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Raul Baena’s equaliser in second-half stoppage time for Kitchee FC on Sunday evening sent the Hong Kong-based side through to the final 16 of the 2022 Asian Champions League.
Japanese club Vissel Kobe let their lead slip late, Kitchee pounced through the former Melbourne Victory midfielder with just a handful of minutes remaining on the clock and Melbourne City were the unlucky club to be shuffled out of the first of the knock-out phases, where 16 teams will jostle for quarter-final spots.
It is a bitter pill to swallow for Patrick Kisnorbo’s team. Undefeated in their group matches and only needing Vissel to tally a win on the final match-day to qualify, their collective hearts were broken with a late goal that will now see the squad return to Melbourne with nothing to distract them from their quest for a second straight A-League championship.
Prior to the tournament, logic and form suggested that City were the most polished team Australia had sent into the ACL group stage for some time and they played accordingly.
Undefeated across six matches and second in their group behind Thai club Pathum United thanks only to a slightly inferior goal difference, the A-League leaders were forced to sit tight and await their fate, with a rather cumbersome tournament condition eventually sending them home.
Teams finishing atop their groups advanced automatically, those second were to be measured against each other, with points achieved against the fourth placed finishes to be eliminated to accommodate for the anomaly that was Group J, in which only three teams participated.
In that mathematical calculation, Kitchee FC keep their full seven points accrued and City were stripped of the six they had won against Filipino club United City, thus completing another disappointing year for Australian clubs in confederation play.
Sydney FC did little more than make up the numbers in Group H, failing to win a game and earning just two points to finish bottom and with just the lone automatic spot now held for A-League teams in the ACL, a strong performance from City would have eased the concerns of many that in the mid-term future, no Australian team will be guaranteed a saloon passage into the competition.
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
After being a consistent advocate of our domestic teams committing strongly to the event and fighting hard to hopefully one day produce an ACL fairytale similar to the one achieved by the Western Sydney Wanderers in 2014, I now find myself wondering whether we should continue to bother at all.
Melbourne City deserved a spot in the knock-out phase, would dust up Kitchee more often than not in quick time and after having exerted immense energy and effort in challenging circumstances, will feel aggrieved at not receiving an opportunity to test themselves against some of the other teams setting the standard in Asia.
In essence, the confederation has rapped Australia across the knuckles with the removal of the second automatic qualifying position directly into the group stage and demanded the country send better teams that advance to the knock-out phase before they are to even contemplate reversing their decision.
In 2022, we sent our domestic champs into the Thai bubble hoping that they would indeed surpass what others have achieved in recent times. In reality they did, when it comes to the win/loss column that is, yet the manufactured awarding of the final Round of 16 spot for second-placed teams should be something around which Football Australia asks a respectful yet concerned question.
Rarely have Australian teams done well and with an opportunity to finally produce something of note in Asia, Kisnorbo’s men were sent packing thanks to the non-appearance of a Chinese team and a subsequently forced and rather flawed process in which the final position in the knock-out phase was awarded to a team that will most likely be sent packing briskly.
Many have cited the ACL as something of a waste of time for Australian clubs, asking what possible benefit it brings to our teams. I had always felt that experience for our young players at the elite level and the symbolic importance of participating in the confederation to which we now below were good enough reasons to commit totally to the event each year.
However, the farce of Melbourne’ City’s non-qualification reeks of amateurism and essentially wasted the time of a squad now feeling fatigued and desperate to refocus for their run at another A-League title.
Many Australian clubs have been accused of not entering the ACL with the serious attitude and approach required. This time around, it appears the confederation itself could well be subjected to the same accusation.