After Melbourne City and the Central Coast Mariners made successful entries into the FFA Cup seven days ago, a swathe of A-League clubs had the opportunity to do the same last night.
While both City and Central Coast enjoyed the luxury of non A-League opponents in their 3-1 and 2-0 victories over Campbelltown City and Maitland respectively, Wednesday’s five matches were less straightforward.
Adelaide United had a manageable match-up with the Melbourne Knights and the Phoenix were strong favourites against the Brisbane Strikers, yet six A-League clubs faced off in the other three clashes.
The Reds managed to navigate their way into the final 16 with a convincing 5-2 win against the Knights in Melbourne, yet the Phoenix stumbled and the Strikers pulled off the first major upset of the competition, toppling Wellington in a penalty shoot-out after the teams were locked at 2-2 at the completion of extra time.
Many eyes were drawn to Leichhardt Oval and the managerial debut of Robbie Fowler. With a hastily assembled band of brothers pulling on the orange in the hope of invigorating the Brisbane Roar, the night loomed as an early identifier as to how the Liverpool legend would approach his career on the pine.
From what we witnessed, he looks like he might do quite well.
(Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Bluntly, the Roar outplayed Sydney with relative comfort. Late in a first half that lacked vigour at both ends and pointed to improved intensity in the Brisbane defence, Stefan Mauk found the net in the 41st minute to give Brisbane a lead they refused to relinquish.
Mauk’s goal was far from a pure strike, but his deflected shot gave the visitors a deserved advantage and put the champions well and truly on notice.
Soon after the break, the lead was doubled. Jay O’Shea scored in the 47th minute and the local support struggled to find significant voice for the remainder of the contest, as the Roar stifled numerous Sydney attacking raids.
When the injured Milos Ninkovic left the pitch in the 60th minute, Sydney’s chances appeared shot. As the Roar kept the pressure on and hammered home their advantage over the final 20 minutes, another goal seemed likely.
No goal materialised but Robbie Fowler left the stadium with a debut win. He took on the best in the land and won comprehensively.
Elsewhere, a new-look Melbourne Victory debuted under new manager Marco Kurz against the Jets at AAMI Park.
Victory fans have embraced the emotional return of Andrew Nabbout. His two goals within 62 minutes sent them into a fervour and appeared to have the home side locked into a Round of 16 spot.
However, John Koutroumbis and Dimi Petratos scored second-half goals to draw the Jets level after 81 minutes. From there, the match entered extra time and a 113th-minute goal from Pat Langlois secured the win for the Jets and their place in the next round.
Bruno Fornaroli’s Perth Glory debut was the big-ticket item at Dorrien Gardens in Perth, where the home side took on a fresh Wanderers outfit.
Sadly, the contest never really lived up to the billing. After 90 minutes, the scoreless stalemate entered extra-time. That period was to prove the difference and it were the Wanderers who took the initiative with two goals that sent them through to the next phase of cup action.
As usual, FFA Cup goals were aplenty, with a total of 21 across the five Wednesday night matches.
With most squads still developing and the trickle of player acquisitions continuing on a daily basis, every team on display last night will be far more efficient and effective in a few months’ time.
However, that never kills the excitement of the Cup nor devalues its unique identity.
For the Victory, Phoenix, Sydney and Perth, it is practice match time, with two months of preparation still ahead and layers of polish to be put on their play before the A-League begins.
In contrast, Brisbane, Newcastle, Adelaide and Western Sydney march on and take their place in the last 16 with eyes firmly fixed on FFA Cup silverware.
Waz
Roar Rookie
As I said, the game is on replay and available for anyone to review should they wish. You are making several statements that don’t stack up to me nor my recollection of the game. You’re comments on Aldred don’t align with what several independent writers and commentators have said, I’ve yet to read one that is critical of Aldred and several have praised his performance as excellent. So your assessment differs, not to say it’s wrong, but I will remind you of that confirmation bias but. I’d watch the 2 goals again - Roar were anything but “pedestrian” however they were set up incredibly narrow to nullify Sydney’s attacking capability which they did incredibly well. Is that a side that is “pedestrian” or a side that won the tactical battle by a country mile? I get the impression many of you Mexicans expected to win this game easily and just needed to turn up to win and we’re now going through the classic shock and denial phases .... how long before acceptance kicks in I wonder?
Redondo
Roar Rookie
Regarding Aldred, early on he looked as dodgy with the ball - control and passing - as the dreadful Jacques Faty who played for Sydney a few years back. But he does look a lot fitter and way more intimidating.
Redondo
Roar Rookie
Pedestrian they were, particularly before Sydney went 1 down. The second goal was bizarre defending, with Wilkinson tracking O’Donovan miles upfield (I think that’s what happened - I need to watch a replay). Sydney’s fitness was an issue, not helped by the clunky setup with their 2 best creative players having to continually retreat to the wings in defence. Baumjohann didn’t look all that happy with that. Ninkovic does it well but he’s getting on a bit and will take a while to get up to speed this season. Sydney will get a lot better when they get fit and slot Baumjohann in more effectively. I’m betting Brisbane will be rugged opposition for everyone but play more than a few stodge-fests. It’s difficult to judge Fowler based on that game, other than to say he has introduced a brutish element to the personnel and an intensity to the style of play that will disrupt most A-League teams quite effectively.
Waz
Roar Rookie
That’s an interesting assessment, your conclusions might be right but I fail to see the evidence from that game to support them. You say Roar were pedestrian in attack - if they were that sets alarm bells ringing for SFC as Roar has both the greatest number of chances and the best ones with Redmayne forced in to several excellent saves. 2-0 flattered SFC. And if you think they were “aggressively unsubtle in defence” then get used to it. SFC had their strongest side out and an attack line we are being told are the best. Yet it took them until the 86th minute for them to trouble Jamie Young who only had to make three saves all night with the last two coming late into 5 minutes of stoppage time. You say Aldred will be “pressed in to embarrassment” yet there was no evidence of that on the night. He played two seasons in the Scottish Premier League where he was admired as one of the best CB’s in that competition until he joined Roar. Akbari, Mauk and Courtney-Perkins we’re all good, I agree with you there with the man-of-the-match one of the first two imo. Overall Roar were well structured, disciplined, executed a clear game plan and dominated possession playing a passing game of football that was pleasing on the eye. Anyone who understands the benefits of the 3-5-2 could see its merits on display that night. You didn’t mention Fowler and his coaching. Fowler out-coached Corica setting his side up to combat the narrow SFC play - it was quite remarkable how few chances Sydney had. Mind you, Corica had the disadvantage of knowing nothing about how Roar would play (although had they have attended one of the three preseason games they would have known); meanwhile SFC must be the most studied opponent in our competition. But Fowler won the night all the same. A telling comment from you is this one: “... so I was determined to not be impressed”. What your comments betray is something called “confirmation bias”. You had made your mind up ahead of the game and then everything you “saw” was then filtered to confirm what you believed you knew to be true. Your comments above don’t match the reality of what was on show on Wednesday and, if you’re game, I wonder what you’d see if you watched the replay on Kayo - but this time with an open mind? I wasn’t unimpressed with SFC, they’re clearly not as fit as Roar and that happens in preseason where teams are on different programs. But it will take more than fitness to change that result. SFC’s midfield must “click”, Brattan must start, and whatever differences exist between Corica and Zullo must be resolved and he must start. So there’s way more to come from this Sydney side for sure. As for Roar; they were 2-3 players short of a first team - Holloway and O’Neill for sure will start. And one signing short of a full squad (the left side of midfield needs to be strengthened) so there’s more to come from them too. How much remains to be seen, it’s way too early to say. But one things for sure - a few people were forced to eat their words on Wednesday night, and as they did so they used a lot of salt. Sweet.
Redondo
Roar Rookie
Without wishing to incite violence from their faithful, the Roar last night were pedestrian in attack and aggressively unsubtle in defence. Aldred in particular looks awful with the ball and almost certainly will be pressed into embarrassing mistakes this season. He’ll get a mountain of cards too no doubt. The best of the Roar last night were the young Aussies - Akbari, Mauk and Courtney-Perkins. I assumed the last was one of Fowler’s League 9 recruits and so I was determined to not be impressed. But he looked so useful I had to do some googling and was very pleased to discover he’s only 16, he’s one of us, and he looks way more promising than some of the lumpenproletariat recruits he’s mixing with. As for Sydney, they had easily the two classiest players on the pitch, played patches of very good one-touch football, and should have scored but Le Fondre and Barbarouses missed a couple of sitters. But the team as a whole looked badly short of game time together. Their attack was also hobbled with Caceres in midfield - he looked out of his depth as a ball distributor, mostly running into dead-ends, passing sideways, or, passing to nobody. Sadly, for all his skill, Baumjohann’s VO2 max must be pretty average. Playing on the right, he struggled to recover from forward runs and left the right side of Sydney’s defence exposed way too often for comfort. He was also much better in attack and looked happier when he played more centrally (after Ninkovic went off) so that will be something critical for Corica to work out in the next few months.
jupiter53
Roar Pro
Wow. I would never have Courtney-Perkins was that young; he looked a quite mature and capable player from where I was sitting a couple of rows behind the Sydney bench. Brisbane were very impressive, they pressed very effectively, and managed well in attack for this early stage of the season. And Jamie Young is a very good shot stopper. Sydney will play better, there were a lot of passes looking for attacking runs that had were either early or late. Having Zullo as a sub was an issue; the defence was light without him. Maybe Roar took Corica by surprise?
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
43c in Perth? like, as if a Brisbane side would be at a disadvantage over any other A League side because of heat. But you're right to point out, it's just a win, long way to g yet.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
strange, isn't it
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
:D
Fadida
Roar Rookie
I'm not sure a company admitting tbey have a very limited budget is great for business reputation. I agree though, they could have easily learnt a bit about how Roar have been going
Nemesis
Guest
Why would anyone care if you won, or lost, or drew, a practice match? Is there any correlation between trophies in ALeague and practice match results?
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
No worries, Victory will also have a chance to beat them during one of the practices match days that have suddenly become available for both of you :)
Jesh
Guest
Minor correction, Liverpool are at home taking on Norwich at 5am on Saturday morning to start the season. :)
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
rigged I saw those balls jumping around, on bits of string, as the draw was done. And Roar, draws A League opposition, again. It's rigged I tell you.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
nah, but he banged in a cannon goal last night he looks tubby
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
yes, and Akbari played midfield, some are saying best on park.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
and Norwich canaries v Liverpool early Saturday (0500 I believe). Life is getting better -- all the time.
Lionheart
Roar Rookie
maybe, but then the commentator should say, we don't have the budget to get around so we can only talk about how a few teams have prepared this pre-season.
Kannga2
Roar Rookie
There’s a myth that only Spanish coaches can get there teams playing sexy football Plus the Liverpool connection in Australia is huge , so a bit of Fowler success will light those Liverpool fans up If he fails , then that’s what everyone expected, I hope he proves them wrong. How about some Japanese coaches at youth team level , so the Aussies can improve technically.
Griffo
Roar Guru
The only other game in Newy that would be even more contested would be Jets vs Broadmedow Magic, at Magic park (where the Jets have usually played home FFA Cup games). Daniel McBreen is going to have an interesting evening, by all accounts :lol: And Jets played a preseason warm-up against Edgeworth last week, so nothing unfamiliar about each other there...