The round of 32 of the FFA Cup has marked the first appearance of the A-League in the national knockout competition, and a couple of them have departed unexpectedly.
It was red faces for A-League champions Adelaide United on Wednesday night in Brisbane when it suffered an embarrassing cup exit to part-time Queensland NPL club Redlands United FC.
United’s 2-1 loss followed hard on the heels of another A-League club’s surprise exit when Central Coast Mariners were dumped out of the cup by an identical score against Victorian NPL side Green Gully the night before.
In both these cup ties, the A-League clubs were heading for 1-nil victories late in the game, only to be overrun by comebacks from the home team late in the game, raising a number of questions, including the relative fitness of A-League and NPL teams at this stage of the competition, and also reviving the question of a second tier national competition with promotion to the A-League.
Arthur Papas’ Green Gully side upstaged the visiting Mariners despite going behind to a 15th minute Powell goal. The Mariners could feel a little bit hard done by when they had a second goal ruled out by a contentious off-side decision. Instead Green Gully stuck to its task, and made it difficult for the full timers and reaped the benefits of keeping it tight when another contentious decision again went their way, allowing Daniel Jones to strike the ball into the legs of striker Liam Boland into the net for an 86th minute equaliser with Boland clearly off-side.
But the game will long be remembered for Boland’s wonderful 40-metre winner just minutes later. After the match, Boland said the FFA Cup was a great “opportunity to get your name out and play against some of the best teams and talent in Australia”.
“There’s not that big a gap between the players; it’s just from full-time training to part-time. If you put some of the players in the full-time environment I’m sure they’d be capable of doing in the A-League.”
The following night, fans in Brisbane witnessed an even greater upset when reigning A-League champion Adelaide United fell to Queensland NPL team Redlands United, despite leading 1-nil from a 62nd minute Ryan Kitto goal. But it all went pear-shaped for the visitors when an injury time fumble from keeper Eugene Galekovic gifted Michael Lees the ball for the home team and he shot the ball into an empty net for an equaliser, followed just minutes later by an extra time winner to sub Paul O’Brien.
In Adelaide the night before, another Adelaide team exited the cup when NPL side Metro Stars pushed Victorian champions Bentleigh Greens all the way to the penalty shootout. After leading the home team three times to goals from Lucas, Pilkington and an extra time goal to Ruthven, only for the Stars to peg them back three times, the Greens held their nerve to win the shootout 4-3 and stay alive in all competitions this season.
On the same night as Bentleigh’s triumph, Perth NPL club Floreat Athena was giving a good account of itself at home against Melbourne City, eventually bowing out 2-1 to an Anthony Caceras winner after Floreat’s Kris Gale had cancelled out Fitzgerald’s first half opener for the visiting A-League club.
In the Hellenic derby in the nation’s capital, home team Canberra Olympic progressed into the next round at the expense of Surfers Paradise Apollo thanks to the lone goal of the match to Olympic’s Bernabo-Madrid who found the net in the 35th minute.