N’Kololo and Jacob Farrell guided the Mariners to a fourth consecutive home win in the A-League Men – their best run since 2014.
“Everybody writes us off,” Mariners head coach Nick Montgomery said when asked if his team can go all the way this season.
“They wrote us off last year, they wrote us off at the start of this season.
“It’s no secret, we’re the youngest team with the smallest budget in the league. But that’s what this club is about – it’s about being the underdog and rising above it.”
