Champions League qualification adding extra emphasis to City's ALW premiership pursuit
Ask Melbourne City ALW boss Michael Matricciani if he'd prefer a premiership or title and he'll tell you both. But the introduction of the AWCL has added a new dimension in the race for the Plate.
Ask Melbourne City boss Michael Matricciani if he’d rather win an A-League Women premiership or title and the first answer you’ll get is an obvious one: both. And he’d also be quick to note that his side still have work to do if they’re to secure either one this season. Restrict him to one or the other in the domain of the hypothetical, however, and he’ll acknowledge that the introduction of the AFC Women's Champions League has given added impetus to his side’s attempts to see off Melbourne Victory’s challenge for the Premiers’ Plate.
Still yet to taste defeat across the opening 21 weeks of the season, City will host the Newcastle Jets on Friday evening just two games away from an invincible season and back-to-back premierships. Currently sitting on 49 points, two clear of Victory, Matricciani’s unit could even claim the plate that night if results go their way: a win over the Jets, combined with anything other than a win by their crosstown foes in their meeting with Central Coast later on, handing them an unassailable lead at the league’s summit. Given a nine-goal buffer when it comes to goal difference, a draw realistically does the job for them too if Jeff Hopkins’ side falls to defeat in Gosford.
Should one of these sets of circumstances come to pass, or should they go on to win the Plate on the season’s final day when they will travel to Perth and Victory host Brisbane, City will secure their fourth premiership in club history. Not only would this make it eight combined trophies since their first season in 2015 it would again secure qualification for the newly introduced AWCL competition and a potential pathway to the FIFA Women’s Club World Cup and FIFA Women’s Champions Cup.
Becoming the first Australian side to enter the newly launched AWCL after pipping Sydney FC to the premiership on the last day of the 2023-24 season, City have progressed to the semifinals of this season’s iteration; set to face off with Korean powers Incheon Red Angels at the Wuhan Sports Center Stadium next month, with a date with either Chinese outfit Wuhan Jiangda or Vietnamese side Hồ Chí Minh City on tap three days later should they progress to the final.
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Beyond becoming just the second Australian club after Western Sydney to secure an Asian title and advancing to one of FIFA’s global tournaments, City, already having netted USD 300k for advancing to the final four, would bag USD 1.3m should they win the tournament. It’s not ideal, but they’ll net USD 800k all up if they lose the final, too.
Whether it's better to win the Premiers’ Plate, a season-long reward for excellence that mirrors the format of most leagues around the world, or the championship awarded in the Australian football tradition of a playoff series, is a question that has in the past divided A-League Men coaches. And while the historically short nature of the league has meant this is a debate that A-League Women figures have been able to dodge, the competition finally adopting a full home-and-away format last year, it’s one they can engage in, too.
But for Matricciani, it’s that prospect of Asian football, not quibbles over format or tradition, that swings his view.
“Obviously, Australian football is based on the final series,” he said. “But when there's a carrot of Champions League qualification on the premiership, then that's number one. If it was reversed and whoever won the playoffs [qualified for Asia], then, for me, that would be number one.
“So whatever has the value of going into the Champions League, I think that holds more value and that would be if I had to choose.
“Obviously, I'll be trying to do both. But if I had to choose one, whichever one gave us qualifications for Asia, that's what I would say is the most important.”
While Adelaide United did briefly threaten to crash the party – their challenge ended when they were downed 2-1 by Victory just before the recently completed international break, falling eight points back of the top two – the race for the Plate has largely been a two-horse race for much of the second half of the campaign.
Showing a remarkable ability to drag themselves off the canvas and erase deficits, City have logged a record unbeaten run this season, which in most seasons would be enough to have long secured the plate. Their seven draws, however, have left the door ajar just enough for Victory to hold out hope and, amid a club-record unbeaten and winning run of their own, Melbourne’s navy blue contingent have done everything they can, to this point, to keep the pressure on.
“There’s excitement,” said Matricciani. “This is the business end of the season. There are opportunities now to actually win trophies. [The Newcastle clash] is super important for us. Victory has been doing well, but so are we. We're two points ahead with two games to go; it's all in our hands and our main focus is continuing to improve on the things we've been working on. We've had [the international break] to keep working and fine-tuning our game model and what we're trying to achieve. And, hopefully, it all comes together tomorrow night and we can get another three points.
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“I think there's always more pressure when you're on top of the table and you're being hunted instead of being the hunter, a big difference in that pressure. But I think the maturity of the playing group has been top. I can't question in any sort of aspect that we sort of feel that pressure. They might be but they’re definitely not showing it.”
After picking up an ankle injury in City’s win over Wellington before the international break, Mariana Speckmaier will miss Friday’s meeting with the Jets and, potentially, could be absent for the trip to Perth next week. After both being part of the Matildas squad for recent fixtures against South Korea – who fielded several Incheon Red Angels representatives that City will face next month – Leah Davidson and Holly McNamara have both trained in the build-up for the Jets, with the latter on lighter duties after starting both friendlies.
Meetings between City and the Jets have traditionally been physical affairs and it would hardly surprise if that was the case again on Friday, even with the Novocastrians sitting second-bottom of the league and unable to play finals. Matricciani, though, says his side will be ready to meet that challenge or anything else they throw at them.
“The last match we played against them was very end to end, very physical, very demanding, very open,” he said. “The last probably five or six weeks, they've been playing a lot different they've changed their shape. So we're not sure what they're going to throw at us.
“Every match, there's a lot of physicality. What we've shown this year, we can be quite consistent in most areas. And if the game becomes a bit of a scrap, it becomes transitional -- I think we can win that fight as well. We're ready for whatever comes at us, every team that we play against.”