If finals formats are meant to deliver the best two teams on grand final day, then the weekend’s semi-finals worked to perfection. However it bears thinking that, in essence, four sides duked it out last week for the right to be comfortably beaten by the A-League’s best sides this week. In other words, the semis have served to confirm what we just about already knew: Sydney are the best team in Australia, and Victory are the team most likely to knock them over in a one-off, winner-takes-all showdown.
And so, in the end, it’s the grand final we had to have. The weekend’s games – the first a fairly tepid affair, the second bruising if a little humdrum – put paid to any question over the A-League’s best two teams. Now, we’re left with the prospect of a Big Blue to decide it all. The unstoppable force versus the immovable object, and all that.
For Melbourne, there was certainly much to suggest that they’ve forged an impressive steel in defence, even if they were arrhythmic in possession against Brisbane. They were ably led by skipper Leigh Broxham, who was in a particularly destructive mood. If his team can harry and harass Sydney the way they did Brisbane on Sunday night, the Sky Blues may find scoring opportunities scarce.
Indeed, Victory’s win was notable for the sharpness of their press, as Brisbane were barely able to conjure successive passes before surrendering the ball to their opponents. Both John Aloisi and Brett Holman conceded as much after the game, and Aloisi in particular may reflect in hindsight that Thomas Broich might have helped unlock Victory’s rearguard.
Instead, the Roar hung in the game courtesy of Melbourne’s profligacy in front of goal more than anything else. In a match billed as a shootout between Besart Berisha and Jamie McClaren, the latter remained disconnected from his suppliers, and thus struggled to make any meaningful contribution. That was ultimately down to an athletic, high intensity operation from the home side. Melbourne’s ability to stifle Brisbane’s attack will have been keenly noted by the visiting Graham Arnold, whose own midfield will have to operate at the upper end of their capabilities of precision to disorganise the visitors’ setup.
Sydney’s dominance has been so complete this year that one could barely dream up a more perfect route to the grand final. They have been that good that all they are missing, arguably, is one of those awakening losses former pros like to talk about. They were imperious once more against Perth on Saturday night, even if they were on the right side of a contentious VAR decision. As many are discovering, the use of video technology does not remove the game’s natural grey areas. For Jordy Buijs’ eventual goal, the linesman thought Bobô was both offside and impeding Dino Djulbic, and VAR Strebre Delovski disagreed. Where personal interpretation exists, disagreement will endure.
Kenny Lowe’s resulting apoplexy was at once understandable and revealing: when those interpretations don’t fall your way, the proliferation of technology can exacerbate symptoms of rage. Even so, Lowe’s wild gesticulations and bulging head veins at 2-0 seemed more in keeping with the attitudes of players chasing a lost cause. It was little surprise that Sydney added to their lead soon after, which contained its own moment of rage. In an act almost personifying the lividity of his manager, Liam Reddy shoulder charged Buijs in a hit that belonged in 1970s rugby league. In any event, Sydney had killed the game. For Perth, it was gone by half-time, allowing the Sky Blues to ease off in the second half.
For a team that has swept all before it in a manner unmatched in this competition’s history, Sydney still retain an air of mortality. They don’t operate with the sort of swashbuckle one might expect of a consistently superior team. They toil, they sweat, and they arm-wrestle opponents into submission. It’s a compliment to Arnold’s approach, which routinely results in Sydney first outfighting and outmuscling their adversaries, before touches of class usually prove decisive. In short, they manage the details of the game better than anyone, and will rightly start the grand final as warm favourites.
Given Sydney’s unparalleled dominance this year, it’s hard to escape the feeling that there is something oddly unbalanced about both teams entering the title decider on equal footing. For that reason, Kevin Muscat’s Victory have great cause to arrive buoyant next Sunday, and their speedy press may suit the bobbly Allianz Stadium surface. Anything other than a Sydney triumph will be regarded as a boilover. Perversely, though, that very point may paradoxically free Victory and make this a contest to remember.
