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Forget the flares, this A-League season is all about flair

Roar Guru
8th February, 2016
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Aaron Mooy is starring for Huddersfield. (AAP Image/David Crosling)
Roar Guru
8th February, 2016
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It was like going back to the future last weekend, as Melbourne Victory and Western Sydney Wanderers played a pulsating, passionate, top-of-the-table clash at Docklands in front of a marvellous crowd of 25,445.

Post-match, it’s all about the flares.

Not an allusion to some sort of 1970s throwback fashion sense, but that frankly irritating spectacle of someone deciding the rules don’t apply to them.

Instead of a dissection of another great A-League match, media discussion, predictably, was on the ripping of flares by sections of the crowd. Why feed the dragon, folks?

Easy to forget then, that we have been fortunate to witness a string of truly fantastic matches in the league this season.

Melbourne City 2-1 Melbourne Victory. Sydney FC 2-4 Melbourne Victory. Melbourne City 3-2 Western Sydney Wanderers. Western Sydney Wanderers 4-3 Melbourne City. Central Coast Mariners 3-3 Melbourne Victory. Perth Glory 3-2 Melbourne Victory.

Three clubs are the common thread in these matches; the two Melbourne clubs and Western Sydney. City, Victory and Wanderers have been front and centre in the best games this season, and the fact all look likely to occupy higher places in the top six come finals time is a mouth-watering prospect.

While some bemoan the lack of marquees in the league this season, the key players and coaches at City, Victory and Wanderers are ensuring fans are served great football most weeks.

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Melbourne City are the most entertaining team to watch since Ange Postecoglou’s Brisbane Roar revolution. The combination between Aaron Mooy and Bruno Fornaroli has been a goals smorgasbord all season. No one has worked out how to stop them over the course of 90 minutes. Mooy is the best player in the league right now. His transformation from a central midfielder to an attacking number 10 has added value to his game (not to mention his earning potential) and is a position Socceroos coach Postecoglou has not got as many options in as he might once have had.

Fornaroli is an A-League version Luis Suarez without the propensity for nibbling on opposition players. His fleet-of-foot and ability to switch the ball from his right to his left in the twinkle of an eye is captivating.

Others have contributed to City’s attacking prowess, not least Harry Novillo, one of the most colourful and flamboyant players in the league. However, I just wonder the sense in letting Erik Paartalu move on. Paartalu is one of this country’s unheralded players, a box-to-box midfielder who can add steel in front of a back four and pop up to score at vital times.

Victory have seemingly navigated their mid-season slump, where they were playing as well as ever but losing. The reigning champions have quality all over the park, and in any other Aaron Mooy-less season, Besart Berisha would be a lock for the Johnny Warren Medal. Simply put, Berisha is the MVP of the A-League. Three premierships for two different clubs, a consistent goal-scorer in his five seasons in Australia, a burning desire that sometimes threatens to tip over into mania – what’s not to like about this guy? I just wish he’d been naturalised as an Aussie.

I’m not overlooking the contributions of Gui Finkler, Kosta Barbarouses or Fahid Ben Khalfallah. Indeed, that is possibly the most lethal front four in the history of the league, but Berisha is rarely out of the game and has a workrate and energy that would power an electricity grid for a month, to go with his close skill and sleight of foot (witness his turn, shot, and goal against Perth Glory two weeks ago).

Tony Popovic has performed a conjurer’s trick at Western Sydney. A poor season followed the club’s amazing Asian Champions League success. In truth, the Wanderers were, in their early stages, a pragmatic team, short on flair (no, not a pun), long on workrate, defensive tenacity and collective smothering of the opposition. The Wanderers crowds were far more entertaining than their team a lot of the time.

They are now a side transformed and playing some of the league’s most entertaining football. This is despite misfiring marquee striker Federico Piovaccari, whose barren goals return has seen him fall out of favour as a first XI choice. Testament to Popovic’s coaching nous that he has managed to get more out of Mark Bridge and Romeo Castelen than in previous seasons. Bridge is in career-best form and his movement across opposition lines has caused havoc with defences since he has made the number 9 role his own.

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The new boy in the fold is Mitch Nichols, who has given the Wanderers the kind of attacking impetus they have lacked since the departure of Shinji Ono. He scored within 15 minutes of his debut for the club (against former club Brisbane Roar) and hasn’t looked back. A stunning strike in December, again against the Roar, gave the Wanderers a 2-1 victory, which helped launch their surge to the top of the A-League ladder.

Nichols is on target to produce a double-digit goals contribution this season, invaluable for an attacking midfielder. He may be a reason the A-League grand final could end up at Sydney’s Olympic Stadium in Season 11.

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