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The A-League Grand Final for Season 2012/’13 is finally here. Western Sydney Wanderers and Central Coast Mariners face off in the big one after 30 weeks of cracking football and outrageous goals. We’ll have live scores and commentary from Allianz Stadium from 4.00pm AEST.
As much as the new finals system was maligned by punters, analysts and writers alike, we still ended up with first and second place facing off the in big dance – as it should be.
And truthfully, both did it quite easily. The Wanderers saw off the Brisbane Roar 2-0 with a cheeky Kresinger backheel and a sublime Shinji Ono chip doing the business, as the Premiers Plate was presented to Tony Popovic and his boys in front of a delirious packed house at Parramatta Stadium.
An eerily similar result on Sunday saw the Mariners breeze past the Victory 1-0 in a wide open, entertaining fixture that the hosts really could have scored a few more in if they’d been more clinical.
And just like Friday, it was a left-footed peach of a goal to seal it – but by a journeyman from Newcastle, not a talisman from Japan.
Daniel McBreen’s rocket past Nathan Coe was the 18th in an exceptional Golden Boot winning campaign.
And both squads will be short of a key player, as both saw red in injury time for silly second bookable offenses.
Youssouf Hersi for the Wanderers and Nick Montgomery for the Mariners will both watch the decider from the sidelines, two key players that you can’t help but feel could have impacted this game in some fashion.
Hersi of course, was the good luck charm for the Wanderers throughout the season, never losing when the tricky right-winger took the field. Montgomery was a perfect player for Graham Arnold – he was robust, physical and embodied the type of physical football the Mariners have employed to methodically break down opponents for so long.
But on to some names that will take the field on Sunday. Here are a couple of key players for each side.
Wanderers
Shinji Ono
Is there a more vital player to any squad, let alone in this game? Ono was the third of the ‘big’ marquee signings this year and arrived to substantially less fanfare than Mr’s Heskey and Del Piero.
And yet, as both of them will be watching the big game (and indeed, the entire post-season) from their living rooms, the former Feyenoord man will pulling the strings in the centre of the park.
Dynamic on and off the ball, an excellent set piece taker and the antithesis of a foreign import who was just here for the money. He wants to win. He has to win.
Nikolai Topor-Stanley
Save for a gaffe against Sydney that allowed ADP to get on the score sheet, the hulking centre-half has become a cult hero among the RBB and many media outlets – both for his hairstyle and especially his booming clearances, which were so impressive they prompted Fox Sports’ ‘The B-League’ to dedicate a tribute to him.
Has been there for every minute of every game this year and will get another full 90 on the weekend. A rock in the heart of defence.
Ante Covic
Fresh off his ‘Goalkeeper of the Year’ award and a clean sheet in that playoff game last Friday, the veteran shot stopper will need to be at his best against a Mariners team that we know likes to shoot from anywhere.
With multiple penalty stops this season, coupled with the Mariners horrendous record from the spot, if this game were to go the distance, you’d fancy the former Jet to grab his second championship, and hero status in a penalty shootout.
Central Coast Mariners
Daniel McBreen
What an unbelievable season he’s had. Making more people eat their words about him than any athlete ever not named Joe Flacco, McBreen’s Golden Boot winning season will come to an end as he leads the line for Arnie’s men.
Scored the winner last week and has scored a tonne of important goals all year long.
The physical battle between the (bizarrely numbered) number two for the Mariners and the twin towers of Beauchamp and Topor-Stanley at the back for the Red and Blacks will be great to watch.
Michael McGlinchey
Was very involved in last weekend’s victory and with no Montgomery in the line-up, will more than likely need to shoulder more responsibility than ever before.
He’s 26, at the peak of his abilities and has plenty of big game experience – in both a grand final, where he started for the Mariners two years ago, and travelling to the World Cup with New Zealand.
Oh, and let’s not forget his one appearance for the mighty Celtic.
Trent Sainsbury
While a lot of the focus will be on his partner at the back, Patrick Zwaanswijk, I’d like to focus the 21 year old that I gave man of the match to last Sunday.
He’s barely put a foot wrong since coming in to the starting side for former skipper Alex Wilkinson, and it’s no shock that he’s already on the radar of some decent clubs across Europe.
He will be the next to go the way of Oar, Rogic, Rojas and the rest and it will be sooner rather than later.
Verdict
We’ve watched enough football from both of these teams this year to know what to expect.
It will be a tightly contested affair throughout, both sides’ excellent discipline in defence will come to the fore. It’s two hard-working squads with some real game-breakers in each.
Having said that, we’ve already covered that one of the biggest game-breakers for the Premiers will be sitting this one out.
And as solid as Nick Montgomery is, he’s not the bloke you’re turning to to win you a football game. Youssouf Hersi on the other hand, may well be.
A packed house of predominantly red and black, and I think they’ll be going home disappointed. Central Coast have had three cracks at this before and will have had this fact staring in their face all week long.
If that isn’t bulletin board material, I don’t know what is.
You can be sure that skipper John Hutchinson, who has more bridesmaids dresses than Katherine Heigl, simply cannot allow that to happen again. And what a story it would be if he grabbed the winner!
So as impressive as the Wanderers have been this year, I feel like the Mariners have been the better side throughout.
You can’t help but think the losses of Rogic and Wilkinson disrupted them enough to cost them the Premiership – and for all the Wanderers skill and guile, I just think the Mariners are a better team.
They were the last team to beat Western Sydney, all the way back on the sixth of January. And I think they do it again here, by the same scoreline. Sorry, Shinji!
Prediction: Mariners 2-0
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