A-League Men Round 22 Sliding Doors: The Melbourne sides showcase their dominance

As the competition reaches the pointy end and the best start to separate themselves from the rest; Round Ball Australia keeps you up to date with all the big story lines from Round 17 of the A-League Men competition, with Sliding Doors.

Melbourne City

IF all the pieces are finally starting to come together for Aurelio Vidmar’s side…

THEN we may just be looking at the best competition to Auckland for this year’s Championship.

In a season that has been dominated by discussion about the length of their injury list, Melbourne City almost had all of their likely best XI available for selection this week.

The only exceptions being Andrew Nabbout (who is out for the season) and James Jeggo, who you could argue isn’t really first preference with the way Kai Trewin is playing at the moment.

Mathew Leckie, Marco Tilio, and Andreas Kuen have all been significant returns, whilst Max Caputo’s double is a terrific return to goal scoring that is foreboding for the other teams heading into finals football.

Players like Patrick Beach and German Ferreyra, who have had their struggles earlier on in the season were both phenomenal against the Bulls, the latter with a ridiculous recovery challenge to save a goal early on.

And the kids are still producing as well. Many were forced out of the team due to the returns, but Kavian Rahmani becomes the latest academy product to put some exciting form together over a number of weeks.

City are scary in their current form. Unfortunately for Vidmar, they’ve probably left too many points on the table to challenge for the Premiers’ Plate, but City’s eyes should be firmly focused on that toilet seat.

Lachie Avil

Macarthur FC

IF there was any remaining doubt…

THEN there isn’t anymore. The Bulls’ finals hopes are over.

Six points adrift of the finals positions and a game ahead of their nearby competition, that will be a bridge too far for the Bulls.

Their struggles have been clear to see since several key departures in the last two months. Namely Jed Drew and Valère Germain – who has been making headlines again since his transfer to Japan’s Sanfrecce Hiroshima.

Even if they were playing cohesively, you’d probably consider their current margin too much of a gap to close.

And given they still have plenty of work to do on the training ground before getting to that point, there’s no chance.

It’s rough on Mile Sterjovski, who despite winning the Australia Cup and getting his team playing some very attractive football at moments earlier on in the season, will have to wait for another go around for another attempt at A-Leagues silverware.

Lachie Avil

Adelaide United

IF the Reds want to stay in touch with the top four…

THEN they need to get their mentality right.

Adelaide have only taken two points at home from matches against the Roar, Jets and Glory, and their home form in general has been very uncharacteristic. 

This week’s draw with Brisbane highlighted one of the big problems: mentality. When on the road with their backs against the wall we’ve seen United play some fantastic football. But at home, the side goes into hiding.

Carl Veart spoke post-match about the need for players to step up and perform in these games, and Reds fans will hope these words echo within the playing group. Harry Crawford’s goal was a nice sight – rivalled only by the goal scored by Brazete later in the game – but also shows that if Plan A falls apart, it requires moments of individual brilliance to bring the team to life.

Adelaide have fallen from title contenders, and are now focused on holding onto a finals spot. It’s been a season with a lot of close wins and lots of goals papering over the cracks – now that they’re being figured out, the players and coaches need to take pride in their performances, back themselves to execute, and own their mistakes.

Otherwise, this side could well and truly fall out of finals contention. 

Jacob Stevens

Brisbane Roar

IF backing the youth and investing in development is the ideal play for A-League clubs…

THEN Brisbane are starting to track in the right direction.

It’s something Ruben Zadkovich mentioned post-match, but Brisbane are producing some incredible young talent without a fully fleshed-out youth side or development pathway.

Jacob Brazete was absolutely electric once he came onto the field, absolutely bullying the Reds’ defensive right side with his technical ability and direct, attacking intent. And Lucas Herrington made a brief cameo where he looked assured and helped secure the points.

There should absolutely be a feeling in Brisbane circles that if the club can continue to invest in youth development, then the sheer depth of talent in Queensland will be more than enough moving forwards to form a high-quality core squad.

It’s still been an awful season, and for the most part the Roar have played some pretty shocking football. But, there’s little glimmers of hope for the future: three draws and a win in their last six, and a few up and coming young stars. It could be much worse.

Jacob Stevens

Western United

IF this is how Western United are toying with their opposition…

THEN this team has some serious potential heading into May.

It was a complete demolition job from John Aloisi’s team on the weekend.

Everything seemed to be clicking at the right moments, the passing was free flowing and the vibes out at Ironbark Fields seem to be at an all time high. You know things are going right for you when you can score the opener off your shoulder!

There’s not much else to say about this game apart from the fact that it was a convincing Western performance against a Wellington team well below their own quality.

Wellington are a side Western should beat comfortably and they did, further improving their impressive home record out at Tarneit. Their only loss out of eight games at that venue came at the hands of Auckland, hardly unforgivable.

Aloisi has got this team doing all the right things and currently hold the edge in the race for second place and a spot in next season’s AFC Champions League Elite campaign.

Asian nights in Tarneit anyone? (Unfortunately not because of stadium requirements, but imagine it!)

Lachie Avil

Wellington Phoenix

IF Chiefy is willing to admit defeat on his season…

THEN where do the ‘Nix go from here?

Giancarlo Italiano admitted after their 4-1 hammering at the hands of Western United, that Wellington’s finals hopes are dead.

It’s such a massive turn of fate from their record breaking campaign of 23/24. The team had the yellow fever singing ‘Hail to the Chief’, but now ‘Italiano Out’ banners are starting to filter their way into Sky Stadium.

Yes, there has been a significant turnover in players, but that alone can’t account for a near 50 per cent drop off in league points, compared to 19 games played in the previous season (37 in 23/24, 19 in 24/25)

Was the kick start of wins at the beginning of last season enough momentum for fans to look past the style of football that was played? Because it hasn’t really changed that much this season, despite Chiefy’s intentions, but this season they’re losing rather than winning.

Have other coaches figured Italiano out? He likes to sit patiently for high percentage chances. So, starting compact centrally out of possession and not leaving yourself too vulnerable on the counter seems to work quite consistently.

There’s a lot of questions to be answered this off-season. Both by Italiano and the Phoenix management.

Lachie Avil

Melbourne Victory

IF Victory can still dominate with Zinédine Machach and Nikos Vergos starting on the bench…

THEN the argument can be made that they have the best depth in the competition.

Many Victory fans weren’t all that optimistic heading into their home clash against the Mariners, because these are the types of ‘straight-forward’ matches that have often led to unnecessary dropped points this season.

Eyebrows were raised when the team sheet was released, with influential duo Zinédine Machach and Nikos Vergos dropped to the bench in favour of Bruno Fornaroli and Reno Piscopo. Yet Victory were a class above from the first whistle, and the Mariners can count themselves fortunate that they only conceded three goals.

Daniel Arzani put in a better shift than he’s produced in past weeks, while goal-scorer Nishan Velupillay is finally regaining his mojo again after a hot and cold stretch.

Let’s not forget that Piscopo was one of Victory’s stand-outs for the first part of the season, showcasing to Arthur Diles that his squad is stacked with talent from top to bottom.

Fresh from winning the U20 Asian Cup for Australia, Alex Badolato, who won Player of the Tournament, is going to be a star in the making after making his debut in a 30-minute cameo.

Is it unreasonable to suggest that they possess the most impressive depth in the league? Or does that title belong to a side like Auckland have been the most consistent this campaign?

Christian Montegan

Central Coast Mariners

IF the Mariners don’t get rid of their errors leading to goals…

THEN it’s going to be a long six games left in the season.

In a way it is impossible to gauge the ceiling that this young Mariners side has because so often and so quickly in matches they find themselves on the back foot.

This game against Melbourne Victory was another example to add to the many highlighting the downside of fielding such an inexperienced team.

It was Haine Eames this time around mis-controlling a ball played to him by Dylan Peraic-Cullen, which allowed Nishan Vellupillay to finish first time into the corner inside nine minutes.

Another game and another self-inflicted wound that saw them playing catch-up for 80 minutes, we are seeing a team that needs things to go perfectly in order to muster up any sort of performance that could earn them a win.

That makes it five straight losses now without much of a glimmer of anything to be excited about, the conclusion of the season will feel years away for supporters of the club.

Will Booth

Newcastle Jets

IF Newcastle can keep their momentum rolling…

THEN they can go within striking distance of the finals.

Newcastle Jets showed some of their best football as well as some of their inadequacies in an enthralling one all encounter with the ladder leaders Auckland at home. Their peak was the first twenty minutes of the match as they enthralled an almost 7000 strong crowd who had come out despite predicted horrific wet conditions which did not eventuate.

Youngsters Clayton Taylor, Lachlan Bayliss & Eli Adams created multiple nervous moments for Auckland and their fans in the opening exchanges before Adams put an exclamation mark on the early display with a stunning individual goal to give the Jets the early lead.

Newcastle created numerous other opportunities but as coach Rob Stanton identified there were times their lack of fluidity, which he put down to the gap between games impacted their ability to be clinical.

“I thought we competed well,” Stanton said. “We haven’t played for 17 days, sometimes it takes a bit to get things going.”

The Jets were unable to capitalise on a man advantage for the final 15 minutes after Louis Verstraete was red carded after a VAR review for a reckless sliding challenge. Despite the man advantage Newcastle couldn’t find a winner to claim a fourth straight win, instead taking a draw to extend their unbeaten run to six matches.

Stanton and his troops will now turn their focus to their second game in five days as they take on Melbourne City mid-week before heading home to host Western United, knowing they need to continue to extend their unbeaten run if they are to chase their sliver of finals hope.

Chris Macpherson

Auckland FC

IF That is Auckland not responding to a challenge…

THEN the league should well and truly be on notice.

Auckland FC manager Steve Corica spoke of his team’s slow start “we expected it [Newcastle to come at Auckland hard], we didn’t respond to it though, they were the better team in the first half”.

Despite the slow start and a somewhat disjointed first half that appeared to show a side shell shocked by the pace and challenge of their opponents early and what looked an understandable weariness after their eight goal thriller last week versus Adelaide.

Despite this and things being exasperated late in the fixture through a red card, leaving the Black Knights down a man for the final 15 minutes and stoppage time, they somehow hung on against a Newcastle side that brought forth fresh legs, changes and just about everything in their arsenal.

Taking a draw away from Newcastle against the in-form Jets, despite not putting their best foot forward and finishing with a playing numbers deficit shows why Auckland are in pole position to claim a top two finish and lock in a two-leg, home and away semi-final match, and why the League’s newest side are going to be very hard to stop.

Underestimate Auckland at your peril, what we have seen in recent weeks suggest that while some sides may be able to challenge them over 90 minutes, few will hold with them over 180 minutes, plus maybe more!

Chris Macpherson