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Six talking points from A-League Round 23

Eric Bautheac of the Roar celebrates. (Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)
Roar Guru
18th March, 2018
25

Round 23 came to a close, and that leaves us just four more match days before finals his us, so with that finals-horizon closer than we realize, here are the talking points form this round of the A-League.

The rest are really not taking the challenge up to the topvtwo
Coming into this round, the first and second placed Sydney FC and Newcastle Jets were 19 and 11 points points respectively ahead of the third placed Melbourne City.

That situation largely remained the same come round 23’s finish.

Friday was the chance that Melbourne City needed to put a healthy gap on Adelaide, and put the pressure back on their cross-town rivals Victory to keep pace.

Not only did they fail to do that, they instead heaped more pressure on themselves and their own spot in the finals looking tenuous.

Same for Adelaide. With a chance to beat third place, they could heave leapt up the table, and maintained their chase for top four.

Adelaide instead find themselves at the end of round 6 clinging to that finals spot for grim death.

Marco Kurz said it best in his presser. His side certainly are nowhere near well positioned enough to be considering finals. Especially when they have to host the second placed Jets next round.

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This season is slipping away from what I have called ‘the rest’: all eight teams behind Sydney and Newcastle.

That is why the 23-round mark is a good time for every team in finals contention (so essentially everyone except Mariners and Phoenix) to recalibrate and turn on the form.

The finals have copped a bit of flak of late, with calls for the A-League to adopt the first past the post rule of Europe, and scrap finals.

I disagree.

The finals is what sets Australian sport apart from the rest of the leagues, and maintains interest in the competition until the last round, regardless of how the top team is travelling.

The finals format adds that extra element of intrigue to the season.

But as the matter stands, that extra element is lacking, because you can mark down both Sydney and Newcastle as being the only teams that look like playing in the last match of the season.

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As the matter stands, they are simply that far ahead of the rest.

How many Phoenix players does it take to hit the target?
I wager, if I had a dollar for every time a player this season has failed to hit the target from an otherwise makeable position, I would be rich enough to run a global media organization, or run for the American presidency.

For mine, what has singled this season out from every other A-League season before has been the failure of every team (except maybe Sydney) to consistently take their chances, or at the very least hit that very large target that some have referred to over the years as the goal.

Fair dinkum, Wellington had enough chances on Saturday to win four or five games, and given their defence held up with aplomb against a rampant Newcastle Jets, but without Andrew Durante, surely Wellington will be at training this week thinking to themselves: why did we not win that one?

It cannot be easy for the Nix. In a ten-team comp, to be the first team essentially eliminated so early on from having anything to play for, and without the bite of relegation to keep that rocket up them, what do they actually play for other than stats?

Well, the stats they can thoroughly enjoy this week is as follows: 23 shots, five on target, zero goals.

Five shots on target. Five shots. Five!

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How do you have 23 cracks at goal, only five on target, and nothing to show for it?

Krishna had the miss of the season wrapped up when he slipped a one-on-one past Duncan that went wide, only for Nathan Burns to say “hold my beer” as he missed a tap-in from the top of the six yard box.

Look, full credit to Wellington. They were superb on Saturday, particularly for a team with no coach and nothing to legitimately incentivize them to perform.

But in a season where the failure to take your chances has been punished, and punished severely, Wellington, regardless of the season as a whole, should still be taken to task for not completing that most essential of footballing qualities: scoring.

The club and their fans deserved better.

There’s life in the A-League season yet
Well, hands up if anyone reading this column saw The Roar with a half-time, 2-nil lead over Sydney, in Sydney, coming.

Fair play to you. I almost believe you.

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Now then, hands up if you saw Brisbane winning in Sydney?

I thought not.

To be honest, you could write an entire Talking Points article about the Sydney FC v Brisbane match alone.

The end of the Sydney home undefeated streak, the half-time dummy spit by David Carney, the on-field actual spit by Alex Brosque, the coaching of John Aloisi, and the seeming loss of control by Graham Arnold.

There was a fair amount going on in this game.

And I haven’t even mentioned the action of the VAR (more on that later).

Sydney’s home streak was always going to come to an end, David Carney had more of a time-out than a dummy spit, there was nothing in Brosque’s spit, Aloisi can coach, and Graham Arnold is still a good coach, he’s just having a rough patch.

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No, the best talking point for me is that the premier’s plate is now well and truly alive.

Remember, two rounds ago, Sydney “only” needed two wins to wrap up the plate. Two wins in 6 matches looked a certainty.

Well, now they only have four rounds left, and they still need those two games.

Look, the deck is still stacked heavily in Sydney’s favour, and Newcastle have a tough road trip to Adelaide next round, so it’s likely that the premier’s plate is still headed to the eastern suburbs of Sydney, and probably as early as next round.

But as matters stand, Sydney have lost two A-League matches in a row, and Newcastle, on a five-match unbeaten run, are breathing down their neck. That 11-point lead that Sydney were about to extend to 14-points is now a somewhat more precarious five points, less than two wins.

Bring on the race for the plate, and watch out if Sydney lose three in a row and the Jets can jag three more points in South Australia.

Brisbane Roar

(Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)

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Is Muscat the man to take Victory forward?
So Kevin Muscat has been given two more years at the helm of the biggest football club in Australia.

That is a very generous reward to a man with a coaching record standing at less than 50% winning percentage.

Kevin is a curious beast.

A beast of a player, a fiery character in his pressers. But can he actually coach?

That seems like a curious question to ask about a championship winning coach, but I’m asking it.

Now, a relatively dominant performance against a team second from bottom is one thing, and true, Melbourne are on an upward trajectory.

But they were struggling to cement their spot in the finals not so long ago, so it is a huge turnaround from Muscat’s position being questioned to him being offered a two-year extension. And given Kevin’s overall record – which, yes, does include a championship (and I will controversially suggest that championship was won with Ange Postecoglou’s squad) – is he really the man to take the Victory back to the pinnacle?

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Hopefully for the Victory, he re-pays that faith being shown in him.

VAR
If this writer has been critical of one thing, and one thing only, consistently this season, it has been the FFA’s failure to properly and adequately advertise a season that has been essentially forgotten by all and sundry while the league was gobbled up by cricket, AFLW, and the AFL and NRL preseasons.

However, if there is a second thing I have roundly criticized, and with a full chorus of voices in support, it has been the VAR.

To paraphrase Starlord: I think the VAR is good, except it sucks.

But credit given where credit’s due.

The VAR did exactly what it was supposed to do over the weekend, when it intervened to rule out the Fornaroli goal on Friday, and Alex Wilkinson’s goal (that at that point would have been a turning point) against Brisbane.

So here we are, round 23, the VAR got back-to-back decisions right, and in good time.

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Was that really that hard?

No, serious question, was that really that hard? The goal was scored, the play was reviewed, a clear offside was found in each case, goals overturned.

That’s exactly what the VAR is there to do.

Perhaps, after finally working it out, the VAR can now go into the background, intervene rarely and when necessary, and the league can go back to focusing on its main product: the football.

And just one last point
It’s a big international week for football, and five A-League players will see themselves on the international stage for the Socceroos against Norway: Josh Brillante, Dimi Petratos, Andrew Nabbout, James Troisi, and Josh Risdon.

All players have earned their call up, and lets hope they see a bit of game time. Yes, granted, Nabbout is now a J-League player, but it was his A-League form that got him the call-up.

Fly that A-League flag on the international stage with pride gentlemen.

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