FFA Cup Final Analysis: Victory’s Ability to Find Space Between Lines Set up Win

Melbourne Victory’s 2-1 victory in the FFA Cup final against Central Coast Mariners wasn’t a cup final for the ages besides three absolutely world class goals and a few minutes of utter delicious chaos in injury time. FTBL's Vince Massara analyses how Victory came out on top.

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Victory were able to get through Central Coast’s lines this way a lot during the match, especially in the first 70-odd minutes.

However, one thing Central Coast did very well was limit the quality of shots that Victory had after they’d got into the final third.

While Victory had a lot of the ball in dangerous positions, they weren’t able to create any clear cut chances and most of their shots were from low expected goal areas. Plenty of this was due to the last gasp defending by young central defensive duo, Kye Rowles, and Dan Hall. As Popovic said after the game, his side “needed two special goals to win”.

It wasn’t just the central defenders that did well though, it was a resolute defensive display by the Mariners and they definitely frustrated Victory throughout the match.

So, while the Mariners might have kept the space between the lines a little too open and didn’t close the space fast enough on occasions, they did recover well most of the time. However, it’s interesting to wonder how the game might have played out if they had been a little more proactive when defending Victory from the start.

Central Coast’s Attack

When Central Coast looked to attack, for the most part, they looked to do so quickly and over the top of the midfield. This strategy, while giving a few semi-chances at a shot, didn’t seem to produce much threat.

Central Coast did seem to structure their attacks a little differently after the first goal though, and tried to play the ball through the thirds and advance into positive areas on the pitch. Oliver Bozanic was a key man in trying to make this happen, and was the midfielder that the Mariners looked towards to make something happen.

Beni Nkololo came on as a substitute in the second half and brought a lot of energy to the Mariners too, and had the Mariner’s best chance of the match from a cut back - however the pass went to Nkololo’s wrong foot and he sprayed the shot wide.

The last ten or so minutes were different to the rest of the game and were a lot more free-flowing as Central Coast tried to take the game into extra time. However it was Victory’s Chris Ikonmedis that scored the match’s second goal deep into injury time with a clinical finish inside the box when the Mariners had committed numbers forward.

However, that wasn't the end of the night’s events. Central Coast managed to score almost instantly after the restart with Oliver Bozanic catching the Victory squad momentarily napping.

The goal made sure for a tense end to the match as Central Coast gave it everything they had to try and find that second goal - but Bozanic’s strike was too little too late, with Victory deserving their win.

Central Coast though, will take a lot from this game as they move forward. The youngest team in the A League Mens and a coach about a dozen games into his senior managerial career - there’s a lot of positives to take from games like this even though they’d feel they weren’t at their best on Saturday night.

Victory will look to build on this trophy win. They’re sitting well in the league, have a very good squad, and will be pushing for great things this A League Men's season and beyond.