Mariners relish ALW grand final spot after offside gift
Relishing their spot in next week's ALW grand final, Central Coast aren't going to look the gift horse of what coach Emily Husband admits was a missed offside for their winner in the mouth.
The Central Coast Mariners are into their first-ever A-League Women Grand Final after stunning Melbourne City with a controversial 121st-minute goal from Isabel Gomez. And they’re not going to look the gift horse of what coach Emily Husband admits was a missed offside call before their winning goal in the mouth.
After spending more than 100 minutes down a player following Lourdes Bosch’s straight red-card for lashing out at Brooke Nunn’s face, as well as having lost talisman Holly McNamara to a broken nose and concussion just ten minutes in, previously unbeaten City looked to have battled the game to penalties on Sunday – only for drama to strike late.
With just seconds remaining, Mariners keeper Sarah Langman sent a route-one clearance long, with the resulting bounce seeing defenders Taylor Otto and Tyla-Jay Vlajnic collide before it was played on by Peta Trimis and into the path of Gomez. The fringe-Matilda needed no further invitation, advancing in on goal, lobbing Malena Mieres and booking a meeting with Melbourne Victory in next Sunday’s decider at AAMI Park.
Replays subsequently showed that the 22-year-old was at least a metre offside when the ball from Trimis was played, but with no VAR in the A-League Women in the regular season or the finals, the goal was allowed to stand.
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"I'm gonna be honest with you, I knew it was offside. But the flag didn't go up and that's football,” said Husband.
“Melbourne City was fantastic tonight. You've got to give them credit because they made the job so hard for us. Going a player down early is hard. They defended incredibly well as a group.
“But at the end of the day, unfortunately, these things happen in football, and it's not always as black and white as us coaches always like to believe it will be. For us, we start to move on to the next.”
City boss Michael Matricciani was unsurprisingly adamant that the goal shouldn’t have been allowed to stand – and was confident his side would have had a mental edge going into penalties – but, like his counterpart, acknowledged that this was football.
“Of course it's offside – I could see from the dugout, 45 meters away on a 45 degree angle,” said the coach. “But these things happen. Everyone makes mistakes. We're all humans.
“We don't have VAR in this competition, and unfortunately, we copped it in the 120th minute. It happens. It's hard to take, but I'm super proud of the girls.”
Their hopes of a treble and invincible campaign now dashed, the coach admitted that VAR would have been present to catch the error in an ideal world but it wasn’t his place to call for its addition into the Australian top flight.
Beyond expressing disappointment in Bosch’s needless red card, a brain fade he admitted cost his side dearly, he also voiced his displeasure with Nunn’s post-game celebration – one that saw her sprint the length of the Casey Fields’ fence shushing the crowd while the rest of her teammates gathered in a group hug.
“[Bosch has] let the team down,” he admitted. “She'll be the first to put her hand up and admit that.
“It's not acceptable, it's as simple as that. We'll have a chat but we'll get around her, because it's uncharacteristic for her to do something like that.
“It’s obviously cost us. I think with eleven, we probably dominate that game like we know we would have.
“I'll leave [Nunn] to, hopefully, how they will deal with that internally. For me, the biggest thing is that you need to win with a bit of respect and grace. And I don't think she showed that. And I think what she should do is reflect on herself.
“I think her club should be very embarrassed that one of their players did that.”
Husband said that Nunn had been spoken to about the celebration.
“Look, at the end of the day, players, when they're faced with adversity, they'll act out in different ways,” said the Mariners coach.
“We've spoken to Brooke; she's a character. So that's when we see that side of that character. She's been fantastic all season. So, for her, it was about enjoying the moment.”
The triumphant Mariners, the only side in the A-League Women not to lose to City this season, will now seek to claim a title in just their second year since they gained re-entry to the league. It won’t get any easier in next week’s grand final, though, coming up against a Melbourne Victory that handily defeated a good Adelaide United side 6-2 on aggregate in their semifinal and who will enter the contest off a day’s more rest.
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The two sides met only a month ago, with a 58th-minute header from Victory’s Claudia Bunge proving the difference as Jeff Hopkins’ side claimed a 1-0 win in Gosford. In their other two clashes this season, Victory came up trumps in Melbourne and the two played out a 1-1 draw in Unite Round.
Of course, it was only last year that the Mariners were ending Victory’s season in the elimination finals; Casey Dumont, now at Perth, proving the hero as they downed the A-League Women heavyweights in a penalty shootout. And Hopkins has repeatedly praised the Mariners all season, citing their adaptability and doggedness as one of the league’s toughest tests.
“We've played them three times already this year and, for me, they've all been close games,” said Husband. “We know that we can overcome them.
“They'll probably want to get revenge on us from last year. But we know that we're capable of beating anyone on our day. For us, it's about turning up, making sure that we bring our best. And I think we have the ability to do that.
“[Being in the grand final is] fantastic. I can't take anything away from the group of players. They've had an incredible season and the ones that have been with us for the last two seasons have had two seasons of incredible football.
“We want to continue to make the Coast proud. For us, it's not 'oh we've got ourselves into a grand final.' It's 'let's go win this f**king grand final!'”
Matricciani and his side’s thoughts, meanwhile, will turn to their Asian Women’s Champions League campaign, with the squad set to fly to China next Sunday for a semifinal showdown with Incheon Red Angels and, should they get through that, a final against either local side Wuhan Jiangda or Vietnamese outfit Hồ Chí Minh City.
They’ll sweat on the fitness of McNamara for that trip, as will Matildas interim coach Tom Sermanni, who was in the stands as he prepares to name his squad for two friendlies against Argentina later this month on Wednesday.
“Her nose is quite crooked, so there's definitely an issue there,” Matricciani said of McNamara. “And obviously she was pretty dazed in that moment. We'll get a scan on that nose, probably tomorrow. She has a little bit of a headache. So we'll assess that over the next 24-48 hours.
“The first hope is that she's fine. That's always the most concerning thing when players get head injuries. The [AWCL], [it's] 11, 12 days away. So if it's not too bad, then she should hopefully be okay.”