In this strangest of A-League seasons, it stands to reason that arguably the best team in it is one that practically every pundit has pretty much ignored for the entire campaign.
The Central Coast Mariners just can’t stop beating Adelaide United.
After smashing the Reds 4-0 in Gosford in January, the Mariners proved beyond any reasonable doubt they are a force to be reckoned with after their 4-1 dismantling of the Reds at Coopers Stadium in Round 26.
That victory saw Nick Montgomery’s side finish second in the standings at Adelaide’s expense, with the Reds needing to see off Wellington Phoenix in their elimination final to book another two-legged showdown with the Mariners.
And just like in the previous two encounters, it was Carl Veart’s team who once again came off second best at Coopers Stadium on Saturday night.
Yet the Reds could hardly have got off to a better start, as Craig Goodwin converted a penalty he earned after Brian Kaltak inadvertently handled the Socceroo winger’s early cross.
Goodwin has converted all four of his penalties this season, and he never looked like missing from the spot in front of a raucous crowd of 15,771 fans who filled just about every seat of Adelaide’s atmospheric home ground.
Far from subduing the visitors, the goal seemed to spur them on.
James McGarry’s long-range equaliser was a work of art that left Joe Gauci slumped on his haunches, while Sam Silvera almost snapped the crossbar as the Mariners somehow failed to take the lead 10 minutes later.
Gauci then pulled off a superb reflex save to deny Jason Cummings, only for Central Coast’s top scorer to burst on to Beni Nkololo’s through ball and squeeze his shot past the Adelaide custodian shortly after.
Could Gauci have done better with Cummings’ goal? The shot seemed to deflect off the end of Gauci’s boot and in at the far post.
It was no less than the rampant Mariners deserved, but they needed a smart save from Danny Vukovic to deny substitute Nestory Irankunda with 20 minutes remaining in what was a truly breathtaking encounter.
The Reds will have it all to do next weekend when they try and overcome that one-goal deficit – there’s no away goals rule in effect – in front of what is hopefully another big crowd at Central Coast Stadium in Gosford.
(Photo by Steve Christo – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
The attendance at Coopers Stadium was actually larger than the crowd of 15,322 fans who filed into Allianz Stadium to see Sydney FC play out an entertaining 1-1 draw with Melbourne City in Friday night’s other semi-final.
The most noticeable aspect of that first-leg affair – aside from some correct use of VAR – was the parlous state of the Allianz Stadium pitch.
The two sides went hell for leather at each other on a surface that looked sandier than Bondi Beach in places, with the Sky Blues needing a VAR intervention for encroachment to put away a 64th-minute penalty scored by Adam Le Fondre at the second attempt.
The decision was harsh on City goalkeeper Tom Glover, who only moments earlier had saved Anthony Caceres’ low spot-kick, but it was the correct one given City defender Callum Talbot not only encroached but subsequently cleared the ball away from danger.
The Sky Blues looked the better side against a visiting City outfit that seemed to badly miss the mysteriously absent Aiden O’Neill in midfield, but they’ll need to score at some point – or otherwise rely on the lottery of a penalty shoot-out – on their trip down south to AAMI Park.
There’s unlikely to be a big crowd in attendance at that game – not least because City’s active supporter group the Yarra End Collective are boycotting the finals – and it’s hard not to wonder how much influence the City Football Group have had on some of the Australian Professional League’s decision-making given they clearly couldn’t care less about attendances.
A couple of pulsating semi-final first legs were a reminder of all the positive things about the A-League.
Let’s hope next weekend serves up more of the same.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
It's a pure panic tactic than to do the Harold
Grem
Roar Rookie
You were right.
Grem
Roar Rookie
Debuted 2 nights ago for Brighton. Hopefully more game time to come.
Midfield General
Roar Rookie
They do a lot of community work. Probably among the best. A lot aimed at kids. What they don’t do is publicize properly. There are no posters, no merchandise in shops. No car stickers available. Nothing out there. A lot of people got traumatized by the horrendous years after the 2013 win and just won’t go back.
Para+Ten ISUZU Subway support Australian Football
Roar Rookie
I'm starting to like the new finals format more and more.
Para+Ten ISUZU Subway support Australian Football
Roar Rookie
15K would be sensational! CCM need to get out into the community and sell football and the CCM club.
Midfield General
Roar Rookie
About a month ago you could quite justifiably have predicted a Melbourne City v Adelaide United final. Now you wouldn’t bet against a Sydney FC v Central Coast Mariners final… reprising the very first one. MC look to have peaked early… and are stuttering…. evidenced by McLaren getting one touch in the ball in the 80th minute v Sydney. Sydney look to be improving every week and if they can put their three strikers on have every chance. Adelaide to their misfortune have had to deal with a Mariners side that has become rampant over the last few weeks, but more dismally for The Reds has got the wood on them totally… neither Goodwin or Irankunda have had any effect in these games. They have a season deficit of 2-10 in 3 games. Those two goals being a very late consolation and a lucky penalty. Whatever happens it’s going to be dramatic.
Midfield General
Roar Rookie
Maclaren’s only touch was in the 80th minute !
Midfield General
Roar Rookie
Half of Sydney (the other half support the other lot) is about 2.5 million people. Adelaide is 1.3 million. The Central Coast is under 0.4 million. Yet there will probably be about 15,000 at Gosford on Saturday evening like at the other games last weekend. Shows there is the support there for the club when they are going well.
Roberto Bettega
Roar Rookie
Those AFL TV ratings look rather poor. Certainly nowhere near enough to justify a $4.5 billion deal. Some TV execs are going to lose their job over this.
Stevo
Roar Rookie
A very good friend of mine appreciates many sports, including football and the AFL, but is particularly a strong/slightly mad Geelong :silly: supporter. He finds the AFL's high athletic skills and action/scoring very appealing. My AFL team is the Western Bulldogs (or Footscray more correctly :happy: ) who I followed from primary school days. And I too appreciate the level of athletic skills and constant motion/scoring. My wife doesn't like AFL because it's rough and looks disorganised/mad - often like seagulls fighting over a chip. She likes football :thumbup: My friends daughter recently played football as a junior and he was the organiser of the football team! But his first passion is AFL. All good. To me we will find many people like him out there in the community. They may engage with football at a grass roots level through their kids, may even find time to follow the fortunes of a high flying or interesting EPL/La Liga/etc team (it's cost free, just jump onto the web) but are not invested in our local semi/professional game.
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
Reading the news the other day, the ACT are going to get a new world class theatre for concerts, theatre, stage shows etc. The cerebral giants at the World's Highest Paying Probation Scheme (NRL) chipped in and said that the ACT would get more value for money by constructing a new RL stadium. What a great idea! There are thousands of junior footballers in the ACT, you dont see RL down there. You see a bit of rugby and some cross-country volleyball but very little RL. The rocket scientists even expected the ACT government to pay for it all as well. I loved how the chief minister clearly stated how he was tired of the expectation that funds will be afforded to RL. He said that if RL comes up with all the funds for a new stadium, he's happy to talk. Now I see in the news this morning the French have said that hosting the next RL world cup is financially unviable so they're out. ahaahahahahahh Eddie Jones will be ringing the "Horse Guy" today. ahahahahahahahaha. The Chief Minister was right, Cross-Country Volleyball and more so the World's Highest Paying Probation Scheme are afforded billion dollar tv contracts, but they continue to leech off public funds. You have to aske the question, "will the lure of big cash as compensation for becoming a vegetable due to brain damage eventually wear off, and the backyard sports will diminish?"
Grem
Roar Rookie
A well written and thoughtful response. As someone who loves the A Leagues, Socceroos and Matildas I am a bit (perhaps a lot) jealous of the favour they receive. It’s a game that was never part of my “culture” in NSW so I don’t have that affinity to it, so when I watch the game I usually just don’t see the reason for the attraction – it just looks scrappy with the occasional great mark. As a teacher, I need to coach a few different sports and I do appreciate the kick, catch, chase aspects of the game and how it’s a good sport for children to play. We do need to copy their off field approach, if we can. And I will reread the Johnny Warren book again soon.
Stevo
Roar Rookie
"a CTE court case and there have been violent issues in crowds as well have not impacted on their “appearance” / reputation / image – how does that happen?" "how does that happen?" This is the fundamental point that separates AFL/NRL from football. It's not so much what happens on the pitch but how the games have evolved in their public/institutional support and media coverage. The AFL/NRL have enormous public/institutional support and media coverage. I will give my Melbourne perspective. AFL is literally the ONLY game in town during its season. The game has deep roots among fans (stretching back generations within households), who very importantly include political and business leaders, and then the media use this to sell subscriptions and attract eyeballs. Another aspect that might confound people outside of Victoria is the almost religious zeal that some AFL people have for the game to the point that they see nothing hilarious in talking about expanding the game globally. So you'll see the AFL experimenting with taking the game to South Africa, China and playing games in New Zealand. What has come of these experiments? Another part to this story is one that has crystalised in my mind in recent times. It's that what is good and bad about football has been defined for us, NOT by us, by the AFL friendly (and maybe the NRL) media. The football narrative has been hijacked so that it's not uncommon for the media (and public) to zero-in and focus on football crowd troubles, acting/diving on the pitch, etc - all this famously summarised in the title of Johnny Warren's book "Sheil@s, w0gs and p00fters" Until we take back and celebrate our story we will be held to ransom by others who do not want to see the game grow in Australia. The discovery of the football ashes needs to be celebrated.
Grem
Roar Rookie
That is very true, but it is interesting how the ongoing racial issues, drug use by players, a CTE court case and there have been violent issues in crowds as well have not impacted on their “appearance” / reputation / image – how does that happen? That’s another area we need to learn from.
Stevo
Roar Rookie
The AFL play a great game off the pitch, politically. Football could learn from them. I’m sure our football CEO James Johnson gets it however he’s sometimes hamstrung by kn0bs in the crowd, like those who invaded the pitch during the Christmas derby and a few of the Sydney United 58 supporters during the FA Cup final. One minute football is riding a wave of public support and goodwill, in the very next it’s shot down by it’s own supporters. We’ve all seen this movie many times.
pacman
Roar Rookie
AFL and NRL are wealthy. Why should taxpayers subsidize their professional sports arenas, built solely for the use of millionaire and potential millionaire players, and the similarly rewarded suits in the background (sometimes the foreground). Oh,and don't forget the concerts, performed by similarly financially endowed personnel. To take this further, why should the A-Leagues receive taxpayer support? Why shouldn't all professional sports be self-funded? There are many private enterprise businesses that provide far more important goods and services than sport or entertainment, but they are not funded by taxpayer funds!
chris1
Roar Rookie
Grem what did you expect from the king of the parasites that is the AFL. Always sucking more out of the Australian taxpayer.
Grem
Roar Rookie
And he was player of the match. Mo Tourre also played a few minutes in French League 1 - his second game.
Grem
Roar Rookie
And tv ratings are inaccurate- there’s been plenty of articles on that.