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Opinion
Welcome back, football fans. The world’s longest off-season has finally come to an end. It was an exciting opening round of the A-League, and while there’s still no live pause or rewind, let’s recap the weekend’s action. Here are your Round 1 talking points.
Not-so-super Sunday
In the early game, 10-man Wellington Phoenix almost held on to the three points until Ben Halloran levelled the match in injury time after Nix’s Brazilian import Yan Sasse was sent for an early shower just 25 minutes in for his lunge at Javi Lopez, getting the follow through extremely wrong.
It was a slow start for two sides who have finals aspirations in 2022-23.
That game, however, wasn’t nearly as boring as the turgid affair at CommBank Stadium. The newly styled Marko Rudan’s men, at home, needed to be putting in much better performances if they’re to get anywhere near where a club of their stature are supposed to be. Wanderers claimed the three points in very unconvincing fashion against an awful Perth Glory side, taking until the 78th minute to open the scoring.
The league leans on its biggest clubs – WSW, Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory – to drive metrics like attendances and TV figures and it’s been a long five years out in the cold for Western Sydney. The bar isn’t very high, but a top-six finish is an absolute must.
As for the Glory, well, what’s there to say, really? It’s extremely difficult to imagine rookie manager Ruben Zadkovich’s wooden spoon side, which has only had one truly quality player added to it in Mustafa Amini, getting anywhere near the finals places.
To rub salt in the wound, Glory will be on the road until Round 6 and then play the vast majority of their home games out of Macedonia Park, a ground with a capacity of just 4,500, boasting just one stand, and situated in the northwest suburbs of Perth.
Prepare for some more pain, Perth fans.
Nani’s Victory spoil Sky Blue homecoming in excellent Big Blue
On a wet and miserable night in Sydney, the new season came to life with a hugely entertaining Big Blue.
Melbourne Victory came up trumps with a deserved 3-2 win, but the home side had their moments too. Unfortunately the weather put a dampener on the crowd figure, which officials had, perhaps optimistically, projected to be close to 30,000. In the end, 21,840 fans braved the conditions and produced a fantastic atmosphere, the likes of which the league has been starved of since the beginning of the pandemic.
Nani of Melbourne Victory dribbles the ball. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Marquee import Luis Nani made his mark on the A-League with an assist for Chris Ikonomidis’ go-ahead goal in the second half but wasn’t too busy overall. Post-match, Tony Popovic admitted Nani has got lots of catching up to do fitness-wise, so there will be plenty more to come from the former Premier League star.
Sydney’s new boys were heavily involved, with Robert Mak scoring the opener and Joe Lolley terrorising the Melbourne defence all night down the right-hand side. It wasn’t a great night for Diego Caballo. It’s too early to make a call on the Spaniard’s signing, but with Connor O’Toole already at the club, questions could be asked about using a foreign spot on a fullback when there were already some pretty large concerns over centre-half.
Another new boy, Jack Rodwell, was conspicuously absent, however – more on him later.
The Portuguese was also involved in this funny moment, as two young fans evaded security and interrupted his post-match interview with Channel 10.
It’s endearing stuff from everyone involved, but conversely, what on earth are the seccies doing? These kids are obviously harmless and just wanted a selfie with their hero, but there’s a reason there are strict punishments for entering the field of play without the proper credentials. Maybe next time the end result won’t be so heartwarming.
Champions’ false start as import makes his mark
AAMI Park was the venue as Melbourne City hosted Western United in a Grand Final replay in the season opener on Friday evening.
Despite creating enough chances, Western failed to hit the scoreboard and looked clunky in attack. Without talismen Alexsandar Prijovic and Alessandro Diamanti the champions struggled with the ball, the midfield looking especially disjointed sans the Italian maestro.
John Aloisi delivered the expansion club’s first championship in 2021-22 and his squad, when fully healthy, is one of the better rosters in the A-League. However, the champions will always have a target on their back and there is a sense that United can be too one-dimensional and too reliant on their two main international stars.
I’m still backing them in for a top-four finish, but there are some question marks starting to emerge, especially if Prijovic and Diamanti can’t stay fit for the majority of the campaign.
Also from the opening game, there was this moment that the producer of the Paramount+ broadcast probably wasn’t especially keen on.
With original A-League cult hero Matt Simon announcing his retirement earlier this week, a vacuum opened up for other players to fill. New recruit Valon Berisha, on loan to City from Ligue 1 club Reims, certainly endeared himself to fans across the country with his frank “f—–g hell” in a post-match interview.
It seems City have made another tidy acquisition in the Kosovan international. The midfielder put himself about and looks very tidy on the ball. It’s early days, obviously, but considering they’ve improved upon last year’s premiership-winning squad, it is easy to see Patrick Kisnorbo’s men being right up there at the business end of the season challenging for both trophies.
Is Sydney’s defence already in crisis?
When Alex Wilkinson went down injured in the first half of the Big Blue, there was a like-for-like replacement available to Steve Corica in 20-year-old Aaron Gurd. Granted, the youngster is very raw, but if two of Rodwell, Wilkinson and James Donachie are ruled out for a significant stretch at any point in the season, surely he would be promoted to a starting spot in favour of playing Rhyan Grant in the heart of defence with Paulo Retre at right-back.
Whether Corica would go to Gurd in that situation or not, Sydney would have a huge problem on their hands. In hindsight, for all of the encouraging moves to improve the final third and at left-back, their centre-back options would be thin even if Rodwell had never missed a game in his career.
The reality, however, is the former Manchester City man is prone to injury and is likely to miss games throughout the season. Wilkinson is 38 years old. Will the Sky Blues’ deficiencies at centre-half prevent them from making a run at the title?
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