Aloisi: United aren't spoilers, but will give no favours to City in final-day ALM clash
John Aloisi says the potential of Western United ending Melbourne City's decade-long run of finals football isn't a motivator for his side, but that this weekend's game is a rivalry game to be won.
Western United’s ability to serve as spoilers for Melbourne City’s playoff hopes might already be rendered moot by the time the two clash on Sunday. Melbourne Victory could take care of that by avoiding defeat against Western Sydney the night prior. But if the scenario of United ending City’s season remains alive when the two take the field at AAMI Park, United boss John Aloisi, while saying it won’t be a motivating factor, knows it’s a chance to write a new chapter in the burgeoning rivalry between the two.
Defeating Perth Glory in a madcap 4-3 clash in the west last week, United assured themselves that they won’t finish the season as wooden spooners, moving four points clear of 12th-placed Glory heading into the season’s final week. It means that, at best, the side from Melbourne’s west this weekend is playing to end the season in tenth — if results go their way — and potentially host an Australia Cup play-in tie rather than travel for one – albeit at this stage it’s not yet known if those ties will again be staged in Darwin.
It’s predominantly another chance for Aloisi to expose the youngsters within his ranks to more football heading into the tortuously long A-League Men offseason. Thanks to a rash of injuries and their hopes of finals football long having been extinguished, United has been the fourth-youngest side in the A-League Men this season with an average age, wighted by minutes played, of 26.6; 20-year-olds Matthew Grimaldi and Abel Walatee and 19-year-old Oliver Lavale on the scoresheet against Perth.
For City, in contrast, the stakes could be huge. Entering the round in sixth position on the table, Aurelio Vidmar’s side could have fallen to seventh by the time they head to AAMI Park if Western Sydney can defeat Victory at the same venue the night prior. And it must be a win in this hypothetical scenario, as while a point against United would be enough to see them level the Wanderers, they would fall afoul of the A-League Men’s new wins-based tiebreaker – their ten compared to what would be Marko Rudan’s side’s 11 ensuring they would miss the playoffs for the first time in a decade despite a goal difference that, presently, is 16 superior.
Aloisi, for his part, isn’t doing much for the headline writers, anticipating that Victory will take at least a point from Saturday evening and end the Wanderers season and, even if they don’t, denying that playing spoiler will be a motivating factor for his unit. He does, however, acknowledge that these are the types of games that can help define a rivalry.
United and City have met 15 times since the former entered the league, with the latter leading the series with nine wins compared to one draw and five defeats. United, however, have the biggest win amongst those ties, defeating City 2-0 in 2022 and dashing their hopes of back-to-back titles. Add to this the underlying vexation that figures at City long harboured over United’s use of AAMI Park as a home venue and the general disdain thrown about by both fan groups and the ingredients are there for a bit of spice — perhaps enough heat to induce City fans into dropping pretences that it is not a local fued.
“We definitely feel that there's [a rivalry],” said Aloisi. “We've had some really good games against them, this year especially; we won one, we lost one right at the death that hurt. That did hurt us because we felt that we played really well in that game.
“We also played a grand final against them, so they know that we're here. I'm sure that they do respect us and we respect them. But there is that rivalry there. And it's only going to grow with more games. And so this is another one.
“But at the end of the day, we're not going to do any favours for anyone. We want to beat Melbourne City in our last game.”
United and City have split the season series thus far, with the former taking out a 2-1 win in the opening round of the season thanks to a late Noah Botic penalty and the latter winning by the same scoreline in January thanks to goals from the Hamza Sakhi and Terry Antonis, Sakhi having since departed City due to family reasons.
Much has changed since that game in round one – Rado Vidošić was the coach of City, for one thing – so its utility as a predictive tool for this weekend is limited. But Aloisi said the more recent meeting would bring some lessons for his side, as would their most recent fixtures in which they’ve scored seven goals – three against Adelaide and four against Perth – but also shipped six – three against both the Reds and Glory.
“It wasn't that long ago and we felt that we played a really good game,” he said. “We were in control of the game for a long period. We're one nil up, we probably should have gone two nil up. They ended up scoring two bombs right at the end and that hurt us because we felt that we were on track to get a well-deserved win and then try and push on.
“That was after them just beating Brisbane Roar eight to one. So we know that they're capable of doing that to sides. They've done it a number of times this season.
“We have to make sure we're at our best and that we're defensively good and we can create problems going forward against them. We feel that way against everyone at the moment when we go forward. We look like we can score goals.
“Defensively it's mainly just little errors that are costing us. Against Perth, we gave away the ball in silly areas, which we have to cut out.
“I don't think it's structurally anything too bad. I think it's more individual errors that we need to clean up and the players know that.
“Going forward we look dangerous in all aspects. I think that we're not just relying on one goalscorer, not just relying on one player. There are a lot of players that can go forward and score goals.
“We've got goals coming from everywhere. We're getting good numbers into the box. We're moving the ball well. And that's why we're creating so many chances and scoring goals. At the beginning of the season, we were creating the same chances we just weren't putting them away but now we are.”