A-League grand final 2021: Melbourne City v Sydney FC – live!
27-Jun-2021 07:35:57 | The Guardian
- Updates from the premiership decider at AAMI Park
- Kick-off in Melbourne is 5:05pm AEST
- Any thoughts? Email or tweet @emmavkemp
23 mins How about this. City are not going to take that lying down. They remember what last year’s grand final was like, and they have not let Sydney get on top of them once this season. And here, on the counter-attack, Colakovski blazes forward. He may as well walk, he’s been given that much space. Atkinson is there and he’s past King in an instant to level the score.
21 mins Barbarouses open Sydney’s account from virtually nothing! Baumjohann, in typical Baumjohann fashion, slices a simply lovely through ball through the guts of midfield to Barbarouses. The latter takes one touch with his right foot, a second with his left, and strikes with his right, a flying, piercing bullet that bulges the left-hand corner of the net. It is his third grand final goal, and one which could not be more important for Sydney.
20 mins Nuno on Le Fondre gives Sydney a free-kick. Brattan swings the ball in but Barbarouses is surrounded at the back post. Brattan has another go from a corner and the ball is headed clear.
O’Neill duels with Bobo and City grab possession and carry it all the way to the top of City’s area. Tilio is right in there again and tries a cheeky backheel towards Colakovski. Wilkinson is there. Sydney are settling a little but they are by no means in control.
Also, an update from around the grounds:
The thought of grown men sitting at their kitchen tables a week out from Grand Final day, planning out there designs, carefully marking out their fonts, and collating the stickers they've been saving over the year is just so wholesome #ALeagueGF pic.twitter.com/yzTFSiwaTK
13 mins City get away their first shot and it’s none other than Tilio, the 19-year-old who’s been making hay while Maclaren’s been away. He races into the box and throws his boot but the balls is deflected out for a corner.
10 mins Phew that was close. Reis sends a backpass to Tom Glover that is, to be polite, not very well thought out, because Bobo is lurking in poacher’s territory and chases it down with such intent he very well nearly pokes it home for a goal inside 10 minutes. Glover collects. Crisis averted.
8 mins Brattan is up and about for Sydney against his former club. The midfielder has been in superb form especially in the latter stages of the season, and he’s making his presence known via forward runs and gritty challenges. This pitch is a carpet. You heard it here first. The ball is moving slickly along the surface and this will suit City’s fast-paced attack.
5 mins This is the 13th finals match overall for City. They are always up and around the top few, but just seem to slip in the big moments. Berenguer is dribbling forward and passes to Atkinson who gives him the ball back and he’s teasing defenders before a clearance is made. Sydney are under the pump. They have Alex Wilkinson, though, and generally do pretty well when he’s in the back line.
2 mins City have a corner after 22 seconds. The hosts are straight into it full throttle. The ball floats towards the back post but Sydney avert the danger. City take a second corner short.
The players are out on the pitch and the anthem has been sung. About to get under way. Good to hear some proper chanting. Sounds like Sydney FC fans, too.
This decider marks the end of a long and prosperous era for the A-League’s broadcast partner Fox Sports. Yes, the relationship has gone downhill in recent years but the network has, in all, done a lot for this game. As if to demonstrate my point, Archie Thompson is on the screen right now posing with some fans, toilet seat (a real one) around his neck.
I am tipping City. Controversial, I know, given those key absences. No doubt it will hurt, but we’ve seen what their younger players can do, vis-a-vis last weekend, and it just feels like City’s time. That said, Sydney won’t make it easy, and I can see this going to penalties.
It’s official. There were still tickets available this morning but the ground is at 50% capacity, which is the cap on the 29,500-capacity venue. Pitch looks in good nick, too.
She's looking goooooood #ALeagueGF #WhoWillTakeItAll #MCYvSYD pic.twitter.com/B1d9tX4QOk
City’s XI is unchanged from the semi-final and Andrew Nabbout and Craig Noone are on the bench. That pair were missing last weekend through injury and Kisnorbo will be thankful for the attacking spark once fatigue starts to set in, especially if this goes to extra-time.
Here's how @MelbourneCity line up for the #ALeagueGF
: @Foxtel, @kayosports Freebies
: My Football Live app https://t.co/tlabbdo8jX#WhoWillTakeItAll #MCYvSYD #CmonCity pic.twitter.com/dO7j88pZh0
And now for the @SydneyFC team
: @Foxtel, @kayosports Freebies
: My Football Live app https://t.co/tlabbdo8jX#WhoWillTakeItAll #MCYvSYD #SydneyIsSkyBlue pic.twitter.com/VurSvtIMaK
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the A-League grand final. ’Twas a strange and stressful Covid-affected build-up week, with talk of moving the game away from Melbourne City’s home ground of AAMI Park due to crowd restrictions, and potentially shifting it to Sydney where (now ironically) administrators hoped more spectators would be allowed to attend. In the end, Sydney FC high-tailed it to Melbourne before the border closed and here we are at AAMI Park after all.
With the logistics seemingly taken care of, the focus can finally shift to the climax of a genuinely wild season. And there might not be much in this. Sydney ended the regular season in second and two points behind City, and it is not an anomaly. Sydney tend not to frequent anywhere lower than second on the table. In fact, they haven’t finished outside the top two in the past five seasons, three of which were premierships (2016-17, 2017-18, 2019-20). It is the norm, not the exception.
Continue reading...Read More