After a month-long hiatus due to the FIFA Men’s World Cup, the Isuzu UTE A-League resumed over the weekend.
Back in our stadiums and on our screens across Australia, Round 7 had a bit of everything – from Perth Glory’s long-awaited homecoming, a heroes welcome for the returning Socceroos to the F3 Derby in Gosford.
With a lot to dissect, here are the talking points from Round 7 of the A-League Men season.
Glory’s perfect return to Perth
“All the teams coming to Perth, be ready: you’re going to cop it.”
That was the message from Perth Glory captain Mustafa Amini after the club capped their long-awaited return to Western Australia with a 2-1 win over 10-man Western United on Saturday night.
Glory were forced to spend the first five matches of the season on the road while their temporary new home – Macedonia Park – was being upgraded to become A-Leagues ready.
Perth will play most of their home games at the 4,000-seat venue this season due to the unavailability of HBF Park, which is currently being spruced up ahead of next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Playing a match on home soil for the first time since May, Glory gave fans plenty to celebrate as they now embark on a stretch of five of their next seven fixtures at Macedonia Park, where Ryan Williams and Jack Glisby inspired Perth over the weekend.
The return of Australia’s World Cup heroes
Mathew Leckie, Garang Kuol, Jamie Maclaren, Jason Cummings, Danny Vukovic, Marco Tilio and Andrew Redmayne.
After a memorable Qatar adventure with the Socceroos, they were back in the A-Leagues for Round 7 and treated to a wonderful reception at stadiums across the country.
On Saturday night, Leckie, Maclaren and Tilio were back in Melbourne City colours as Redmayne donned his Sydney FC kit following Australia’s run to the World Cup last 16.
Sydney stunned reigning premiers and leaders City in a come-from-behind 2-1 win. City’s downtrodden trio of Socceroos stuck around regardless in the aftermath of defeat, to mingle with the fans to whom they are all now heroes, regardless of club colours.
And prior to kick-off, Leckie, Tilio, Maclaren and Redmayne walked out together, behind the two starting squads, to the rapturous applause of the Allianz Stadium crowd.
On Sunday afternoon, Central Coast Mariners Cummings, Kuol and Vukovic walked out to a guard of honour before the F3 Derby against Newcastle Jets.
F3 Derby and the disallowed goal
Finally, after rain washed out what was supposed to be an opening-round derby in November, the Mariners and Jets went head-to-head over the weekend.
The Jets claimed bragging rights and THAT trophy thanks to goals from Trent Buhagiar and Beka Mikeltadze.
There was a debatable incident after the Mariners thought they had equalised in the 74th minute via Josh Nisbet.
However, VAR intervened for a handball, with the referee visiting the pitch-side monitor and penalising a Michael Ruhs handball in the build up to the goal.
Mariners team-mate Ruhs had tussled with Jets captain Matthew Jurman, who had a high boot on the half-way line.
Returning Socceroo Cummings, who had cancelled out Buhagiar’s opener before Mikeltadze scored the match-winning goal in the second half, cut a frustrated figure post-game.
“He brings it all the way back for a handball but for me it’s a foul. He barges into him. There’s no way he can move his arm,” Cummings told Network 10.
“I don’t know. There’s too much looking into things and bringing it all the way back. Just let the game flow a wee bit.”
Mariners head coach Nick Montgomery added: “We must have more goals disallowed than any other team this season.
“The VAR, I don’t know if anyone watches the World Cup because I know everyone has. I’ve never seen an incident pulled back 30 seconds after it happened just because there was an incident in the middle of the pitch.
“It’s me this week and probably someone else next week.
“I just find it very hard it gets pulled back all that way and no one saw anything or complained about anything. There was a high foot and a hand and 30 seconds later and it’s pulled back.”
Tempers boil over in Phoenix-Wanderers draw
Wellington Phoenix and Western Sydney Wanderers played out a 1-1 draw at WIN Stadium in New South Wales, but tempers flared after the final whistle.
Both teams needed to be separated following an argument between Phoenix captain Oli Sail and Wanderers skipper Marcelo.
Yeni Nbgakoto had cancelled out Bozhidar Kraev’s opener before things kicked off at the end of the 90 minutes.
With City’s losing and this result, the Wanderers moved within two points of top spot.
The sight that should have Macarthur fans excited
Macarthur FC suffered a late 1-0 loss at home to Melbourne Victory, but there was a major positive to come out of the fixture.
The return of star captain Ulises Davila.
Davila had missed four games before the World Cup-enforced break due to a hamstring issue but he was back in the line-up against Victory.
Though, Bulls head coach Dwight Yorke was not happy with the treatment of Davila and fellow attacking star Daniel Arzani.
Macarthur lost their fizz once Arzani and Davila were taken off in the 73rd minute after being subjected to some close scrutiny from a compact and well-organised Victory side.
Arzani picked up a shoulder complaint for his trouble and captain Davila, who was just back from a hamstring issue, was the subject of some heavy fire.
“It’s something that we are very concerned about,” Yorke said. “We seem to be singled out because we’ve got two exciting players and they target our players.
“I think the referees need to protect those two players and don’t get the rub of the green. I don’t want to point the finger at them (referees).
“Good players get kicked all the time but I don’t think they have got protected as well as they could.”
