Six talking points from the first half of A-League Round 20

A split round of Australian domestic football sees only two A-League games this weekend. Let’s have a look at some of the round’s big issues thus far, and even one or two other A-League talking points.

1. Are Brisbane actually any good?
Yes, Brisbane is in the top six and, yes, they have just returned home with a much deserved away win in Melbourne, their fourth away win in the last five away games, but Brisbane simply cannot win at home.

John Aloisi has steadfastly put faith in the old guard this season, and on Friday it paid off, with Massimo Maccarone placing a bullet into the net and Brett Holman not only finishing with class but somehow launching himself into talks of a return to the Socceroos fold.

But the up and down of it is that Brisbane simply have not won games at home.

For a team that want to compete rather than just scrape into the finals, they have to show a consistency of form to challenge the teams above them.

Perhaps the plan for Aloisi is to jag the fifth or sixth spot and not have to play at home for a single finals match, hence why he is focusing on playing well away from Brisbane.

But still, no matter how good you are away from home, you have to be able to bank those home points to actually make the top six

To be fair, Aloisi has been unable to field his best starting 11 all season due to various injuries. Now he is finally getting his cattle on the field perhaps we will see a new Brisbane in the last seven rounds.

Nevertheless, Brisbane is proving to be a tipsters nightmare.

(AAP Image/Dave Hunt)

2. Kevin Muscat is under severe pressure
Melbourne Victory has now lost three in a row, and none other than Mark Bosnich himself stated over the weekend that if you are a big club and you’re losing three in a row, that’s a crisis. Forget the top four, it’s now a matter of ensuring they make the finals.

Muscat has two big problems on his hands. First is that the Victory manager must juggle his squad and schedule with important upcoming Champions League matches. How he manages his squad in both competitions will determine whether they are even going to appear in the finals series.

The second is that star striker Bersart Berisha is wildly out of form and dangerously fading, and on Friday’s showing there is nobody that is going to take the Albanian’s spot.

Berisha is not the striker he was. He appeared slow on Friday night, and while he gave his all as he always does, he still didn’t score and never really looked likely to do so.

Muscat’s night was not helped by an odd off performance by Rhys Williams, and his midfield still has not recovered from the loss of Mark Milligan. But it will be the finishing that will bother Muscat.

This is not a recent problem for Melbourne – they have struggled to finish off chances all season, and if not for a strike of the highest calibre from James Troisi, Melbourne Victory would have been goalless.

So as Kevin Muscat trudged off the field on Friday to the sound of boos ringing around AAMI Park, he would have been wondering what he could do next. Surely this is the most difficult period in Muscat’s coaching career to date.

(Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

3. Sydney are using up all the superlatives
Four-nil over the team running third. What can you really say to that?

Melbourne City played quite well on Saturday, so the scoreline is actually somewhat deceiving with regard to the contest. But that’s the thing about Sydney – I have noted consistently this season that the difference between them and the rest is not that they are necessarily a significantly better-performing side; rather it is their relentless ability to accumulate points and but wins at will.

Remember that Sydney recently struggled to lucky draws against Wellington and Central Coast and looked like maybe they were starting to slow. Their response? A come-from-behind 3-1 win over Melbourne Victory and now a four-nil win against Melbourne City. Astonishing.

As Graham Arnold pointed out, they’ve lost just two matches in the last two seasons. Not even the mighty Brisbane Roar sides under Ange Postecoglou had a strike rate that significant.

Arnold now has his eye on the Champions League, the final frontier for the Sky Blues, and why not with the likes of Bobo, Adrian Mierzejewski, and Milos Ninkovic, who helped himself to a purler of a goal against City, running amok in Asia?

A strong performance in that competition, perhaps even lifting the trophy, might put to rest the question of whether they are the greatest domestic football side to have graced these lands.

(AAP Image/Brendan Esposito)

4. Melbourne City can still be positive
It seems counterintuitive to say that a team that just got trounced four-nil can be optimistic, but Melbourne City had the better of the opening against Sydney and, if not for a touch here and there, might have found the ball in the net earlier on and given themselves a bit more of a chance.

But it would have been the return of Bruno Fornaroli that should have had City more hopeful for the pointy end of the season. Bruno did not look out of place as he came on as a second-half sub. He himself had the ball in the net, and on another day a ref would have allowed it rather than penalised him for a shove on the defender in the lead-up.

Then there is Daniel Arzani. If Bert van Marwijk wants to leave some sort of legacy in Australian football, he will call up Arzani at the earliest available instance, cap him and lock him into the green and gold for the next ten years.

The young lad played well against the league leaders, genuinely looking like a threat whenever he was around the ball.

If Melbourne can get Bruno match fit and Arzani more refined, if they can throw in Luke Brattan, Dario Vidosic and new arrival Oliver Bozanic, they would make a very, very threatening line-up that, come finals time, could give Melbourne City the lift they need to challenge the titleholders.

(AAP Image/Hamish Blair)

5. Why does the A-League have a split round?
A split round in the A-League seems like another attempt for the FFA to once again let its domestic league down. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: a ten-team competition is not big enough, so when you are showing only five matches per weekend, you need to maximise that and increase coverage.

The FFA’s plan: why show five matches per weekend when you can settle for two?

On the launch weekend for the winter Olympics, with the ALFW gathering speed and with the winter codes starting to warm up, now is not the time for the A-League to be taking its foot off the gas. Instead they should be applying the accelerator even harder.

Given that the start of the A-League is generally overlooked as the winter codes finish, the last thing the A-League needs to do is give other sports yet another opportunity to take up media time and space that football should rightfully be having.

Playing only two games in a single weekend? Seriously, who at the FFA is making these decisions?

(AAP Image/Dean Lewins)

6. The W-League finals deliver
Though not strictly A-League, to complete the talking points from the weekend, if the A-League finals can deliver half of the excitement that we saw in the first W-League semi-final on Saturday, then nobody can have any complaints.

Sydney FC went into half-time two-nil up and with a player advantage as the Jets saw Hannah Brewer sent off in the first half. But the Jets showed some serious fight to equalise through Tara Andrews in the dying embers of the regulation 90.

The extra time was just as frenetic, and it was Matildas stalwart and now veteran Lisa Devanna who showed her class and skill to net the winner.

But what a contest it was, and today Brisbane Roar have a hard act to follow when they host Melbourne City. Melbourne, the form side in the W-League, will be no easybeats, and the game will be one worth turning to come 5pm today.

It’s yet another sign that the quality in Australian football is there for all to see – if only more people would actually see it.

Roarers, what did you think of Round 20 and the week of football? Let us know in the comments section below.