One of the final surviving active football nations in the world is Australia.
Despite a rapid rise in coronavirus cases in the Land Down Under, the local league is still playing.
The A-League decided to take a controversial approach, speeding up the fixture calendar to finish the league sooner. This decision has been approved even although two teams, Wellington Phoenix and Melbourne Victory, entered mandatory two-week isolation after returning from New Zealand. To minimize travels and movement, most games are to be played on the East coast, mainly in Sydney and Melbourne, and without fans.
Central Coast Mariners - Melbourne City FC
The Mariners are located in Gosford, 76 kilometers from Sydney, a fact which enables them to host normally in their home stadium. Today’s guests were second placed Melbourne City FC (part of City Football Group), who looked to get closer towards securing a high-seed playoff spot. Central Coast, on the other hand, are experiencing a miserable season and are dead-last with a losing streak of nine games.
Melbourne’s French coach, 65 year old Erick Mombaerts, did not travel with the team as a precaution from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Assistant Patrick Kisnorbo replaced him on the sidelines, and saw a flurry of quick goals to open the game: Jordan Murray gave the Mariners a surprise lead after two minutes, only for City to respond with goals from Jamie Maclaren (5th minute) and Markel Susaeta (10th minute). 2-1 at half-time.
Murray and Maclaren continued their battle in the second half: The latter scored his second to make it 3-1 in the 48th minute, tapping in from close range. The Mariners striker then replied by giving his team a lifeline after 69 minutes, but the league’s top goalscorer Maclaren had the final word, as he scored his 18th of the season, sealing a comfortable 4-2 victory. Another match-ball for the Australian international to take home in his prolific career.
Brisbane Roar - Newcastle Jets
The late evening game introduced us to an interesting battle of managers: English Robbie Fowler, Brisbane’s coach, against Welsh Carl Robinson, who was appointed as Jets’ manager last month. Since arriving, Robinson has won three games and drew two, sparking some life into a Newcastle side who had a poor season up until that point. Brisbane started the match-day on 4th place.
A single goal decided this encounter in the Gold Coast: The never-ending Scott McDonald received the ball on the edge of the box, and quickly hit a nice accurate strike to the left corner. Goalkeeper Lewis Italiano was wrong-footed and couldn’t do anything about it. It is the third goal in as many matches for the former Celtic and Middlesbrough striker.
In the 91st minute, Jets’ striker Roy O’Donovan, another former Premier League player, was agonizingly close to netting an equalizer - but could only find the woodwork. It finished 1-0 for Fowler and Brisbane, handing a debut loss for Carl Robinson as Newcastle manager.