Round 12 of the Isuzu UTE A-League has drawn to a close with plenty to dissect from all the weekend’s action. Here are some of the major talking points.
Stunning goals galore
It seemed as if Round 12 was the weekend to get yourself on the ‘best of’ highlight reels at the end of the Isuzu UTE A-League season.
The latest weekend of action was full of cracking goals, with players all across the country putting forward their own nominations for ‘Goal of the Season’ (let alone, Goal of the Week!).
READ: ‘OH, THAT’S A BULLET!’: ‘TOUGH, DETERMINED’ VICTORY INSPIRED BY DEADLY D’AGOSTINO STRIKE
It all started with Nick D’Agostino’s absolute thunderbolt to equalise in Saturday night’s Original Rivalry. The Melbourne Victory striker, who had been in a bit of a lean patch of form as of late, roared back into form with a stunning goal that was well and truly from the top shelf.
As Victory broke forward, Josh Brillante picked the ball up on the edge of the area and laid it off to an oncoming D’Agostino who fired the ball first time and right into the top corner – ending a five-game run without a goal to his name.
Sydney FC’s Joe Lolley ended the evening with a scintillating goal of his own, picking up the ball on the edge of his area, before finding a pocket of space and firing an unstoppable effort off the post and in.
But on Sunday, you could really pick your poison.
After Brandon Borrello gave Western Sydney the lead against Melbourne City, Richard van der Venne responded in some style, with an audacious half-volley from a tight angle inside the box that looped over Lawrence Thomas and into the back of the net.
Then later that day in Ballarat, it became a proverbial game of ‘whatever you can do, I can do better’ as both Lachie Wales and Daniel Stynes scored stunning curling efforts within minutes of each-other in a high-octane opening 20 minutes.
READ: ‘I’LL HAVE ANOTHER CRACK’: STYNES STEALS THE SHOW WITH GOAL OF THE SEASON CONTENDER
But Wales felt as if Stynes may have won the battle of the crackers on the day.
“Yeah it was not a bad one (Wales’ goal) but young ‘Stynesy’ did me at other end, I think!” Wales told Paramount+.
‘If Marchan was a boxer, you’d stop the fight’
An electric instalment of the Original Rivalry on Saturday night was marred by the sight of Melbourne Victory midfielder Rai Marchan looking all at sea after a hefty blow to the head from a venomous strike by Adelaide United’s Nestory Irankunda.
The Spaniard instantly hit the deck, with attention quickly turning to his immediate safety. But before long he was up on his feet; visibly shaken, he proceeded to engage in heated discussion with the Victory medical staff.
Marchan appeared almost unwilling to leave the field of play. The midfielder wanted to play on.
Finally common sense prevailed, with Marchan initially replaced in a temporary concussion substitution before head coach Tony Popovic made the change permanent, with Will Wilson taking his place in the Victory XI.
The confusion around the concussion rules – and the complexity of the injury itself – came under the microscope in the post-match wash-up.
“If Marchan was a boxer, you’d stop the fight,” said Paramount+ analyst Bruce Djite. “They wouldn’t let him back into the ring. We’re playing football. There is no way on the back of that sort of contact to the head that you’re coming back on.
“You know what? He might watch it tomorrow and think: ‘Jeez, I must have been delirious, I don’t even know what I was saying there’. But last week we had an NFL player hit the deck, heart attack. I mean, this is a game. This is not life or death. And players’ welfare must always come first, and I commend the Victory staff who put the player’s welfare first.”
Andy Harper was in the commentary box for Paramount+ as the 1-1 draw unfolded on Saturday night. He expressed his own concerns after watching Marchan attempt to return to play after a significant blow to the head.
“The first thing you have to say is, (it was) the right outcome,” Harper said. “The second thing is, because a player a few minutes down the track feels okay and says they need to stay on the field, it doesn’t take away from concussion that every evidently has taken place.
“He’s such a fierce competitor, Rai Marchan, and a lot of players in that situation are just desperate to contribute to the team’s cause. I think we can all relate to that. But we’re in this era now where you’re just not allowed to continue.
“He very obviously felt very strongly that he wanted to come back on the field, and you have to assume that in his mind he felt good enough and ready to play, my head is clear and ready to go. But that is not the point. We’ve learnt a lot about this in recent times, and that doesn’t take away from the concussion that very evidently took place, and so the protocols need to kick in.
“The point around our game is we need to formalise it a lot better. We need to come up with, and this is confronting all sports, we need to come up with an assessment, a test, which is unequivocal. And in the future – I hope the near future – in this sort of situation that a Rai Marchan can actually see some objective data and say: ‘It doesn’t matter how I feel, I can see now exactly what has happened inside me’.”
The Vibes are good on the Central Coast
Three wins in a row, second spot and playing exhilarating football. Things are looking up for the Central Coast Mariners right now.
The Mariners came away with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Macarthur on Friday evening at Campbelltown Stadium, seeing off a late fightback from the home side to hang on to a much-needed three points.
Jason Cummings and Marco Tulio have slowly but surely forged one of the most dynamic and fearsome frontlines in all of the Isuzu UTE A-League, both hitting the scoreboard in the first-half. The former, has been in a rich vein of form as of late, coming back from the FIFA Men’s World Cup with a vengeance as he made it five goals in seven games.
“It’s a good place to play football. Good spirits in the changing room and yeah we’ve got that winning mentality,” Cummings told Paramount + post-game.
And the duo were given great support from the flanks by Beni N’Kololo and Sammy Silvera, while Jacob Farrell continues to impress with his two-way running from left-bank.
Silvera, particularly, has been in a rich vein of form as of late, continuing his brilliant second stint at the Mariners with another sensational outing – before he unfortunately had to come from the field after sustaining a knock.
“I think coming back to the Coast has been honestly, life changing in a way,” Silvera told KEEPUP last week prior to the Macarthur clash.
“I think just being present and happy has really made my football go to another level.”
‘Someone like him can stop everything’: ‘Heroic’ Sail proving invaluable for Phoenix
Through 10 games to start the season, Wellington Phoenix failed to keep a clean sheet. Now, the New Zealand outfit have shutout their opponents in consecutive games.
It’s no surprise the rigidity in defence has translated to points on the board, with the ‘Nix recording back-to-back wins for the first time this season to surge into the top four – and it’s been the superb glove work of Oliver Sail at the heart of much of his side’s success since the turn of the new year.
Sail made three crucial saves in his side’s 1-0 win over Brisbane Roar on the road on Saturday afternoon; the latter two came in the dying embers, with Roar forward Joe Knowles testing the ‘Nix gloveman from multiple angles but failing to pierce his guard.
It was a sterling performance which followed Wellington’s manic Round 11 win over Sydney FC by the same scoreline, in which Sail saved a stoppage time penalty from Adam Le Fondre in a chaotic finish to his side’s first win of 2023.
Paramount+ analyst and former A-Leagues striker Alex Brosque praised Sail for the role he’s playing in firing Wellington up the table.
“That’s the difference, to be honest, with sides trying to get some consistency,” Brosque said in the aftermath of another impressive Wellington win. “You don’t just need a good team (for) defensive displays, you need a keeper to come up like Oli Sail has in the last couple of games with big saves in big moments. They’re just as important as, say, (‘Nix striker Oskar Zawada) at the other end who got the goal.
“This could have easily been a draw or even a Brisbane win the way the game finished – but thanks to Oli Sail and his heroics they hang on for a 1-0 win, back-to-back clean sheets… it helps him, it helps the team and the backline grow in confidence when you know that even when those few times the team does get through, you’ve got someone like him who can stop everything.”
Wellington’s rich vein of form sets up a blockbuster matchup for Ufuk Talay’s with Central Coast Mariners at Sky Stadium on Sunday, January 22. If Sail is to extend his run of consecutive clean sheets to three games, he’ll need to do so against the likes of Marco Tulio, Samuel Silvera and Jason Cummings, three Mariners forwards absolutely flying into Round 13.
