It’s Melbourne City against Sydney FC across a two-legged Semi Final – and both squads contain players with sparkling CVs ready to be the difference makers.
On Friday morning, BT Sport will air the first of four Isuzu UTE A-League Semi Finals matches live to fans across England.
It will be a trip down memory lane for those tuning in to the coverage, with the likes of Joe Lolley, Adam Le Fondre and Jack Rodwell showing out for Sydney FC in the first of two Semi Final legs against Melbourne City.
The three Englishmen elected to continue their football journeys Down Under after making their respective impacts in the upper echelons of the English football pyramid – and they’re not alone in approaching Friday’s Semi Final with big-game experience and a playing history intertwined with Europe’s top five domestic leagues and premier continental tournaments.
In fact, the collective playing ranks of City and Sydney have racked up 490 games worth of experience across England’s Premier League, Italy’s Serie A, the German Bundesliga and Ligue 1 in France.
Add in a splash of emerging Australian talent, and you get a recipe for a Semi Final tie brimming with quality all over the park, set to come to the boil at Allianz Stadium on Friday night (AEST).
KEEPUP’S SEMI FINAL COVERAGE
ULTIMATE GUIDE: Everything you need to know
JACK RODWELL: ‘It’s daunting and you’re thrust into it..’ advice to young A-League stars in a hype storm
ADELAIDE’S YOUTH GURU: The coach who discovered Irankunda & plotted ‘mission impossible’ against the Socceroos
LE FONDRE: ‘I’ve read that I’m finished… this would be a nice f*** you from all of us’
A-LEAGUES ALL ACCESS: ‘Haven’t seen that ever before’: What sparked surreal derby dressing room eviction
CENTRAL COAST: How two Mariners changed everything for a 6-year-old fan
BUY TICKETS TO SYDNEY FC v MELBOURNE CITY, LEG ONE
Adam Le Fondre is quickly becoming one of the stories of the Finals Series. He’s bagged five goals in as many games for Sydney FC – including the winner in a 2-1 Elimination Final that sank rivals Western Sydney and set up a Semi Final date with City.
Le Fondre accrued 34 Premier League appearances across a career that began at Stockport County and featured significant spells at Reading and Bolton. To this day, his Premier League minutes-per-goal ratio of 124.4 remains up there with the best in the league’s history.
He’ll occupy Sydney’s solitary striker role on Friday, coming up against a likely combination of City’s Thomas Lam -a Finnish international with 28 caps and eight appearances across the UEFA Europa League and Conference League – and Curtis Good, former Newcastle United prospect and fringe Socceroo.
On the right-hand side of Sydney’s attack, Joe Lolley will hope to recover from a hamstring complaint and push for a position amongst the starters. He signed for Sydney this season direct from Premier League promotees Nottingham Forest. The explosive winger was named Forest’s Player of the Season just two seasons before his arrival at the Sky Blues.
Should Lolley play from the start, he’ll be directly opposed to City left-back Jordan Bos: a recent Socceroos debutant and one of the hottest properties in Australian football, touted to break Australia’s all-time outbound transfer record with an imminent European move.
On Sydney’s opposite flank looms the X-factor of one of the A-League Men’s most in-form forwards in Slovakia international Robert Mak. His career began at the Manchester City academy; in 2008 he started alongside Wellington Phoenix striker David Ball in City’s FA Youth Cup final triumph over Chelsea.
Mak made 77 Bundesliga appearances throughout his career, winning eight titles across Europe’s domestic leagues, venturing to the UEFA Euro finals in 2016 and 2020 with his nation and making a combined 57 appearances in the Champions League and Europa League.
Mak is an active Slovakia international; he scored for his nation in March against Bosnia and Herzegovina. It ignited a superb spell of form for Sydney FC, with his goal and assist turning his side’s knockout clash with the Wanderers on its head.
Looking at the matchups in the middle of the park, City’s international pedigree begins to shine through.
The cultured talent of Florin Berenguer makes the French midfielder one of the most watchable players league-wide; he has 16 Ligue 1 appearances to his name. He could be flanked in the centre of the park by the returning Valon Berisha: an active Kosovo international who in March contributed to his nation’s UEFA Euro 2024 qualifying campaign in a pair of draws against Israel and Andorra.
Berisha’s CV is one of the most decorated among active A-League Men players: he’s featured in 180 Austrian Bundesliga fixtures, 37 in Ligue 1 and 11 in Serie A, to go with 12 UEFA Champions League appearances and 44 in the Europa League.
In the centre of defence for the Sky Blues comes Alex Wilkinson, who this season clocked the 600th-game mark in his club career, and Jack Rodwell, former England international, Manchester City and Everton midfielder-turned-Sky Blues centre half with 167 Premier League appearances under his belt.
Rodwell and Wilkinson have both missed large portions of the season through injury – but have found respective consistency in the latter stage of the campaign. It’s been a key factor in Sydney’s uplift in form and six-game unbeaten streak heading into the Semi Finals.
They’re going to need to be near-perfect in their defensive application to cope with the star power on display in City’s attack: a strike force spearheaded by the most prolific marksman in A-Leagues history. Jamie Maclaren usurped Besart Berisha on the throne with his 143rd A-League Men goal. He has now scored the second-most goals of any player in Australian men’s national league history; Maclaren begins the perilous climb toward Damian Mori at the summit (240 goals).
Supporting Maclaren in attack will be a combination of Mathew Leckie, the Socceroos’ match-winner against Denmark at the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup with 139 games of Bundesliga experience, fringe Socceroo Andrew Nabbout and highly-rated emerging talent Marco Tilio, an Olympian at Tokyo 2020, a World Cup squad member and a four-time A-League Men Premiership winner at just 21 years of age.
On the right side of Sydney’s defence comes Rhyan Grant, the only Sky Blue to clock 300 league appearances in club history. On the left comes a battle between 22-year-old Socceroo Joel King and Real Madrid academy product Diego Caballo.
Between the sticks for Sydney FC will stand the famous ‘Grey Wiggle’ Andrew Redmayne, Australia’s shootout saviour who produced one of the most iconic moments in Socceroos history to book the nation’s place at the 2022 World Cup. Down the other end will stand Tom Glover, an Olyroo like King and Tilio at Tokyo 2020, who will push to replace the likes of Redmayne in the national team setup in years to come.
CITY & SYDNEY’S TOP-FLIGHT PEDIGREE
Appearances in top five European leagues plus UEFA competitions
Sydney FC
- Jack Rodwell (EPL: 167, Champions League: 2, Europa League: 8)
- Adam Le Fondre (EPL: 34)
- Joe Lolley (EPL: 6)
- Robert Mak: (Bundesliga: 77, Champions League: 13, Europa League: 44)
Melbourne City
- Valon Berisha (Ligue 1: 37, Serie A: 11, Champions League: 12, Europa League: 44)
- Mathew Leckie (Bundesliga 139, Europa League: 2)
- Florin Berengeur (Ligue 1: 16)
- Aiden O’Neill (EPL: 3)
- Thomas Lam (Europa League: 1, UEFA Conference: 7)
- Nuno Reis (Europa League: 6)
- Scott Jamieson (Europa League: 2)
