There’s no love lost between these two Semi Final opponents, as coaches and players alike partake in a back and forth between Grand Final aspirants Central Coast Mariners and Adelaide United.
Some say revenge is a dish best served cold – but on one side of the Isuzu UTE A-League Semi Finals, Adelaide United are attempting to serve Central Coast Mariners a red-hot portion of it.
That’s the opinion of Mariners boss Nick Montgomery, at least.
Ever since his side travelled to Coopers Stadium to defeat Adelaide 4-1 in the last round of the regular season, Montgomery has been wheeling out that particular notion among the comments emanating from both sides of the Semi Final stoush, resulting in an entertaining back-and-forth set to run until the conclusion of this two-legged tie.
It’s only fitting that the Reds and the Mariners’ paths have crossed again in the Finals Series. Central Coast won the first of two Semi Final legs against Adelaide 2-1 on Saturday night; they will host the return leg on May 20, with the aggregate winner sealing a spot in the Grand Final.
These two teams have now faced off three times this season; the Mariners have won all three games, scoring 10 goals to Adelaide’s two.
As we approach the fourth and final encounter of the season, Adelaide have the chance to put all three defeats behind them by overturning their 2-1 Semi Final deficit to book a spot in the decider.
But that will be no simple task against a Mariners side whose desperation to emerge as Semi Final victors is motivated in part by a comment from Reds head coach Carl Veart suggesting they have already played their Grand Final.
KEEPUP looks at the battle off the field between the two rivals set to make the return leg of this Semi Final stoush an unmissable event.
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‘Central Coast play a lot of direct, long balls’
It had all the makings of a final-round beauty – but in the end, it turned into a Mariners procession.
Adelaide ventured into Round 26 in second on the A-League Men table. Finishing there by the end of their clash with the third-placed Mariners would have booked the Reds a week off to start the finals series, and a spot in the AFC Cup.
In the end, the Mariners secured both of those privileges by thumping the Reds on their home turf. Marco Tulio did the bulk of the damage, scoring a brilliant brace. Beni N’Kololo and Harrison Steele took the Mariners’ tally to four for the night, with Ryan Kitto finding a late consolation.
In the aftermath, Adelaide captain Craig Goodwin insinuated the Mariners were a long-ball side.
“We lost 4-1 at home,” Goodwin said. “Again, I think it’s a bit naive. We know Central Coast are good on the counter attack, and I thought all four goals came from positions where we had the chance to attack and our rest defence was poor. We’ll take it as a learning curve.
“Central Coast play a lot of direct, long balls and play off the second ball, and they’re very good on the counter attack. So if our rest defence isn’t good, and we turn that over, we get punished like that.”
The result sent the Mariners to the Semi Finals, and Adelaide into a knockout finals clash against Wellington. A win for the Reds set up the two-legged tie; in the build-up to leg one, Montgomery returned serve.
“I have a lot of respect for Craig Goodwin,” he said.
“He also said we’re a long-ball team. In the emotion of things after the game I think if he looked at the stats, he’d probably take that comment back.
“No one likes losing a game of football. He’s a winner, and you’ve got every player out there in finals for every player wants to win.
“I think that’s the mentality they have. Revenge, whatever you want to call it. That’s a dangerous word.”
Ironically, according to Opta, Adelaide actually sit second in the Isuzu UTE A-League for most long passes played this term (57.7 per match), while Central Coast (53.2) sit fifth.
Then it was Veart’s turn to contribute to the Semi Final mind games. As he prepared his side to take on the Mariners for the third time this season, Veart suggested to local media that Montgomery’s side had treated their Round 26 win like it were a title decider.
“The second game here, we were poor, and they played it like it was their Grand Final.
“You saw the way they celebrated afterwards. They came here, and put all their eggs in the one basket, I suppose, and we held back a little bit.
“It will be a little bit different (in the finals).”
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‘Maybe you should give the fans their money back!’
From the outset, the first leg of this Semi Final tie was littered with spot fires.
It began in the pre-game, when Veart and Montgomery joined Network 10’s telecast for back-to-back interviews.
Veart began with a line that would come back to bite the Reds by full-time: “They put a lot of energy into that last game here, and we only went at 50%. So I expect us to make it very difficult tonight for them.”
Montgomery returned serve.
“Saying you left a little bit out here, probably a bit disrespectful to the fans who paid the money. My boys would never leave anything out there, they (give) everything on the pitch.”
The Mariners went on to win 2-1, coming from a goal down to secure first-leg bragging rights thanks to goals from James McGarry and Jason Cummings.
In the aftermath, Reds captain Goodwin was given the chance by Network 10’s Max Burford to clarify his “long-ball” comment from the last round of the regular season.
“One light-hearted one to finish: no long ball comments after this one? I know they didn’t like that.”
“Look, I call it how I see it,” he said. “I thought the last game, not that they’re a long-ball team, but they hurt us in those moments when they went long and caught us in transition. That’s their style.
“Definitely, they’re a good team. They finished second on the ladder and they’re up 2-1 in the Semi Final. There’s lots of football to go, but they’re a really good side, we’re a good side, and we’re going to be going there to get the win.”
Montgomery then sat down for his post-match press conference.
While in the hot seat, the Mariners boss pulled out his metaphorical receipts; in response to Veart’s suggestion that the Mariners had treated their Round 26 win in Adelaide like a Grand Final, Montgomery said: “I thought we were humble.
“There (were) comments last week that we came here and celebrated like we won the Grand Final. I don’t know – I never saw that. We celebrated like we finished second spot and got an Asian Cup spot. Boys shaking the fans’ hands and going back to the hotel and having some food, and going back to the Central Coast.
“A lot of talk this week. Again, mind games, whatever you want to call it, and the boys were fully focused tonight.”
And he had another bite at Veart for suggesting his team had not gone full throttle in their last matchup of the regular season.
“Every time you go out on the pitch, for whatever club, you should put 100% in and give everything. I know they said they left a little bit in the tank last week, which again, if you’re going to do that I wouldn’t have been happy, if I was a fan, with what was on the line.
“I actually had quite a few people send me that message. I’m not really one for social media, but if you’re going to say stuff like that, maybe you should give the fans their money back for (the 4-1 defeat in Round 26). As a fan, all you ask for is 100% commitment from everybody, and give everything on the pitch.
“Look, it’s a bit of a throwaway comment. Again, mind games. Carl’s a good coach, he’s done a great job with (this team). The fact he plays young players as well, and again the results in the league were tough on them. Maybe it was to try and get a bit of a different reaction from the players.
“But if you think the magnitude of the game last time was second spot, a weekend off from a knockout and an Asian Cup squad. I was a little bit confused with that comment.”
