Clinical City puts one foot in ALM grand final with win over United
Melbourne City took their chances, Western United spurned theirs, and with 90 minutes played in their ALM semifinal, John Aloisi's side will need something remarkable to keep their season alive.
One can’t win a two-legged semifinal in the first 90 minutes, but you can probably lose one. And while John Aloisi remains adamant that his side are capable of turning their semifinal around, Western United’s 3-0 loss to Melbourne City in its first leg on Friday evening means they’ll need to produce something remarkable if they’re going to find a way to deny Aurelio Vidmar and company a spot a fourth grand final in five seasons.
Drawing first blood 16 minutes in through Germán Ferreyra, the Argentine defender will claim it even if it may have got a touch off Matt Sutton or Angus Thurgate on the way through, second-half daggers from Yonatan Cohen and Mat Leckie subsequently eased City to a win that’s comfort level belied the high-stakes nature of the contest. It couldn’t be said that they blew their opponents out of the water at any point; both coaches would categorise the contest as being rather even in their post-game reflections, in fact. But they did what they needed to do to put one foot in a decider.
Most importantly, they were clinical in the moments that mattered. Ferreyra’s strike arriving as the two sides wrestled for control in the opening stages and Cohen and Leckie popping up just when United were attempting to regain a foothold, all of City’s game at a crucial point in the game. Cohen’s effort was a world-class effort bent into the corner, the kind that takes the wind out of any opponents sails, while Leckie’s arrived all of 30 seconds after Noah Botić had been thrown on by Aloisi in a late gambit to close the deficit, dealing a hammer blow not just on the scoreboard but also mentally.
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The best defence in the league throughout the regular season – City has now played United three times in 2024-25 and kept a clean sheet in all three games – an inability to be ruthless in front of goal has dragged down Vidmar’s side throughout the regular season but, on Friday, they kept up the momentum from their 5-1 hammering of Sydney to end the regular season.
“We took our chances at the right time, which has probably been a bit of our Achilles heel throughout the course of the year -- where we've created chances and haven't put them away,” said Vidmar. “This time we had fewer chances, but we seemed to put them away at the right time.
“We took the goals well. Set pieces have been very good over the last couple of months for us. We probably could have had a couple more -- Tils [Marco Tilio] probably had a couple of decent chances as well that he generally should have taken.
“Really pleased with the result, but it's just half time. That's the message already. We've got another 100 minutes, a tough 100 minutes coming up next week.”
Conversely, while a normally frustrating City were clinical, a normally free-scoring United came out firing blanks. Aloisi would note post-game that they created just as many ‘big chances’ as their opponents but when it came down to actually delivering a telling blow, those in green and black didn’t carry themselves with the same level of intent or incisiveness they’ve demonstrated throughout the campaign. And in the moments where they threatened to change this, City’s backline proved up to the task.
Down 1-0 in the 23rd minute, a ball in from the left by Riku Danzaki bounced out to Matt Grimaldi, only for the youngster’s resulting header to go over the bar. In the 43rd minute, Michael Ruhs bullied his way through the City defence and burst into the penalty area only to thunder his effort straight at Patrick Beach. In the 74th minute, Botić slid an inch-perfect pass into the path of Oliver Lavele, only for Kai Trewin to slide across with a magnificent tackle and send his attempted shot towards the corner flag. In the 89th minute, Angus Thurgate would laser an effort from the top of the box on goal, only for Beach to punch his effort away.
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United still would have had a lot to do in the second leg had either chance gone in, but a two-goal deficit heading into that game would have looked a lot better than a three-goal one — especially when you consider they’ve now played 270 minutes against City this season without scoring. Yet when the moment to change the game was there on Friday, to provide it with a turning point, it was consistently Vidmar’s side that proved capable of doing so.
“It can happen in some games,” said Aloisi. “It normally hasn't happened to us too often, but it has happened this season, in a few games that we weren't able to score even though we created clear chances. Tonight was one of those.”
United wasn’t helped in this regard by Botić, their hattrick hero from last week, being forced to come off the bench, already down 2-0, after picking up a quad injury in the win over the Reds. While his ball to Lavele probably nets him an assist on another night, he otherwise played a largely peripheral role, touching the ball just eight times and playing two passes in his brief, 19-minute cameo. Any hopes his side would have held that his introduction could have provided something of a spark were dashed all of 60 seconds after his introduction – that being the moment where Leckie netted his first goal of the campaign and put the game out of sight.
Nonetheless, hope springs eternal and football is a funny old game. United will head into next Saturday’s return fixture facing down a three goal deficit but will undoubtedly have been reminded during the week that they’ve netted thrice on 12 separate occasions this season. They’ll also likely have it drummed it to them that they’ve scored four goals in a single game at six different times of asking, including twice against an Auckland side that would have finished with the league’s most miserly defence had it not been for those defeats.
“I've been involved in a few games that I've been three-nil down... at half time and come back and won the game,” said Aloisi.
“We know we can do it. And that's what's going to be the message to the players that you know. I'll ask them how they felt out there, did they feel like they got dominated? And I can guarantee you not one of them will say they felt like they got dominated.
“They scored off a set piece [Ferreyra], which we were disappointed in, then they scored a goal that was a world-class finish [Cohen] and then the last goal we could have defended better [Leckie].
“We had as many clear chances as them. I'm sure that [the players] will be upset like I am, but we've got eight days now to make sure that we get them believing again, and try and make a hell of a game next week to turn it around.”