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Melbourne Victory’s 2-0 win over Perth Glory on Saturday night means there’s still plenty to play for over the remaining four rounds of the season.
Hold off on that coronation for the time being.
Glory are still in the box seat to win the premiership, but Victory’s gripping win in the west might just have triggered a few nerves.
It’s not like Tony Popovic’s men were drastically outplayed.
Had Joel Chianese buried a gilt-edged chance before Victory opened the scoring, the whole complexion of the game would have been different.
But finishing is not Chianese’s strong suit and unfortunately for the hosts, they ran into a striker for whom it is.
Ola Toivonen’s free-kick wasn’t the most spectacular set piece you’ll ever see, but his inch-perfect strike certainly got the job done.
It was a fitting way to bring up the 5,000th goal in A-League history, even if Glory goalkeeper Liam Reddy is probably sick of being on the receiving end of so many historic goals.
Toivonen has been one of the finds of the season and the towering Swede looms as a major threat in the finals series.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Ah yes, the finals. That much-maligned system that saw Melbourne Victory crowned champions last season despite finishing fourth on the ladder.
Guess what? That’s just how it goes in Australia.
Glory fans might be dreaming of winning the Premiers’ Plate but the reality is that few will remember it if they fail to go on and win the grand final. Just ask Sydney FC supporters.
And if Victory are to go on and win a second successive championship, they’ll no doubt have to ride their luck like they did on Saturday night.
If they were fortunate to score the opener through Toivonen, they were even luckier to be awarded a penalty after Scott Neville inadvertently handled a ricochet off Terry Antonis inside the penalty area.
Keisuke Honda looks like he stubs his toe the way he takes those daisy-cutter penalties, and you sometimes wonder if more goalkeepers wouldn’t save them if they didn’t commit so early.
But then that’s the genius of Honda. He simply waits to see which way the goalkeeper is diving before angling his spot-kick the other way.
The two goals were arguably harsh on a Glory side that was hardly second best on the night, but they couldn’t find a way past Laurence Thomas no matter what they tried.
How much will that defeat dent their confidence? They’re slightly fortunate to take on a dire Central Coast Mariners in Gosford next weekend.
And it’s a bit of shame the record Glory crowd that packed into HBF Park didn’t go away with something more to celebrate.
Some 17,856 fans turned out for the visit of Victory, and it looked fantastic on the TV broadcast to see the redeveloped eastern grandstand packed with supporters for once.
Here’s a thought: why don’t those fans simply turn up every week?
Seriously, what’s stopping them? One of the things we’ve become adept at in the A-League is making excuses for poor attendances.
But then if everyone who called themselves a football fan actually turned up at an A-League game, it would be the best-supported competition in Australia.
The rest of the round wasn’t much to write home about – which probably goes some way to explaining the dwindling attendances – however there was an interesting piece from Dom Bossi in the Sydney Morning Herald suggesting that Channel Ten are eager to substantially increase their free-to-air coverage.
Fancy that, the A-League being coveted by a media company despite the competition’s obvious struggles this season?
The fact is the product on the pitch is nowhere near as bad as the competition’s staunchest critics would have you believe.
But what the A-League could use some more of is just a little bit of faith – something Tony Popovic will no doubt be drilling into his players all week.