Welcome to A-Leagues life, where KEEPUP brings you all the latest news and goings on at your club. This is how the week is shaping up across the A-Leagues and beyond.
The Wanderers star who is Sky Blues enemy number one
The Sydney Derby fuse has well and truly been lit.
Sydney FC will host cross-town rivals Western Sydney Wanderers at Allianz Stadium on Saturday night, and the Sky Blues are not short of motivation.
The reason? Brandon Borrello, according to head coach Steve Corica.
Buy tickets to this weekend’s Sydney Derby!
MATCH DETAILS: SYDNEY DERBY
Sydney FC v Western Sydney Wanderers
Saturday, March 18 2023
Kick-off: 7.45pm AEDT
Allianz Stadium
MATCH CENTRE | BUY TICKETS
After last month’s 1-0 loss to the Sky Blues at CommBank Stadium, Western Sydney star Borrello could not hide his disappointment in a scathing post-match interview.
“If I’m being brutally honest, they deserved nothing. They couldn’t play out when we had one man less. They just sat off. They were scared off us the whole game,” the Socceroo told Network 10.
“They can count themselves lucky they scored one goal. Good for them.
“It is what it is. We’re obviously shattered. It’s not to sound like a sore loser, but bang average.”
READ: ‘No, this is impossible’ – A Sky Blue stunned by Galacticos on ‘amazing’ first day at Real Madrid
Heading into this weekend’s showdown, pitting sixth-placed Sydney FC against fourth-placed Western Sydney Wanderers – with four points separating the rivals – Borrello was asked about those specific quotes.
As the Sky Blues’ social media team pounced on the “bang average” comment with a compilation of the club’s best derby goals, the Australia international told AAP: “Hand on my heart, I didn’t say they were ‘bang average’ or anything like that.
“I remember saying ‘bang average’, I was just more frustrated at my performance. I got slaughtered for showing a bit of emotion after the game.
“You say your honest piece and it is what it is, but I don’t regret it at all. It was great. The media loved it but it’s not what I’m here for, I’m here to play football.”
But Corica is having none of it leading into the third Derby of the 2022-23 campaign.
“That’ll be our motivation on Saturday night – I didn’t like what he said at all,” he said via NewsCorp.
“It was out of order. When they beat us, we didn’t say anything and they carried on like they won the Grand Final.
“It was a bit disappointing from their end.”
Corica and Wanderers counterpart Marko Rudan will share the sidelines for the first time since their Derby spat in February.
After an explosive game at CommBank Stadium where Yeni Ngbakoto was sent off for slapping Sydney FC defender Paulo Retre, Corica and Rudan were involved in a heated touchline argument at full-time.
Corica and Rudan were teammates once upon a time but any pleasantries evaporated as they traded barbs, with the former branding the Western Sydney boss a “sore loser” at the time.
In response in his post-game press conference, Rudan said: “I just reminded him of their play-acting, they were doing it in the first half,” said the Wanderers boss. “They went down and were wasting time.
“I just reminded him of something he said to me when I was with Wellington a few years ago and I beat him 3-0. That’s all it was.”
Ahead of their reunion this weekend, Corica said: “I haven’t seen him or spoken him since but I’ll shake his hand after this weekend’s game, no matter what the result is.
“We don’t catch up, but he’s played for Sydney FC and is in our hall of fame, so his picture is up (at the Sky Blues’ Macquarie training base).
“It doesn’t worry me but my players often comment when they see his picture.”
‘We think we could make it work’
The Australian Professional Leagues (APL) is planning to expand to 16 teams in each of the A-Leagues by 2025-26, with a men’s side in Canberra and Auckland identified as the preferred markets to be the first two additions for the 2024-25 season.
The new owners of each club would buy an equity share in APL, worth around $25 million based on the value of the leagues as a whole generated by the widely reported 33% stake bought by US private equity firm Silver Lake for $140m.
Auckland City chairman Ivan Vuksich, however, has balked at the reported fee; he’s working in tandem with property developer Alex Spika to formulate an A-Leagues bid.
“Alex and I formed the company and Alex is a reasonably wealthy man, but not wealthy enough to do this sort of stuff,” Vuksich said via Stuff.
“We had talked to two or three different investors and they were all reasonably keen to come on board, so we we’re going to probably have five investors.”
He added: “Our budget wouldn’t be like the Australian budgets – it would be more in line with what the Phoenix spend.
“You can make it work if you’ve got decent sponsors and you’ve got crowds coming into the ground.
“There are so many variables and there are so many unknowns, but at this point in time, yes, we think that we could make that work.”
The one thing Montgomery says you can’t do against Victory
Melbourne Victory have endured a season to forget as they are rooted to the bottom of the Isuzu UTE A-League standings and all but out of the finals race.
It was a campaign that had promised so much after their semi-final run in 2021-22 and Australia Cup triumph, and the arrival of Manchester United and Portugal great Nani.
But he suffered a serious knee injury and Victory have languished around the lower echelons of the table throughout the season.
READ: PL boss’ ‘f*** that’ advice led to Aussie debut v Liverpool – 7 years later, the Roos are calling
But as Victory prepare to host high-flying Central Coast at AAMI Park on Sunday afternoon, Mariners head coach Nick Montgomery is taking nothing for granted… even after a 4-1 rout of Macarthur FC as his team welcome back Brian Kaltak, Moresche and Nectarios Triantis from suspension and international duty.
“No game is harder than any other,” he insisted on Wednesday. “It’s a game of football – 11-v-11.
“Never underestimate Melbourne Victory. They are a massive-budget team. They have some good players and an experienced manager in Tony Popovic.
READ: ‘Clumsiest’ moment that sparked ‘daylight robbery’ in Perth – ‘I would be having long words’
“What they probably have now is not that much pressure on them and they’ll go out to try to win the game because they will be hurting. It’s been a tough season for them.
“There’s a lot of games where they’ve played really well and not got the result they probably deserved. But that’s football. We won’t go there and take anything lightly because they’re a very good team.”
