FFA Cup final: Clubs now taking competition seriously

One club is a giant of Australian soccer — it has had success and expects it. The other is spending millions to get it.

Fight for silverware.

One club is a giant of Australian soccer — it has had success, expects it, but hasn’t tasted it for some time — the other is an outfit that has invariably fallen short but craves success and is spending millions to get it.

As much as the FFA Cup is in its infancy and remains a poor cousin to the A-League title, the stakes will be high for both Sydney FC and Melbourne City when they meet in tonight’s third edition of the FFA Cup final.

For hosts City, a club rebranded following the sale of Melbourne Heart, it will be their first serious chance to win a trophy since being taken over by the City Football Group in 2014.

Big-name marquees Tim Cahill and Bruno Fornaroli, quality visa signings, stunning training and player facilities — City have all the trappings of a seriously cashed-up, demanding-of-success club.

With such solid backing, the pressure is on to start accumulating silverware. And their CFG owners won’t be happy with the odd trophy here or there. It is domination they will be chasing as the brand grows in Australia.

City coach John van’t Schip clearly understands the pressures behind what is required of him and his players.

“This is the most important game for the club (in its history), that’s very clear,” van’t Schip said yesterday.

“Lose or win, it’s something that we want to continue.

“We want to be in finals (all the time) and we want to become the champion. But it is only a start.

“Everything that we are putting in ... there’s a lot of effort, from the coaching staff, the management, the players. Everybody is building to this moment.

“Finals are there to win. Tomorrow is a big game to see and make sure we can do those things on the big stage.”

For Sydney FC and their coach Graham Arnold, the time has come to break a six-year drought. The Sky Blues have gone trophyless since winning the 2010 Premiers Plate and A-League double under Viteslav Lavicka.

Now in his third season with the club, Arnold is the third coach since 2010.

He came close to claiming the A-League title in his first season (2014-15), taking the Sky Blues to the grand final, which they lost 3-0 to Melbourne Victory.

While Arnold admits the FFA Cup has not been a huge target over its first two seasons of existence, he now concedes the trophy “is a major goal”.

“The Cup is a great initiative from the FFA,” Arnold said.

“It’s wonderful for the football community and something it has been crying out for for a long time.

“As it has gone on, it has become bigger and bigger.

“For me, it wasn’t one of the major goals but it is now. This club is built on success and we haven’t had it for some time.”

The game will pit the two leading sides in the A-League after eight rounds — Sydney on top and unbeaten on 20 points and City in second spot with 16.

Both teams like to play fast, attractive, open football, and it is instructive that between them they have scored 32 goals this season — Sydney 18 and City 14 — while the other eight clubs have managed just 74 between them.

Sydney’s attack has obviously been outstanding, with evergreen captain Alex Brosque and classy midfielder Milos Ninkovic each notching four goals and Brazilian Bobo and Slovakian Filip Holosko three each.

Led by goalkeeper Danny Vukovic and central defenders Alex Wilkinson and Matt Jurman, the Sky Blues have also been very strong defensively, conceding a miserly three goals. That defence, however, is likely to come under intense pressure from a City attack that boasts a surfeit of skill in Cahill, Fornaroli, Bruce Kamau and Fernando Brandan.

Fornaroli, last season’s leading goalscorer in his debut A-League season, has contributed half of City’s goals so far this season, and the diminutive Uruguayan looms as the man likely to cause the visitors all sorts of problems on the field.