As Diego Castro volleyed home Perth’s third goal in 16 minutes, for a brief moment it looked like a league-leading side might concede six; again.
Despite a late stirring, the 3-2 defeat condemned Melbourne City to a tumble from first to fourth, an echo of what occurred the week previously when defeat saw then-leaders Western Sydney Wanderers fall precipitously.
Such is the remarkable peculiarity of this A-League season that the form side of the competition, Perth, sit fifth, while the team many still regard as premiership favourites, Wanderers, splutter to the finishing line, having claimed just three wins from their last nine outings.
This year’s competition is so bizarre that even that perpetual bugbear of A-League supporters – the staggered last round – stands to positively affect the final weekend’s drama.
Like love-struck suitors risking their necks for the bloodthirsty princess Turandot, across three days four teams will queue up to await their respective judgement.
On Friday night it will be Adelaide United to present their case; then, irrespective of the Reds’ fortunes, one revolution of the moon later, it will be Brisbane Roar’s turn to attempt to solve the riddles posed by Melbourne-based opponents. Should both fail in their attempts, yet one more sleep later, it could be Western Sydney who emerge victorious.
But should all three sides in succession lose, then remarkably, two whole nights after they took to the field, it would be Melbourne City who claim victory. Nervous moments no doubt; nessun dorma – none shall sleep.
Despite the difficulty of the away trip to a red-hot Perth, with the front-third quality of Aaron Mooy, Harry Novillo and Bruno Fornaroli and the vast experience of a backline boasting three Socceroos and a former Denmark international, City certainly had the cattle for the job. Should Melbourne now fail in their quest to become the seventh different A-League side in 11 years to win the premiership, it will be most sorely felt.
Given their attacking verve and record-breaking 63 goals, City would be more than worthy winners, were it not for that nagging hallmark of City (née Heart) sides across the years being intermittently underwhelming. Despite the strongest record against top four rivals, should John van ’t Schip’s men ultimately fall short, they might reflect on two losses to Newcastle and that shock defeat to Wellington.
If there’s a sentimental favourite though, it’s arguably Adelaide United. Motherless and cold eight rounds in, the Reds-naissance now stretches to just one loss in 17 matches. And while City lean heavily on the holy trinity of Fornaroli-Novillo-Mooy no other title rival can boast the depth or unpredictability of goalscorers that Adelaide can.
Excluding own goals, on 44/60 occasions (73%) City’s goals came from their star triumvirate; for Brisbane, Maclaren-Henrique-Petratos provided 68% of their goals; for Wanderers, Nichols-Bridge-Santalab hit 63%. With eight goals Bruce Djite is hardly in Golden Boot contention – only Central Coast Mariners boast a leading marksman who has scored fewer – and as it happens a Djite-Sanchez-Carrusca trio provide just 51% of Adelaide’s goals.
Noticeable too is the positional and role rotation within the playing group. Shut down Mooy, as Perth largely did (with perhaps the assistance of Socceroos-related fatigue) and City can start to appear one-dimensional. But with goals coming also from Cirio, Mauk or Goodwin – from wide forward, midfield or even full-back positions – it’s harder to prepare a tactical focus to stifle this Adelaide side.
Whereas Tony Popovic’s Wanderers will unflinchingly set out in a consistent formation, Guillermo Amor’s men are known to operate with more fluidity, modulating as the match circumstances or opposition dictate. To see young Australian players such as George Mells, Bruce Kamau or Jordan Elsey trusted to perform within this framework is refreshing and something that endears the Barcelona legend to his supporters, as it did Josep Gombau before him.
That considered, Adelaide and City combined have spent less time atop the table this season than even Sydney FC; Adelaide making a late rush following that injury-ravaged season’s beginning, and City succumbing to intermittent lapses and some early teething problems of their own.
Fans of Western Sydney and Brisbane Roar would point to 10 weeks spent on top respectively; and yet an honest appraisal of both squads and performances across the duration of the season would hardly point to either side earning the campaign descriptor “dominant”, anywhere near the fashion that Melbourne Victory were last season.
Season one Wanderers, for all the obstacles of the club’s underdone preparation, were defensively resolute – never conceding more than twice in a game across the entire season. Fast forward to 2015-16 and they’ve conceded three or more on five occasions.
Similarly, it seems an unwritten rule that if you ship four goals in back-to-back games, or have six put past you, it automatically disqualifies a side from becoming premiers. Brisbane fans will point to John Aloisi’s positive football, and it deserves to be highlighted that they’ve scored some truly excellent goals this season, both individually and collectively.
If you separate Eugene Galekovic-less Adelaide (rounds one to six), from the performances the Reds have mustered with their talismanic captain between the posts you are presented with a defensive steeliness not equaled by their premiership rivals.
Of the 28 goals Adelaide have conceded, five fewer than next best Western Sydney, 15 of these came in those first six rounds.
If the Reds are to add to their 2006-07 premiership, as they well deserve, they may call greatly upon their keeper’s leadership against the league’s most formidable attack. Should they get past City, they’ll then need old foes Victory and Kevin Muscat to do them a kindly favour against Brisbane.
It a path not without significant obstacles, but compared to where the Reds found themselves in December, they’d surely take it.
