Vidmar expecting early fireworks as United strive to save season
Up 3-0 after the first leg of their ALM semifinal with Western United, Melbourne City boss Aurelio Vidmar anticipates his side will need to respond to early fireworks in the second leg on Saturday.
The disadvantages of being down 3-0 heading into the semifinal are legion but if one were to grasp for a straw-shaped silver lining, it could almost be said to be liberating, too. Nobody expects you to win at this point, after all, so you’ve got little to lose by going down swinging. It’s a mindset Aurelio Vidmar expects Western United to adopt as they attempt to overturn a three-goal first-leg deficit against his Melbourne City side on Saturday, and he wants his side to respond to this intensity in kind.
Striking first through an 18th-minute Germán Ferreyra header, Vidmar’s unit proved devastatingly clinical as they surged to a first-leg lead last Friday, striking twice just as United were pressing to fashion some form of momentum through Yonatan Cohen and Mat Leckie and securing a three goal cushion for Saturday evening’s return leg, also at AAMI Park.
Their league-leading defence having conceded three goals just twice this season (against Melbourne Victory and Auckland FC) and it now 437 minutes of competitive football since their West Melbourne rivals last put a goal past them, it places City in a commanding position to qualify for a fourth grand final in five years come the end of Saturday’s game – matching Sydney FC’s run from 2017 to 2021.
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Yet with all the things that Vidmar has seen across a long playing and coaching career, he’s not getting ahead of himself.
“As great as it was, you just never know,” said Vidmar. “They're going to throw everything at us, and you'd expect them to do that. So we have to be ready, mentally. Physically, we're in a really good spot at the moment. And we go in knowing that it's going to be a tough 100 minutes.”
Giving those of a green and black persuasion some reason for hope (as well as those seeking some level of spectacle going in) is that John Aloisi’s side has scored the four goals they would need to stage a remarkable second-leg comeback on six occasions during the regular season, while they’ve scored the three goals they would need to send this weekend’s clash to extra-time a further six times.
And given that every time United has put four past an opponent in 2024-25 has involved them netting inside the opening 20 minutes, Vidmar knows the opening exchanges of the contest could provide fireworks.
“It's going to be an aggressive opening. It has to be,” said the City boss. “And I'm expecting our guys to be even more aggressive. A lot of games, the first ten or fifteen minutes generally dictate how the game is going to go. I know there are ebbs and flows in all games but, generally, a strong, bright start puts you in a better position.
“So that's what the chat this week has been about, and again this morning – about being up for it because it's going to be a fight. It always is, and there's still a lot to play for.”
Nonetheless, for all the focus Vidmar wanted to keep on Saturday, should his side see off an early storm, or even jag one up the other end to increase their aggregate lead, it’s only natural to speculate on how he might begin to manage his squad – which has dealt with significant injury this year – should the result look well in hand.
After missing the first leg with a calf complaint, Socceroo right back Nathaniel Atkinson is set to return to the side, while after nabbing his first goal involvement of the season in a 31-minute cameo off the bench, Mat Leckie will also target more minutes as he eyes a first-ever A-League Men title.
But the news isn’t so good for centreback Samuel Souprayen, who Vidmar confirmed was set to be shut down for the season as he struggled to recover from a calf complaint of his own, and Socceroo midfielder Jimmy Jeggo, who has returned to limited training with the side but won’t be passed fit enough to play within the next fortnight.
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At some stage, you’d anticipate that managing all these concerns, plus any others that might pop up, ahead of a grand final would have to come into Vidmar’s mind, but on Friday, he wouldn’t be drawn on hypotheticals.
“We'll start off with our team and go hard for as long as we possibly can,” he said. “Last week, we got to a point after 50 or 55 minutes that we decided we needed to freshen it up and that's what we did.
“So we made subs on what was actually happening in the game, and we'll do that again tomorrow night. No real thought about the what-ifs, because there are so many things that could happen.”
And while it would be very easy for a group to start daydreaming about a grand final appearance with a 3-0 first-leg lead, Vidmar said that he hadn’t even needed to take action to ensure his group wasn’t getting ahead of itself – his senior leadership doing that for him.
“The group has been absolutely brilliant this year,” said the coach. “Aziz Behich and Lecks [Leckie] as the captain and the vice captain, as well as Andy Nabout and Jimmy Jeggo, the experienced guys, they've kept a lid on most things.
“I've very rarely had to interfere with any of those things. If they see an issue happening, they nip it in the bud pretty quickly.
“What we're dealing with, we're dealing with people. They've all got different types of personalities but when you've got strong leaders around the group, it makes it very easy.
“They've done a great job in terms of knowing when to keep a lid on things, knowing when you know we could let our hair down a little bit. They've got a really good feeling about that, and they've had that through the course of the year. So that's extremely important for us.”