How your team fared, who made the headlines and the best from social media.
How your team fared, who made the headlines and the best from social media.
Melbourne Victory: Move on to a mouth-watering grand final qualifier against Brisbane Roar with their 2-1 win over Sydney FC on Friday night. The match looked like heading to extra-time after Sebastian Ryall cancelled out Archie Thompson’s opener but Gui Finkler had other ideas. The Brazilian stayed alert at the back post to volley home Adama Traore’s cross to cap off a huge week for the club.
Thompson showed he’s a finals specialist with a great finish while James Troisi continued to stake his claim for a World Cup berth with a brilliant all-round performance. Kevin Muscat seems to have his side peaking at just the right time and they won’t fear heading to Suncorp Stadium to play Brisbane, who only won the previous meeting at the venue with a late Luke Bratten goal.
Sydney FC: Their roller-coaster campaign came to a heart-breaking end with Finkler’s late strike, meaning it’s now four years without a finals win for the club. The match summed up Sydney’s season. A slow start put them behind the eight-ball before they steadied, got back on level terms and took the game to Victory with a dominant spell.
But missed chances and a late defensive lapse ultimately proved their undoing. Ryall continued his love affair with playing his former club with a clinical finish – his third goal against Victory this season – to get Sydney back in the game but they couldn’t go on with the job. Ali Abbas was superb again, putting in a tireless effort in midfield as he has done all season while defensive rocks Sasa Ognenovski and Nikola Petkovic were brilliant and will give Sky Blues a solid base to build on for next season.
Central Coast Mariners: Progressed to their fourth consecutive grand final qualifier after doing enough to see off Adelaide 1-0 at Bluetongue Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Bernie Ibini’s bullet midway through the second half settled a hard-fought contest to set-up a grand final rematch against Western Sydney next Saturday night.
While Ibini will get most of the plaudits for his strike, it’s Phil Moss’ defenders and midfield that were the real heroes, continually closing down the space and time for Adelaide’s fearsome attack. It was a typically resilient performance from the home side, soaking up some pressure before hitting the Reds on the counter attack with a clinical move and finish from Ibini.
Adelaide United: After heading towards the finals as most people’s dark-horses for the title, exited in a rather meek matter in losing to Central Coast. Josep Gombau’s troops just couldn’t get their free-flowing, passing game going against the well-organised and disciplined home side. The versatile Osama Malik has been one of the Reds’ best all season and had another great game, this time at right back, but they didn’t have enough players at the top of their game to seriously trouble Mariners until late on when the visitors had to chase the game. While Gombau has insisted this season was more about starting a Reds revolution rather than results, they will be disappointed to bow out so early in the play-offs.
Biggest stories:
**Fix the schedule. Mariners boss Phil Moss is not happy his side is heading to Japan this week and will only return a little over a day before they have to back up and play Wanderers in a semi-final at Wanderland
**Winds of change at Sydney FC? With Sky Blues now out of the finals all eyes will focus on the futures of skipper Alessandro Del Piero and Frank Farina.
**Arnie rejects shot at Glory. Graham Arnold pulled out of the race to coach Perth Glory, with Interim Kenny Lowe tipped to get the nod. It means Newcastle Jets – and maybe Sydney FC – will step up their plans to make Arnold their new boss for next season.
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