The second elimination final of the A-League finals series took place in Parramatta with Melbourne Victory booking their spot in the two legged semi-final against Premiership winners Auckland FC, following their comfortable 2-1 win against an atrocious low energy Wanderers rabble, Victory scoring through Kasey Bos & Zinedine Machach either side of Zac Sapsford and his only goal of the game for the home team.
Both teams were unchanged from their results in the final week of the regular season, Western Sydney securing their home final with a 3-1 win over Macarthur, Victory with a 1-1 draw against Newcastle that ultimately didn't matter with their 5th place finish. Alex Bonetig had come off early in the final round but he was in his normal central defensive position. Victory were missing Mitch Langerak in goals due to his ongoing foot injury, Alex Badolato ineligible to play due to his status as a Victory loan player from WSW. Both teams had serious firepower off the bench, the visitors had Bruno Fornaroli and the home team Marcus Antonsson and Juan Mata.
Melbourne Victory had the best chance of the opening stages, with Nishan Velupillay beating Gabriel Cleur for pace and his cutback was met by Zinedine Machach only for the fullback from the other side, Alex Gersbach swooped in with a key block. The Wanderers countered lightning quick to turn the Victory around and causing 20 year old defender Joshua Inserra to drag the attacker down on halfway and copped a clear yellow card.
The Wanderers didn't heed the warning of the opening minutes and paid the price. Victory fullback Kasey Bos took advantage of Cleur getting caught ballwatching & drifting well inside, Daniel Arzani found him with a simple ball and the fullbacks second touch was a shot that Thomas got a hand to but couldn't stop from falling past him into the back of the net to make it 1-0 after 7 minutes.
It was a simple combination from Borrello and Sapsford that drew the teams level. Borrello received the ball facing toward goal right in front, he took a stutter step to deceive and distract the defence from the run of Sapsford on his right, played the ball in neatly with the space given and Sapsford blasted it past Jack Duncan with the help of a deflection.
Alex Gersbach had a double chance on the 37th, the ball fell into an acre of space inside the Victory area and he sprinted on and Ryan Teague came across at just the right time to block it out for a corner that Anthony Pantazopoulos rose highest at the back stick but couldn't get on target.
Machach retained the lead for the Victory with 4 minutes left in the first half. Arzani started the move on the left wing, beating a pair of challenges from Nicolas Milanovic and then Cleur, cutting back from the byline, Kraev did enough to prevent an initial strike but no-one in red & black was in position to stop Machach's instinctive side foot effort that navigated through a sea of legs and past Thomas who was still on the turf having dived prematurely moments earlier. The half-time 2-1 lead was a deserved one for Victory having punished Cleur for his weak tackling and poor positional play.
There was little reaction after the break, Victory continued with their superior ball & player movement and threw in a pitch of classic time wasting whenever a foul went their way the player would take a seat and be allowed to receive treatment instead of having to leave the field or get up and play on. With 18 to go in regulation Alen Stajcic went for a triple change with Antonsson, Mata & Jarrod Carluccio on for some much needed energy & technical quality. Josh Brillante, Sapsford & Cleur made way. Seconds later Velupillay almost added a 3rd with an ambitious turning volley that flashed past the far post.
Borrello won a free kick not far out from goal in the 74th minute, Duncan set his wall while Milanovic & Mata stood over the ball. Milanovic looked more likely to shoot and he tried the Ronaldo style dipper but it hit the wall and the rebound went to Mata who dinked it back into mixer only to find that no-one had managed to retreat enough to make a second run. Josh Rawlins came in for the final 10 in place of the carded Inserra.
Mata had spent half the season looking for his second A-League goal and it seemed to have arrived on a silver platter when Gersbach took advantage of a cramp to Arzani who went down in the box instead of defending, and expected Gersbach to play the ball out. Instead Gersbach played it across the 18 yard box and with the whole of the stadium expecting him to bulge the old onion bag he blazed it over the bar like it was a Pantazopoulos goal kick. Arzani made way for Santos Rodrigues as a result of the cramp, followed by Fornaroli & Jing Reec on for Velupillay & Machach and the Wanderers final throw of the dice Aydan Hammond for Milanovic who had tried hard but failed to have any significant impact.
There was precious little attacking thrust in the final seconds, the Wanderers starters were out on their feet and all they could muster was a quarter-chance where the two central defenders combined for Pantazopoulos to head it well wide. One final opportunity to spring forward came with Mata & Priestman but summed up the game when Priestman managed to send a 3 meter pass over the sideline instead of forward to enable an attack.
It was an insipid, limp, dismally poor second half, there was maybe two good chances in the entire 50 minutes played and none of the subs made any impact whatsoever. Mata finally had his chance to display his quality and drag his team back level but instead he turned into an AFL player and put his shot up and over the goals so much it might have hit passing traffic on the O'Connell Street bridge. This season was yet another that began poorly and was only rescued by a late charge, but just like in 2022/23 the first finals game proved too much of a hurdle to jump, leaving the fans frustrated yet again with a wasted season. The Wanderers now have to rebuild for a likely October kickoff for 2025/26 under the auspices of a new salary cap direction, without Milanovic and a raft of players coming off contract including Mata, Sapsford, Cleur, Antonsson and Clisby.
The remainder of the finals series will be Auckland FC vs Melbourne Victory & Western United vs Melbourne City in a two legged Semi-Final followed by the A-League Grand Final to be played on Saturday 31st of May or Sunday 1st of June.
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