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Opinion
For all of their dominance and success in the first few years, Sydney FC was still missing a local rivalry to truly take football to the next level in the city.
Football Federation Australia’s decision to form a club based in the region of Western Sydney in 2012 is still to this day one of the best decisions ever made.
Unlike previously failed clubs like North Queensland Fury and Gold Coast United, the Western Sydney Wanderers had a market they could tap into whereby it has always been a strong footballing community.
That includes producing top-class Australian talents such as Tim Cahill, Lucas Neill, Brett Emerton, and the inaugural Wanderers manager, Tony Popovic.
Popovic was handed the responsibility of organising a squad of unknowns. With that, his philosophy was successful very early as he guided the newly found club to Asian Champions League glory in 2014.
Sydney FC suddenly realised that they finally had a new arch-rival in their backyard.
Since the very beginning, the Sydney Derbies have lived up to expectations. From the Alessandro Del Piero and Shinji Ono showdowns to the most recent bitterness of former Sydney star Milos Ninkovic joining the Wanderers, this fixture has shared many emotions.
Milos Ninkovic of the Wanderers with fans (Photo by Steve Christo/Corbis via Getty Images)
Those emotions originate from the fans, who are arguably the most passionate supporters in the A-League.
The Cove (Sydney FC) and the RBB (Western Sydney Wanderers) have time and time again delivered a brilliant atmosphere, serving up great advertisements for Australian football.
Despite crowd trouble in recent years tarnishing the RBB’s reputation and breaking up the active support, you can get the sense that it is slowly coming back to what it once was.
Tifos created and held up in both the first derby this season and last night proves the overwhelming passion of these two groups.
Steve Corica famously scored the winning goal in the inaugural A-League Grand Final for the Sky Blues and has won multiple championships at the helm, whereas Marko Rudan grew up in the west and understands how much people love the game in that area. The passion is evident on the touchline from both tacticians.
New stadiums built for the pair have contributed to the spectacle and are something that football in Sydney needed to progress.
CommBank Stadium (30,000) and Sydney Football Stadium (42,500) are two modern stadiums designed for football along with rugby to help attract bigger crowds.
Supporters of both Melbourne clubs won’t want to accept this, but the Sydney Derby has overtaken the Melbourne Derby, which quite frankly has been the case for some time now.
Although the Melbourne derbies have produced some epic and memorable encounters along with the Victory always up there for the best active support in the league, Melbourne City is still lacking an identity with the fans they want to attract.
Sydney does not have an identity crisis. Even with Steve Corica’s men hovering around sixth place and struggling for form, last night’s derby was further indication that this fixture is the A-League’s No.1 entertainment product.
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