These are the key talking points from Round 26 in the Isuzu UTE A-League.
Marco Tilio set the tone for the weekend with a huge Friday night performance, as did Central Coast Mariners who locked in a top two spot off the back of a masterclass from their brilliant Brazilian forward Marco Tulio, while a spicy, maiden Sydney Derby has been locked in for the first weekend of finals.
Meanwhile it’s back to the drawing board for Melbourne Victory after a difficult campaign came to an end.
With a lot to dissect, here are the key talking points from Round 26 of the Isuzu UTE A-League.
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Marco Tilio’s big night
Marco Tilio might just have played the best game of his career on Friday night.
The Melbourne City attacker was sensational against Western Sydney Wanderers, scoring twice, including the winner to wrap up the three points and ensure the Premiers went into the finals with momentum.
It caps off Tilio’s best season to date, scoring nine goals and tallying five assists in 26 appearances.
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Only five players in the league have a better goals + assists tally in the league this season than Tilio’s 14 and City captain Scott Jamieson believes he could easily have had more to his name.
“It’s great to have him, but it’s also a pain in the ass because his talent is so big and the opportunity for him is massive,” Jamieson said.
“He just needs to really find the consistency but tonight he stood up when it mattered. That’s been his problem, opportunities have come but he hasn’t fully taken them, in terms of goals and assists, but a fantastic talent, (has) done really well and won the game for us tonight.”
Incredibly, this is Tilio’s fourth consecutive Premiership as well, having won three in a row at City, but also winning the 2019/20 Premier’s Plate at Sydney FC.
Marco Tulio’s remarkable night
Meanwhile, over in Adelaide, another Marco with one different vowel in his surname, may have had his best showing in a Central Coast Mariners jersey.
Marco Tulio was everywhere on Friday night, scoring twice in the Mariners’ 4-1 romping of Adelaide United which ensured Central Coast would finish inside the top two for the first time since 2014 and lock in a place in next season’s AFC Cup.
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Tulio got busy early, capping off a brilliant counter-attack with a lovely finish to open the scoring, before adding to the Reds’ misery with an unbelievable long-range strike to make it 3-0.
The Brazilian attacker has been a revelation at the Mariners this season, filling the hole left by Marco Urena in attack alongside Jason Cummings with aplomb, scoring nine goals.
Tulio heaped praise on his attacking partners – Cummings, Sammy Silvera, Beni Nkololo and Moresche – who he has gelled with brilliantly during his time in Gosford.
“I’m very happy to score two goals, almost scored the hat-trick, unfortunately it didn’t come but most important thing was to get the win,” he said post-game, via a translator.
“They are three big players, not only them three but also Moresche off the bench, doing a good job for the team and it’s a pleasure to play with them.”
Maiden Sydney Derby Elimination Final locked in
For the first time in Isuzu UTE A-League history, we will have a Sydney Derby final.
Western Sydney Wanderers’ 3-2 loss to Melbourne City coupled by Sydney FC coming away with a 2-0 win over Newcastle Jets ensured it would happen on Saturday night at CommBank Stadium.
It will also be the first time the Wanderers will play finals since 2017, while Sydney also return to the post-season after missing out last year. Marko Rudan’s side won bragging rights in the regular season, winning twice to Sydney’s once, including a 4-0 win in the most recent encounter.
However, the Sky Blues won the only meeting at Wanderland this season, coming away with a 1-0 win back in February.
“I can’t wait. Looking forward to it,” Rudan told Paramount+.
“The bigger the game the better for us. We’re going to go into that game with a lot of confidence. The body of work we’ve put in this year has been phenomenal… that game is going to be good fun. Good fun.”
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Meanwhile, Sydney FC coach Steve Corica weighed in on the upcoming fourth iteration of the Derby: “Obviously the derby next week is a special game and to have it in a final, first time, so it’s going to be exciting and hopefully a very good match.
“It’s going to be a massive game for us next week. We know what we’re up against. And there’s a reminder of the last game as well what they did to us (a 4-0 defeat).
“So we have to respond to that and make sure we’re ready and it’s a finals game. So you have to play your best if you want to get through.”
Sydney’s penalty curse?
Despite coming into finals with plenty of confidence off of a three-game winning streak, Sydney FC still have a glaring issue that could come back to bite them.
The Sky Blues have incredibly only scored one of seven penalties this season, with Max Burgess being the latest to not score from the spot, after he had his penalty denied by Jack Duncan in their 2-0 win over the Jets.
Adam Le Fondre is the only player to score one this campaign, firing one home in their 3-1 win over Western United back in October, minutes after having one saved. Incredibly, the Englishman missed two of their six in second-half stoppage time of their 1-0 loss to Wellington Phoenix back in January too.
Incredibly, Sydney have the worst penalty success rate (14%) by any Isuzu UTE A-League side, to have taken three or more penalties from the 2012/13 season onwards.
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And on Saturday night against the Wanderers, there’s a chance their fate could be decided by penalties.
“We’re well aware of our penalty situation at the moment, especially the quality of players taking them as well,” coach Steve Corica said in his post-game press conference.
“It’s been a strange season for them. (We) could have picked up quite a number of points, more than what we’ve got with scoring pens as well.
“But you’ve got to back yourself, you’ve got to be brave enough to take him and Maxy (Burgess) took it today. Obviously, it was a good save, but, yeah, we need to work on that, maybe next week.”
Wellington wrap up final spot inside the top six
After five games without a win, Wellington Phoenix finally turned around their fortunes to lock in a finals berth.
Oskar Zawada’s early goal against Macarthur FC was enough for the ‘Nix to wrap up sixth spot, where they will take on Adelaide United in the Elimination Final next weekend.
It wasn’t the most convincing performance, but it didn’t have to be as they did just enough to ensure they will play finals for the third time in four seasons under outgoing coach Ufuk Talay’s tutelage.
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It was also their first clean sheet in six games, having conceded 17 goals in their last five, showcasing a bit of a turn in defensive fortunes that had plagued them for weeks on end and something Talay said they focused on rectifying in the lead-in.
“In the 5-1 (loss to Adelaide in March), I thought we actually played some good football, we just didn’t capitalise on the opportunities that we created,” Talay said post-game.
“They’re a team that plays very open football and we saw that in their last game against Central Coast (which Adelaide lost 4-1).
“So there are strengths and weaknesses that we need to exploit and stop at the same time.
“We’ll prepare the boys with a good frame of mind and make sure they’re fresh and ready to go.”
Days of future past for Victory, who look to last season in order to push forward
It’s fair to say this season didn’t go to plan for Melbourne Victory.
Expected to be a a title contender this season, Victory fell 10 spots from their second-place finish of last campaign, ending the year in 11th after their 1-0 loss to Brisbane Roar on Saturday night.
In his first season in charge, Victory coach Tony Popovic took his side from wooden spooners to within a lick of the Premier’s Plate as they finished a point behind Melbourne City and fell agonisingly short of a Grand Final spot in their heartbreaking defeat to eventual champions Western United.
Popovic said his side will take a number of lessons out of this season, but believes they can look back to last season as inspiration that things can turn quickly.
“Firstly, recruiting, that hasn’t all worked out for us,” Popovic said post-game.
“Long term injuries, unfortunately you can’t help and when we had the long term injuries obviously they’re out for a long time… Our squad players or players that have been brought in to be squad players and put pressure on the starting players didn’t work out.
“So last year, our squad depth was very, very good. We lost some key personnel and ultimately, it hasn’t been enough and we were playing catch-up from the halfway mark and when something goes wrong it amplifies the issues that we have.
“It’s not for a lack of effort from the players. You can see they’re giving everything, there goes our centreback at the end having a shot there and they gave everything but it’s one of those seasons, we’ve been punished for everything.
“But in the end, ultimately, we haven’t been good enough to be in the playoffs. So that’s disappointing, but 12 months ago, we know what it looks like to win a trophy and be a point off (the) Premiers Plate so we’ve got to get back to that.
“It’s been overall a season that we’re definitely not happy about but we know we can get this back on track as we did last year.”
Victory’s recruitment has been hit and miss this season, particularly when looking at the players on the team-sheet on Saturday evening.
Only two of their nine off-season signings were in the squad on Saturday night in starting goalkeeper Paul Izzo and Cadete, while the likes of Nani and Tomi Juric have spent most of the season injured, Noah Smith has departed, and George Timotheou, Eli Adams, Nathan Konstandopoulos and back-up keeper Ahmed Taleb have seen little minutes.
However, all six of their mid-season recruits: Damien Da Silva, Bruno Fornaroli, Fernando Romero, Connor Chapman, Jordi Valadon and Bruce Kamau saw minutes against the Roar, with the former two particularly impressing in the latter stages of the season.
Diamanti bids farewell
For the final time in his illustrious career, Alessandro Diamanti took the field on Saturday night.
The Italian international announced his retirement from the game on Monday, bringing an end to a career that’s seen him play all over the world for the likes of West Ham, Fiorentina, Bologna, the Italian national team and four seasons at Western United.
Diamanti played 64 minutes in Western’s 2-1 win over Perth Glory and received a standing ovation at the final whistle from the fans inside HBF Park as he was chaired from the field.
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“I don’t think it’s too often you get a standing ovation from opposition fans when you retire,” Aloisi said.
“He was able to do that. And he was able to go out on a high, winning, because he deserves that.
“He’s been here since day one… Four seasons at the club. He had a pretty serious injury toward the end of last season that kept him out for quite a bit. He just worked, and worked, and worked, to get his body to a level (where) he could play minutes. At 40 years old, he was still able to put on a performance like that.
“An unbelievable career. 23 years, an Italian international, we’re lucky we had him in Australia. He showed some glimpses tonight what he can do with that left foot.”
His team-mate, Nikolai Topor-Stanley also brought down the curtains on his illustrious career, but was unfortunately left on the bench as an unused substitute.
“I’m sure that Topor is probably disappointed that he didn’t get any minutes today, but the the way the game panned out, it was it was difficult to to put him on but that’s part of football.,” Aloisi said.
“He had a good send off last week, but tremendous player, character and leader and we’re lucky to have him at our football club. Great career, 17 years at the top level, represented Australia, won a championship with us.
“He’s helped us grow our culture and build something, and he’ll be forever remembered at our club, because we’re still young and we’re building, so I want to thank him and congratulate him on a top career.”
