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Opinion
With the APL hell-bent on transforming the A-Leagues from legitimate football competitions into a night on the town for the city Sydney, perhaps it’s fitting the finals will kick off with a Sydney derby.
Marco Tilio played a grand total of 10 minutes in total for Sydney FC during their 2019-20 championship-winning campaign, with the diminutive attacker struggling to crack a starting side containing the likes of Milos Ninkovic and Kosta Barbarouses.
And when Western Sydney keeper Lawrence Thomas pulled off a spectacular save to deny Melbourne City striker Andrew Nabbout from the penalty spot with 12 minutes remaining on Friday night, it looked like the Wanderers would hang on to third spot with the scores locked at 2-2.
That was until the Wanderers left the outstanding Tilio in acres of space in stoppage time, allowing him to arrow a strike across Thomas and into the bottom corner for his second goal of the night.
You could almost hear APL chief Danny Townsend’s cries of relief from inside your living room, as Tilio’s goal dropped the Wanderers down to fourth on the ladder and confirmed they’ll host Sydney FC in Saturday night’s elimination final at CommBank Stadium in Parramatta.
Kusini Yengi of the Wanderers (Photo by Steve Christo – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
Let’s call a spade a spade here: along with treating fans with contempt for the majority of the season, the APL couldn’t care less about the integrity of their competitions either.
If they did, they wouldn’t have ‘rewarded’ Western United for defeating Sydney FC in their earlier A-League Women’s semi-final by forcing them to face the premiers at a CommBank Stadium packed with Sky Blues fans – a game Sydney FC ultimately won 4-0.
The APL was quick to salute the record attendance for the women’s decider, but were less forthcoming about the fact they gave away thousands of free tickets to the game.
And the bad optics and lingering fan outrage around the APL’s decision to sell Grand Final hosting rights to Sydney are a headache entirely of their own making.
Like George Costanza negotiating a pilot deal with NBC for less money, just about every decision the APL has made since taking charge has diminished the A-Leagues.
Even so, there’s no denying next weekend’s two elimination finals are a match made in administrative heaven.
Adelaide United were out to make a statement in their winner-takes-all second-placed showdown with the Central Coast Mariners on Friday – and make a statement they did.
It’s just not the one Carl Veart wanted to make.
The Reds’ coach was out-thought and out-fought by a Mariners side that beat the Reds at their own game, as Central Coast’s high press pinned Adelaide back in their own defensive half and ultimately saw Nick Montgomery’s side come away with a stunning 4-0 win.
The Mariners have been the most underrated side in the competition all season and they flexed their championship credentials with a genuinely impressive performance – helped in no small part by a star turn from Brazilian playmaker Marco Tulio.
Central Coast will now face the winner of Adelaide’s elimination final with Wellington Phoenix – and they’ll fancy their chances of knocking over either side in their two-legged semi-final.
(Photo by Scott Gardiner/Getty Images)
Sydney FC, meanwhile, laboured to a 2-0 victory over the Newcastle Jets in a result that was marred by a hamstring injury to star winger Joe Lolley and a late red card to substitute Jaiden Kucharski.
Kucharski was a bit unlucky to receive his marching orders for two yellow cards collected from a couple of innocuous challenges, but Lolley’s potential absence is a much bigger issue for the Sky Blues.
So too is the likes of Marko Rudan, Brandon Borrello and Milos Ninkovic absolutely spoiling for a fight on home turf.
Sydney FC supporter group The Cove have confirmed they’ll be boycotting the game – and the APL would do well to sit down with Destination NSW and explain the empty seats – but there’s no doubt this is the fixture the APL desperately needed.
Whether the A-Leagues can survive another season of the Australian Professional League’s leadership is another story.