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The 2023 Australia Cup final at the Sydney Football Stadium almost emulates the famous Community Shield fixture in England and spells the beginning of what is looking like an exciting season of A-League football.
That fixture between the FA Cup winners and the English Premier League winners, played at the national stadium, is an occasion steeped in tradition and one that whets the appetite for the football feast ahead.
In a week that has seen rumours of VAR being scrapped, Mariners scoring a handsome win in the AFC Cup and Tim Cahill being inducted in the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, the right sort of news has given football fans plenty to talk about as we await the climax of our nation’s major cup competition.
Since the FIFA Women’s World Cup took us to new levels of delirium, we have been clinging to the Australia Cup and its magical giant-killing possibilities for our live football fix.
Sydney FC have come through all four seasons in their Australia Cup campaign, starting with that incredible last-gasp equaliser and epic penalty shoot-out in the Wollongong drizzle against A-League champions Central Coast Mariners.
A banana skin against APIA Leichhardt was avoided in the rain at Leichhardt Oval and Western United were swept aside on a boiling hot day two weeks later back at the same venue.
Their passage into the final was an impressive one, an away win against premiers Melbourne City, and with new Brazilians in the squad, the return of fan favourite Max Burgess from his suspension and the superb form of Anthony Caceres, this is a Sydney FC team that has made a statement already in the cup. Steve Corica is off on the right foot for the 2023/24 season.
Sydney FC Manager Steve Corica. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Ross Aloisi’s Brisbane Roar have been around the country on their cup quest, throwing in the youngsters to beat the Jets in Maitland in extra time, before a visit to Sydney United allowed them to stretch their legs with their youth getting in on the goals in a five-goal rout.
The visit of the Western Sydney Wanderers to Perry Park in the quarter-finals was thought to be a bridge too far, but with the exciting talent of Henry Hore, Carlo Armiento and Jay O’Shea on song, the Roar stepped up a gear and sent their much-fancied opponents packing.
That set up a fire-cracker of a semi-final with Melbourne Knights, with the romantic neutrals hoping for a fairytale that would continue into the final.
Alas, the tie was settled by an early goal from Brisbane’s hot young striker Tom Waddingham, and somehow the score remained at 1-0 despite the Roar spurning a golden opportunity to make it two when the home team decided to abandon defence in favour of attack.
With the unlikely figure of silky Frenchman Florin Berenguer making things happen in midfield, Brisbane have the class required to take out the crown in Sydney this weekend.
With the fixture seemingly being forced to Sydney despite all attempts to find a suitable venue in Brisbane, and a record Australia Cup crowd anticipated from a football-starved public, Saturday night’s occasion should be one to savour.
A spine-tingling national anthem, two teams that are prepared to go for goal in the name of entertainment and an overload of individual skill from the likes of Nikola Mileusnic and Joe Lolley will bring Australian football back into the spotlight after its mini-hiatus.
Photos of players celebrating a cup win and achieving early qualification for Asian competition in 2024 will be splashed across our newspapers in the absence of any action from the country’s other national sports. Okay, that’s maybe taking it a little too far.
Everyone loves a cup final. Get involved. May the best team win.
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