AFC Cup Interzonal semi final first leg preview: Can the Mariners cash in at home before they head to India?

The Central Coast Mariners now reign supreme in the AFC Cup’s ASEAN zone and they’ve earned over $150,000 for their troubles so far.

They’ll have to weather a whole new storm in Gosford tonight when they face South Asian zonal champions India’s Odisha FC in the first leg of their AFC Cup inter-zone play-off semi-final.

Let’s quickly refresh how the two sides won their regions and see how they match up against each other.

Angel Torres of the Central Coast Mariners celebrates a goal. (Photo by Kelly Barnes/Getty Images)

Mariners: Sea-kings in the Southeast

If you saw Macarthur and the Mariners square off in the ASEAN zonal final, you already know it was an instant classic and the best match of the tournament thus far. It started off a bit slow, with the overall possession and pace leaning slightly Mariners’ way, but as the game progressed, the tension ratcheted up into a crescendo of twists, turns, and extra-time heroics, with both sides fighting like mad to keep their continental hopes alive.

Macarthur put up a great fight, making effective substitutions of their own, finding holes in the increasingly-weary Mariners defense and catching them off guard multiple times. But ultimately, it was Central Coast’s Ronald Barcellos, the new loanee from Portimonense, who settled the score when he made an excellent read in the Bulls’ box and smashed the rebound home in the 120th minute. With that strike, and his immediate shirt-rending celebration, Barcellos became a made man in Gosford and the Mariners emerged as kings of the ASEAN zone.

Manager Mark Jackson did a commendable job managing the rotation, especially considering the intense schedule and lack of rest his side had been through in the leadup. While not all the big guns appeared in the starting XI—most notably, Ángel Torres stayed on the bench until the start of the second half—Jackson’s strategy undeniably paid off, as substitute players scored or assisted on all three of his side’s goals.

Combined with the team’s continued A-League success since this classic, with back-to-back road wins and a successful defense of the F3 Derby crown, the Mariners have every reason to sail into this round with confidence.

Central Coast celebrate a goal.(Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

Odisha: The Juggernauts of South Asia

Odisha FC’s history is relatively brief but over the past year, they’ve written their most glorious chapters to date. Last April they secured their first ever silverware by winning the Super Cup, India’s top knockout tournament. A few days later, they defeated Gokulam Kerala in a one-off to punch their first ticket into continental play.

After a rocky start to the AFC Cup, where Odisha lost their first two matches and gave up seven goals, the club turned things around, winning their remaining four contests to take both their group and their region. Since then, the Juggernauts have embodied their nickname, going unbeaten in the Indian Super League from late October to the end of February, clinching a league playoff spot and reaching their second straight Super Cup final. All that means they’re riding more than enough momentum to make magic happen here in the knockouts.

If you’ve followed the A-League for a while, you’ll recognise a couple of names on Odisha’s lineup sheet including Cy Goddard, who was a Mariner himself a couple years ago, and Roy Krishna, who won the Golden Boot and Johnny Warren Medal in his final season at Wellington Phoenix. At 36 years old, the Fijian football legend is a leading contender for this year’s ISL Golden Boot—which would mark the fourth such award of his career—and back in Group D, he popped off for a goal and a pair of assists against reigning ISL champions Mohun Bagan Super Giant, ensuring a crucial win on the way to this matchup.

There’s no shortage of talent on the rest of the roster, either. Standing between the posts is team captain Amrinder Singh, who currently leads the ISL in clean sheets. Just in front of him is Senegalese centre-back Mourtada Fall, who’s spent this tournament as a threat on both sides of the ball. Thanks to his supreme heading off set pieces, Fall scored three goals in the group stage, the last of which against Bashundhara Kings sealed the win, the region, and the cash prize of about 8.3 million rupees.

Co-leading on the scoring front is Brazilian striker Diego Maurício, with three goals and two assists to his name in this competition. And while we’re talking assists, let me introduce you to the mastermind of this attack, Moroccan midfielder Ahmed Jahouh. His skilful passing and dribbling translated to a tournament-leading seven assists in the last four games of Group D, starting with the three he sauced up in Odisha’s home game against Maziya S&RC and ending with the group-winning cross to Fall. With so much at stake, and so far from home, the Juggernauts will no doubt look to Jahouh to get their cannons firing and help them shell the Central Coast.

Clash of the champions: How the Mariners should approach this battle

Make no mistake, Odisha are the hottest team in India right now and they’ve only grown stronger and hungrier for silverware as their season’s progressed. To underestimate them is to court choking, and the Mariners will have to take both legs of this aggregate deathly seriously if they want to advance.

Based off what we’ve seen, the result will come down to which side’s playmakers can uncork their attack more effectively. For the Mariners’ defense that’s going to mean isolating Ahmed Jahouh and cutting off as many of his passing lanes as possible, especially while defending against set pieces.

Jahouh has scored a couple goals in the ISL this year so he’s not hapless in that area, but if the Mariners can force him to lean on his own shooting abilities, rather than Maurício’s foot, Fall’s head, or any other player in the vicinity, they reduce the risk of a costly goal.

Meanwhile, the Coasties’ own playmakers will do well to remember their strength in numbers. True, no one Mariner has seven assists in the Cup like Jahouh, but the team have gotten a combined 21 assists out of nine different Mariners up to this point. Sure, Marco Túlio was leading the AFC Cup in goals when he shipped out to the J-League, but the team’s remaining South Americans have all come up big in his absence.

Central Coast’s Jacob Farrell goes on a run against Brisbane Roar. (Photo by Scott Gardiner/Getty Images)

Between Ryan Edmondson’s hat trick and Marco Barcellos’s last-minute killshot, there’s a clear theme emerging in these knockouts of new Mariners stepping up and becoming heroes when the team needs them. If the Mariners can replicate their disciplined, unselfish, and opportunistic attacking from previous rounds, they should square up nicely to their opposition.

Finally, it’s worth remembering that this battle is only half the war. A week after tonight, the two sides will meet again at Kalinga Stadium in India—which, for the Mariners, means settling things in hostile territory and the longest road trip in franchise history. The Mariners should try to secure as big of an advantage as they can get away with in Central Coast Stadium, because there’s no guarantee what could happen once they board that plane to Bhubaneswar.

Whatever unfolds, we should be in for a cracking first leg.