History will be made in Sunday’s men’s NPL Grand Final at AAMI Park Stadium regardless of which team prevails.

The winner of what promises to be an enthralling final between Heidelberg United and Avondale FC, will capture the NPL Championship crown for the first time, thus breaking the Bentleigh Greens-South Melbourne duopoly.

For each team, Sunday’s match will be their third major final in the last 10 days, coming on the back of two major finals both of which stretched to extra time. Last Friday week, Avondale staged a remarkable comeback late in extra time to knock Bentleigh out and progress to Sunday’s Grand final. Since then, they lost 4-2 to Sydney FC in a midweek FFA Cup quarterfinal which was also decided in extra time.

Despite the loss, their positive performance against the A-League team gives it a further boost in confidence going into their first NPL Grand Final. It also looks like coach Anthony Barbieri rotated his squad, starting Jeff Fleming, Anthony Strano, Yitay Towns and striker Kaine Sheppard on the bench against Sydney, no doubt with one eye on keeping the team as fresh as possible for Sunday’s grand final.

On the other hand, the Bergers will need to recover both physically and emotionally from an unsuccessful road trip to Brisbane in mid-week, when they lost a penalty shoot-out 3-1 after extra time against Lions FC, dashing its hopes of defending its national NPL title.

Preparing for Sunday’s grand final will require both physical and psychological recovery for George Katsakis’s Bergers team. Speaking to Neos Kosmos midweek after returning from Brisbane, Katsakis said of the loss to Lions FC: “It’s heartbreaking, especially to manage to get the goal back with ten players and dominate. We created two very good opportunities to win it. The boys were devastated. At the end of the day, it’s a matter of trying to lift their morale and confidence at the moment, and I’m sure that during the next few days, we’ll manage to do that.”

Unfortunately for the Bergers, it goes into Sunday’s grand final missing three key midfielders due to injury and suspension. Lewis Hall and Harry Noon are out suspended whilst Alex Schiavo, who Katsakis describes as “one of the outstanding players in the league this year,” will miss due to injury.

It will be interesting to see how the Bergers adjust to the absence of two of their more physically imposing players in Hall and Noon. Katsakis may bring Paul O’Brien back into the starting line up to team up with Jack Petrie in midfield.

The head to head record between the two sides this season suggests fans will be in for an even contest. Each has a narrow 3-2 win to their credit since their first encounter this season ended in a 1-1 draw. The first two matches were notable for being fiery encounters.

Katsakis believes Sunday’s grand final pits two of the three best teams ( along with Bentleigh) in the state. “No doubt, [Avondale] have gone out and got the cream of the crop, as we usually say, in the off season,” he says.

“They’ve created a good group. Offensively I think they’re very potent, so I think we’ve got to be very careful in our defensive duties. You know, the likes of Kamsoba, Zinni and Katebian running at you, creates a bit of an issue. But in saying that, we’ve got some very athletic and experienced defenders. It promises to be a good challenge. I think both teams are very good at being direct and going forward very quickly. We don’t work too hard on the midfield possession play. We’re quite direct. That’s going to be the catalyst.. Who can do that quicker and effectively, will probably win the game.”

Heidelberg United squad: 
Coach: George Katsakis
1 – Chris Theodoridis-Petropoulos (gk) 2 – Josh Wilkins 3 – Les Doumbalis 6 – Lewis Hall 7 – Reuben Way 8 – Andrew Cartanos 9 – Adrian Zahra 10 – Jack Petrie 12 – Harvey Read 13 – Luke Byles 14 – Harry Noon 15 – Paul O’Brien 16 – Tom Cahill 17 – Steven Pace 18 – George Tsalikidis 19 – Sean Ellis 22 – Alexander Schiavo 23 – Christian Pavlidis (gk) 25 – Atilla Ofli 39 – Jacob Talevski 41 – Jacob Byrns

Avondale FC Squad: 
Coach: Anthony Barbieri
1 – Chris Oldfield (gk) 2 – Ramazan Tavsancioglu 3 – James Riccobene 5 – Jeff Fleming 6 – Anthony Strano 7 – Stefan Zinni 8 – Jem Berkant 9 – Liam Boland 10 – Jonatan Germano 11 – Evan Christodoulou 13 – Yitay Towns 14 – Kaine Sheppard 15 – Ross Archibald 17 – Phil Riccobene 22 – Dillon Jakupi 23 – Christian Inglese 27 – Elvis Kamsoba 33 – Joseph Katebian 44 – Evan Markogiannakis (gk)

Kick off 6.30 PM AAMI PARK stadium 23/09/18