Loss to Al-Hilal would just be a temporary Popa stopper

As I left Parramatta Stadium after watching the Western Sydney Wanderers reach the final of the Asian Champions League with a 2-0 win over FC Seoul in the semi-final tie, I overheard a conversation between two guys walking behind me.

They were enthusing about how well the team had done to make the final, then one of them said, “But let’s hope we don’t win it.”

“Why?” asked his companion.

“Because then Popa will be off for sure,” was the reply.

The possibililty that coach Tony Popovic would be lured away from the fledgling Western Sydney Wanderers to greener and more prestigious pastures overseas was obviously something I’d thought about before.

There were rumours in August that his former club, Crystal Palace, had approached him after dumping Tony Pulis right at the start of the English Premier League season – although he denied that in an interview with me on ABC Grandstand at the time.

But given the ink was barely dry on the line in his CV that said: ‘Asian Champions League finalist’ that Wednesday night in October, I hadn’t yet digested what this further success might mean.

It’s a mark of how highly Wanderers fans regard the former Socceroo central defender that the possibility of being champions of Asia was translated so quickly into fear of losing the man who has built the club from the ground up.

It’s been remarkable to watch. It’s like he started out with some spare parts, a few bottle tops and a roll of duct tape and just over two years later he’s knocked it into shape as a football team with a chance of being crowned champions of Asia. So many of the players who have played key roles in this astonishing campaign in Asia were either rejects from, or stagnating at, other clubs.

Ante Covic, who’s been an absolute rock for the team in the knockout phase in Asia, was let go by Melbourne Victory at the end of 2011. Although he was still in good form, Ange Postecoglou clearly thought the veteran stopper’s best years were behind him.

The likes of Labinot Haliti, Brendan Santalab and Shannon Cole had solid experience but nothing that screamed ‘rolled gold, confederation-winning recruitment material’ about them. Well, except perhaps to Popa.

Meantime, the more established talent like former former Japan star Shinji Ono, former Socceroo defender Michael Beauchamp, and title-winning striker Mark Bridge quite often got to use all big match experience on the bench or, in Beauchamp’s case, out of the match-day squad altogether.

The fact that Beauchamp, the club captain, didn’t even pull a jersey on during so many matches last season was a mystery to many. But obviously Popa knew what he was doing.

At Parramatta Stadium earlier this year, the night the team qualified for the quarter finals of the ACL, I feared that the several key players who were about to be released by the club might just have the edge taken off their motivation for lifting the club into the last eight.

Aaron Mooy, Jerome Polenz, Youssouf Hersi and Shinji Ono all knew they’d be setting up the team to continue a campaign they’d have no further part in. I wondered if it was wise of having them all in the line up.

It was. Popa made the right call. They beat the Chinese club Guizhou Renhe 5-0.

In the course of this ACL adventure players who make not much more than cameo appearances in the Wanderers A-League side have gone into the starting line-up and done a job – guys like Kwabena Appiah, Jason Trifiro, Dean Heffernan and Alusine Fofanah. And then there are those players picked up early in 2014 from other clubs specifically to bolster the Champions League roster, Anthony Golec, Daniel Mullen and Brendan Hamill.

Despite having been to the vast majority of Wanderers home games since their inception, and watched most of the others on Fox Sports, I honestly felt I could’ve walked into some of these guys on the street and had not a clue who they were. But obviously Popa knows them and knows how to use them.

Seriously, there are times when I’ve wanted to hold up a Wanderers team sheet to an Australia cricket fan and give it my best Paul Hogan – “You call that rotation? This is rotation.”

But don’t ask Tony Popovic to explain the logic behind how he puts his line-ups together. He’s a friendly, approachable guy who quite serenely wields a straight bat to any questions that delve into ‘who and why’.

Behind the unruffleable exterior, you sense an intensity that you wouldn’t want to mess with. I’ve been warned that one thing he arcs up about is seeing his name spelled with three P’s instead of two. At 41 he’s okay with being a Popa, but in no hurry to be a ‘Poppa’. And I’m in no hurry to incur what I’m sure is a pretty impressive wrath!

So all I can say ahead of Sunday morning’s second leg against Al-Hilal in Riyadh is “all hail Popa”. What he’s achieved has been incredible, regardless of what happens from here.

Of course I’d like to say I hope Tomi Juric is starting rather than Brendan Santalab, I hope Matthew Spiranovic is back into the starting line-up, and I feel like the midfield could do with the creativity of Vitor Saba right from the opening whistle. But hell, Tony Popovic could put on a blindfold and pull the names out of a hat for a game and, at this stage, I’d still have faith.

And if the team that Popa built doesn’t hold up the trophy at the end of the game, then maybe we can hold up Popa just a little bit longer before he continues his coaching journey to fields afar where destiny seems to beckon.