Bergers out to “change everything” in Australia Cup final
History awaits Heidelberg in Saturday's Australia Cup final. And should the Bergers pull off the upset, John Anastasidis believe they'll deliver a moment to “change everything” in Australian football.
Leaving three A-League Men outfits in their wake, Heidelberg United’s giant-slaying run to the final of the Australia Cup has already delivered magical moments. But if they’re able to deliver one final upset and fell the Newcastle Jets in Saturday’s decider at Lakeside Stadium, John Anastasidis believes this side will not only deliver more history, but provide an inflection point that can “change everything” in Australian football.
Of course, having thrice been tasked with downing professional sides and rising to the challenge, semiprofessional Heidelberg United have already delivered a new chapter in the history of the Australia Cup, becoming the first side from outside the closed Australian top-flight to down three successive sides from within its ranks via their wins over the Wellington Phoenix, Western Sydney Wanderers, and Auckland FC. Their reward for this run is a date with the Jets, and destiny, this Saturday by Albert Park Lake, the home of their bitter rivals South Melbourne, but also the site of their win over Dandenong City just a few weeks ago that secured them the title of kings of Victorian football.
Win that game, and not only will they become the first side from outside the top-flight to ever win the Australia Cup – Sydney United in 2022 the only other side to even reach this hurdle – but they’ll also book themselves a spot in next year’s Asian Champions League 2 competition. That, in particular, would be an achievement considered hitherto unfathomable. Not only is this just the fifth time that a spot in continental competition has been available through Cup achievements to start with, but it wasn’t even certain that an NPLM club, especially following the AFC’s reforms of its elite continental competitions, would even be allowed to enter until Football Australia confirmed the possibility before the Bergers and fellow NPLM Victoria competitor Avondale took on ALM opposition in the semifinals.
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Yes, it’s not just a simple matter of win-and-you’re-in for Heidelberg. There would be a series of licensing hoops they would need to jump through with the AFC that would require the aid of Football Australia, for one thing. It’s highly, highly unlikely that they’d be allowed to play their home fixtures at Olympic Village, so an alternative home venue would be needed. How they’d be able to financially and physically support a team of semiprofessionals, most of whom have regular jobs outside of football, to compete in Asian competition on top of an NPLM Victoria campaign, the first-ever iteration of new national-second-tier competition, The Championship, and next year’s Australia and Dockerty Cups would also be a major challenge.
But that a club from outside the Australian top-flight – which in its current form has been locked to those beyond its gilded gates since its birth in 2005 and which has been denied to Heidelberg since their banishment from the NSL in 1995 (1996, if you include the Collingwood Warriors’ history – has the chance to play in Asia is still incredible. Indeed, just say it almost sounds ridiculous: at this time next year, Heidelberg could be facing the likes of Japanese outfit Gamba Osaka, famed Korean outfit the Pohang Steelers, and four-time Chinese champions Beijing Guoan in the East zone of the ACL2, playing for the right to take on the likes of Indian Socceroo outpost Mohun Bagun, Iran giants Esteghlal, or Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr in the final. Yes, there exists a universe in which Ben Collins could be marking CR7 next season.
And if the Bergers can do it, it stands to reason another NPLM side can, especially if the gap between the NPLM and A-League Men continues to shrink amid as waves of austerity hit the latter and Football Australia doesn’t rest on its laurels and continues to build on new second-tier competition. After building a highly talented squad, investing in infrastructure, and bringing in a leading coaching staff led by Anastasiadis, the club will have been rewarded. Others can point to it – and seek to follow.
“I’ve been on record saying if we win this game, it probably gives belief to a lot of NPL clubs throughout the country,” said Anastasiadis. “That if you believe it and you’re confident -- nothing’s impossible.
“I think it will change everything in Australian football.
“Knowing that we’re going to after that biggest carrot of going to Asia is something else. It’s what dreams are made of, be honest.”
Perhaps befitting the quest-like air that hangs over the Bergers, their season has been a long one to reach this moment, many of the players in the squad near the 40-game mark – more than any semiprofessional player expects to undertake and longer than most professional A-League Men players endure. Between the Cup and the looming Championship, though, it’s far from done, with the closest thing the squad got to an end of NPLM season trip a few days spent in Sorrento before training resumed.
Nonetheless, one of the most striking aspects of the Bergers, beyond their on-field exploits, is their togetherness and sense of purpose through this marathon; at least one member of the squad turned down an A-League Men opportunity to remain with the side this season and is now set to be rewarded with a potential Australia Cup. This unity has extended to the rest of the club: Anastasiadis frequently collaborating with Dennis Georgakopoulos and the staff of the club’s women’s side during their premiership-winning run, both sides supporting the other through their campaigns and the club uniting in mourning following the tragic passing of NPLW representative Keely Lockhart.
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“The dressing room is so tight. They’re brothers, they’re friends. They’re everything you want in the dressing room. For someone to knock back an A-League to stay here, that says it all. There’s nothing else I can say about that. It’s just been unbelievable. The players have driven it. We’ve put some things in stone, and they’ve driven that. So it’s a credit to them for having that environment in the dressing room.
“We feel [like one club] all the time. Everyone is in this together, everyone is on the same path, everyone knows their lane, and with that you get you get success. It’s good to know that we have that support from these people, from the women, from the Miniroos, and all the little kids.
“Being part of it, it’s just great. We’re happy to put smiles on their faces by progressing and doing well. And on this journey, they’ve been part of it. And if we lift the cup on Saturday, they’ll all be part of it. They’ll all be here. They’ll be lifting the trophy. It’s great to see happiness throughout the club.”
For Anastasiadis, the run his side has gone on this year evokes memories of Alexander’s 1980 side, a unit which finished second on the NSL table behind Sydney City before going on to defeat Hakoah 4-0 in that year’s Grand Final at Bruce Stadium. With the end-of-season finals serving as an exhibition that season, victory in that fixture didn’t deliver Heidelberg a national title but the play of the likes of Jeff Olver, Jim Tansey, Jimmy Rooney, Gary Cole, and Charlie Yankos left an impression the then-Bergers youth, who would make his debut in black and yellow six years later before heading overseas to spend nearly a decade with PAOK.
“I was talking with Nick Deligiannis the other day, our football director, and I think the last time Heidelberg won a cup like this was in 1980, 4-0,” Anastasiadis said. “They had a phenomenal team then; we had seven or eight Socceroos in that team in 1980.
“45 years later, if we can do it again. That’ll be something else. It’ll elevate the club to another level.
“We have to change too, as a club in general, all aspects of the club, if that happens, but I think that the committee are all prepared, they’re supportive and I’m sure all together we can build a great Heidelberg again.”