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It has been a long, hard slog of a season but this year’s A-League grand final is a celebration of football. No matter which team is crowned champion, the sold-out showdown marks the competition’s coming of age.
In the end, no scepticism was required. Despite cautious undertones in the build-up to the ticket release, it took a mere matter of moments for Sunday’s clash at Allianz Stadium between an in-form Western Sydney Wanderers and the consistent Central Coast Mariners to sell out.
All the hypotheticals are irrelevant. If the game had been held at the cavernous ANZ Stadium in Homebush, we’d be staring down a record attendance for a domestic fixture in Australia.
But that is beside the point. The simple fact is that more than 40,000 fans will packed close to the pitch to watch a contest between the current two best football teams in the country. Can it get any better than this?
Two coaches who played together at National Soccer League side Sydney United and J. League outfit Sanfrecce Hiroshima will pit their wits against each other in the battle for A-League supremacy.
In the one corner is a former Socceroos coach who has resurrected his managerial career in charge of ‘the little club that could’.
If Graham Arnold leads the Mariners to their first A-League championship at the fourth time of asking, it will put his decision to turn down overtures from Sydney FC at the end of last season into sharp relief.
Arnold has been the driving force behind the Mariners and though his team could be accused of employing a functional style at times, no one can argue it hasn’t proved successful.
In the other corner is a tactician many are now touting as a future coach of the Socceroos.
When he was assistant coach at English side Crystal Palace, former national team defender Tony Popovic consistently earned rave reviews. Now we know why.
His attention to detail has been second to none, from the shape and structure he has sent his team into battle with, to his inspired recruitment and moulding of a fiercely united team spirit.
If the Wanderers win on Sunday, their’s will truly be the most remarkable sports story of the year – and you can forget the next six months or so.
Both sides have transformed hitherto competent professionals into genuine stars.
For all the talk of Marco Rojas, has there really been a more consistent Kiwi talent than the Mariners’ midfield dynamo Michael McGlinchey this season?
The one-time Celtic man has been nothing short of superb, helping transform veteran Daniel McBreen into the A-League’s top goal scorer along the way.
It’s been a similar story at the Wanderers, where no one was really quite sure what to expect from marquee playmaker Shinji Ono when the campaign kicked off.
But after a sluggish start, the Japanese import has proved his worth and then some, culminating in last weekend’s freakish goal against Brisbane Roar – the kind of world-class strike so many of us dreamed about witnessing in Australia for years.
Ono’s creativity and sheer threat in front of goal has helped revitalise the much-maligned Mark Bridge up front and these four players could hold the key to breaking open the game, at least from an attacking standpoint.
What is certain about this year’s competition is that the A-League no longer dwells in the shadows of other sports.
It has burst into the mainstream spotlight on the back of the sensational rise of the Wanderers, who now stand just one game away from an historic championship win.
Their supporters will do them proud on Sunday, but so too will the travelling contingent from Gosford.
And with the eyes of Australia’s sporting community upon them, the Wanderers and the Mariners remain the two protagonists still standing in what will be an unprecedented celebration of football.