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Opinion
It seems hugely ironic that right when the football in the A-League is as entertaining as it has been all season, fan interest in the competition has plummeted to an all-time low.
Was that the most entertaining round of football we’ve seen in recent weeks?
It started with a crazy finish in Newcastle on Friday night, featured a couple of cracking encounters on Saturday, and ended with three hugely contrasting results on Sunday.
Newcastle Jets could have been forgiven for thinking their season was over when Macarthur substitute Bachana Arabuli nodded home a stoppage-time equaliser at McDonald Jones Stadium on Friday.
But no one told inspirational midfielder Brandon O’Neill, who smashed home a rocket from distance to win the game 2-1 and keep Newcastle’s finals hopes alive heading into their home F3 Derby with the Central Coast Mariners next weekend.
The Mariners are still hopeful of catching second-placed Adelaide United, but they were pegged back by a Jordan Bos-inspired Melbourne City in a 1-1 draw in Gosford on Saturday.
Little wonder Bos has been linked with a move to Manchester City, after the marauding left back opened the scoring with a superb solo effort before almost scoring the winner with yet another stoppage-time piledriver.
The point was enough for City to claim their third consecutive premiership crown – deservedly so, given how thoroughly they dominated much of the campaign.
Marko Rudan got the last laugh over former Sydney United team-mate Tony Popovic when the outstanding Brandon Borrello played in Tunisian international Amor Layouni for a late winner in Western Sydney’s pulsating 2-1 win over Melbourne Victory on Saturday night.
Victory looked good for a share of the spoils until veteran defender Roderick Miranda saw his yellow card for a scything challenge on Borrello upgraded to a red by referee Chris Beath following a VAR review.
The Wanderers held their nerve and scored a deserved late winner through Layouni that keeps them three points off second-placed Adelaide United with two rounds left to play.
(Photo by Jeremy Ng/Getty Images)
On the back of coach Ufuk Talay’s announcement that he’ll be departing at the end of the season, Wellington Phoenix played out perhaps the craziest game of the round as they went behind, took the lead, hit the woodwork multiple times, and were ultimately pegged back by Brisbane Roar in a surreal 2-2 draw at Eden Park in Auckland.
Roar playmaker Jay O’Shea equalled Besart Berisha’s long-standing record by scoring in his sixth game in a row, but how the Kiwis didn’t end up winning the game only they will know, after David Ball hit the inside of the woodwork three times within the space of sixty seconds.
And their failure to kill off the game cost them dearly when Scott Neville headed home an equaliser eight minutes from time.
Those two points dropped could prove costly for Talay’s team after Sydney FC steamrolled Perth Glory 4-1 on a cow paddock of a pitch at Allianz Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The limitations of multi-tenant stadia were once again on full free-to-air TV display, as both teams struggled to get to grips with a sandy playing surface that looked decidedly threadbare throughout.
There are no such issues at Coopers Stadium – and wasn’t it nice to be able to watch a late-afternoon Sunday fixture once again? – where Adelaide United crashed to just their second home defeat of the season in a 1-0 loss to defending champions Western United.
Adelaide remain second – and finish their premiership campaign with a home blockbuster against the Central Coast Mariners – and should they win the right to host the grand final, the Australian Professional Leagues are happy to turn their back on 50,000 Reds fans.
The APL has spectacularly misjudged just how angry they’ve made a sizeable section of fans.
There’s already talk on social media from certain fan groups about boycotting the final series.
And on the back of one of the most entertaining rounds of the season, it only seems fair to ask: what’s the point of battling away for a spot in the finals if no one turns up to watch them?