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Melbourne City’s FFA Cup win is good for the game, particularly if it helps establish the club as a genuine title contender.
City’s 1-0 win over Sydney FC in Wednesday night’s FFA Cup final was the first piece of silverware for a club often treated as an afterthought by the Australian football community.
While the hosts didn’t exactly play Sydney FC off the park, the win was nevertheless a vindication of sorts for coach John van‘t Schip, who remains one of the more maligned characters in the game.
It was also yet another example of Tim Cahill stepping up and scoring a vital goal when his team desperately needed one.
The travelling Sydney fans may have booed the Socceroos striker, but I wonder how many of them would have preferred Cahill up front for their team rather than Bobo?
The Brazilian is increasingly looking like a lame duck when he doesn’t get the service he requires, and with Filip Holosko and Milos Ninkovic both having off nights in the Cup final, the frustration is surely mounting at Moore Park.
Frustration appeared to be behind City skipper Bruno Fornaroli’s expletive-laden outburst on the podium, and his four-lettered faux pas deserves some scrutiny.
Fornaroli has already come out and said he meant to say the Spanish word ‘vamos’ – a hopeful excuse I don’t buy for a second – but I’d hate to see the Uruguayan punished for his slip of the tongue.
Instead, I’d like to see us ask some questions about why Fornaroli was thrust in front of the microphone in the first place.
Yes, he’s the club captain – although I suspect that’s only because he demanded the armband when he signed a new deal at AAMI Park – but surely we can make allowances for someone who speaks English as a second language?
One of my eternal frustrations around coverage in Australia is seeing interviewers thrust a microphone in the face of foreign players and asking them in rapid-fire vernacular to explain their thoughts.
Maybe it’s just because I’ve lived in countries where English is not the dominant language, but a little bit of common sense would go a long way when it comes to speaking to foreign players and coaches.
And that includes not expecting someone like Fornaroli to suddenly speak fluent English just because a microphone happens to be in front of him.
The Fornaroli faux pas took some of the focus of City’s win, but equally vexing was the fact he won the Mark Viduka Medal after being named man-of-the-match.
How on earth could Fornaroli possibly be considered the best player on the pitch? You can only imagine he won the award because organisers didn’t want to give it to solitary goal scorer Cahill.
But the reality is there was one player who outshone either of those two candidates – Danish defender Michael Jakobsen.
What’s a defender got to do in the Australian game to get some kudos?
Not only did Jakobsen clear a Bobo header off the line, but as usual his positional play was simply outstanding in the heart of the City defence.
At any rate, the Dane has been one of the signings of the season for City and club officials will no doubt be hoping he can help the AAMI Park outfit kick on in the league.
The litmus test will be this Saturday night’s showdown with Brisbane Roar, which comes on the back of an excellent midweek crowd of 18,751 and bumper TV ratings for the FFA Cup final.
A-League officials must be hoping the midweek exploits can help entice a few more City supporters through the gates on a regular basis.
Despite the loss, and the fact it means their long wait for silverware continues, defeat isn’t the worst thing for Sydney FC either – who have plenty to keep driving them forward.
But the plaudits belong to Melbourne City. Here’s hoping their first piece of silverware helps transform them into a genuine A-League contender.