Week 22 of the A-League got underway on Thursday evening with Adelaide United hosting Perth Glory. Glory took the points thanks to a solid performance and some terrible decisions from the officials who managed to allow an offside strike from Billy Mehmet and disallow a perfectly good goal from Adelaide.
In fairness to the referee, he did notice a spot of karate from Fabian Barbiero which Adelaide coach John Kosmina didn’t appear to see. Friday night saw Melbourne Heart traveling to Brisbane Roar.
Heart have a full squad to select from and are back in form with back-to-back wins under their belt they will be a difficult proposition as they look to secure their first finals place. Ange Postecoglou’s Brisbane Roar have now won 4-in-a-row and are looking like the side that started the season. Last weeks 3-0 demolition of in form Perth Glory demonstrated what they are capable of even without German maestro Thomas Broich and Heart will have had to be at their very best to bring home any points. Back in Melbourne, Victory host the Newcastle Jets today at AAMI Park in a must win game for the A-League giants. Defeat would leave Victory at least 7 points behind the last finals place with just 3 games to play, a draw wouldn’t be much better.
Head coach Jim Magilton is running out of time to turn the season around, and also to secure his own position for next season, and whilst Victory have proven a hard team to beat this year – only the top two sides in the league have lost fewer games – an inability to turn draws into win has cost them dearly. Coming into the weekend Harry Kewell is in top form and with Archie Thompson’s impressive mid-week international cameo in mind, the home side will be looking to overpower Gary van Egmond’s Jets to set up a grandstand finish to the season.
League leaders Central Coast Mariners will be looking to do Victory a favour when they take on Sydney FC at Bluetongue later in the evening. If Victory and the Mariners both win then the Melbourne side will be just 2 points outside the finals positions. The Mariners recent form has been disappointing. With just 1 win in their last 5 outings and the Asian Champions League campaign about to stretch resources wafer thin Graham Arnold will be looking for some more magic from young Tom Rogic. Sunday should see the A-League’s dead-men-walking Gold Coast United taking a beating in Wellington – if the Queensland legal system allows them to travel.