Ahead of this weekend’s final round of the Isuzu UTE A-League, aleagues.com.au explains what’s at stake – and how one game could be pivotal to deciding just about everything!
It all comes down to this.
Auckland FC are the 2024-25 Premiers – that much is known for sure. But the remaining five places in the top six are yet to be confirmed.
One game on Saturday afternoon will be at the centre of the A-Leagues drama as all eyes focus on AAMI Park for a Round 29 fixture that will either seal second spot for Melbourne City, or knock Adelaide United out of Finals Series contention.
And that’s just scratching the surface of the permutations attached to the final round of Isuzu UTE A-League fixtures. Read on as aleagues.com.au runs you through what’s at stake this weekend.
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Round 29 Fixtures
Friday, May 1
- Central Coast Mariners (10th) v Brisbane Roar (12th)
Saturday, May 2
- Melbourne City (2nd) v Sydney FC (7th)
- Western United (3rd) v Auckland FC (1st)
- Macarthur Bulls (8th) v Western Sydney Wanderers (4th)
Sunday, May 3
- Melbourne Victory (5th) v Newcastle Jets (9th)
- Wellington Phoenix (11th) v Perth Glory (13th)
One game could decide everything in race for 2nd and 6th
Got plans on Saturday afternoon? Cancel them!
Get yourself to AAMI Park or, if you’re not in Melbourne, park yourself on the couch and tune in as second-placed Melbourne City host seventh-placed Sydney FC in a high-stakes final-round battle.
City need to beat Sydney in order to confirm a second-place finish, and with it a place in the Semi-Finals as well as the 2025-25 AFC Asian Champions League Elite.
Sydney, meanwhile, need a point or more to jump back above Adelaide United and into the top six. Defeat to City would end Sydney’s 2024-25 Isuzu UTE A-League campaign and confirm Adelaide’s spot in the Finals Series.
But while Sydney’s result directly impacts one club’s hopes of securing a spot in the top six, a win for City on Saturday afternoon would impact a further three clubs in their shared pursuit of a second-place finish.
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City are in the box seat to secure second spot, with a one-point lead over third-placed Western United heading into Round 29. But both Western Sydney Wanderers and Melbourne Victory are also within three points of City, and with none of the four teams playing each other this weekend, all four remain a chance of finishing the regular season in second place.
If City draw with Sydney, they’d move two points clear of Western United, and three points clear of the Wanderers. A win to Western United over league leaders Auckland FC on Saturday would secure second place for John Aloisi’s side.
Anything less than a win for both Western United and Melbourne City, however, would open the door for the Wanderers to swoop in and claim second spot.
A City draw against Sydney, and a Wanderers win against Macarthur, would leave the two sides level on points but separated by Western Sydney’s superior goal difference.
In the most unlikely of all the hypothetical scenarios in the race for second, Melbourne Victory could fly up the table if the following combination of results takes place:
- Victory beat Newcastle and City lose to Sydney, with the two results enough to overturn City’s +4 goal difference advantage over Victory
- Western United lose to Auckland
- Western Sydney Wanderers drop points to Macarthur
Should that unlikely scenario take place, Victory would finish the regular season on 45 points with a greater goal difference than City, handing them the “Steven Bradbury” of second-place finishes.
Finishing second is a major bonus in the current Finals Series format. The top two sides sit out the first week of the Finals Series and return to action in the two-legged Semi-Finals to take on the two winners of the Elimination Finals, for a place in the Championship decider.
But not only that, finishing second this season has the added incentive of direct qualification into the 2024-25 ACL Elite. The prize normally reserved for the Isuzu UTE A-League Premiers cannot be claimed by Auckland FC due to their ineligibility for AFC tournaments.
In 2024-25, just qualifying for the AFC Champions League Elite netted teams USD$800k (AUD $1.27m).
“Of course, you want that bye, that helps you. But I think it’s that Champions League (spot), because it’s money in the coffers, it means a lot to the club and the finances and everything.
“It means that you can probably attack next season a little bit more aggressively with (signing) players… it gives you that little bit of financial security.
“For Melbourne City, it would be massive, but for all the other sides (too). Western Sydney, Western United, for all of them, they’ll be trying to take their chance. And, you know, hope that City slip up against Sydney.”
Sydney FC stumble sets up dramatic end to sixth-place battle
When Adelaide United dropped points to Melbourne City in their final game of the regular season, the equation became simple for Sydney FC: notch just one point from their final two games, and book a place in the Finals Series.
But defeat to Western United on Sunday afternoon has complicated the Sky Blues’ route to the top six; now, they must earn at least a point against a City outfit hellbent on claiming a final-round win to seal second place.
Suddenly, Carl Veart’s Adelaide United don’t look as dead and buried as they did when the full-time whistle blew to confirm their goalless draw against City in Round 28.
The Reds have the bye in the final round of the season; it makes for a nervy wait this weekend as Veart and Co. prepare to sit back and watch the action unfold.
Assessing Sydney’s chances of getting a point or better against City on the road, Sorensen and fellow A-Leagues Download panellist Archie Thompson pondered whether the “disjointed” Sky Blues could put together the complete performance needed to give themselves a chance.
“You do fear for them,” said Sorensen on A-Leagues Download.
“They go to Melbourne City, who have plenty to play for. They’re playing for Champions League next week. It wouldn’t surprise me if Adelaide can just sit there and actually just end up being in the finals because they (Sydney) concede too much.
“There’s something not quite clicking. They’re missing some players as well and relying too much on Costa coming up with something.”
“It looks so disjointed,” Thompson added. “And you wonder where they’re going to find that extra gear, even though you know that they’ve got the quality, but it’s hard to really spark something when you need it, especially (against) Melbourne City who are really looking at sealing that number two position.”
Golden Boot race set for photo finish
Archie Goodwin and Adrian Segecic share an equal lead atop the Golden Boot standings heading into the final round of the season, but two fellow young Aussie forwards are within striking distance as we head into the final round of the season.
Goodwin succumbed to a hamstring injury just 30 minutes into Adelaide’s final game of the regular season. The injury robbed the 20-year-old Reds striker of the chance to add to his 13-goal tally, meaning the best Goodwin can hope for now is a share of the Golden Boot award.
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Sydney FC forward Segecic is level on 13 goals with Goodwin; there’s a reality in which Segecic scores this weekend to help the Sky Blues to a point or better against Melbourne City, dumping the Reds out of the top six and robbing Goodwin of a share of the Golden Boot in what would be a cruel double blow to the Adelaide young gun.
But there’s a chance neither Segecic or Goodwin claim a share of the Golden Boot this season, with in-form Nicolas Milanovic just one goal behind and more than capable of bagging a brace against Macarthur Bulls in Round 29.
Western United striker Noah Botic, meanwhile, is two goals back on 11 for the season. Botic has gone cold recently, on a four-game goalless stretch that followed a fruitful nine-game purple patch in which he bagged eight of his 11 goals for the season.
Botic and Western face Auckland this weekend; Botic can only hope that the recently-confirmed Premiers are still in celebration mode before the finals and have a dip in performance in the final round, in order to rack up the minimum of two goals he needs to contend for a share of the Golden Boot.
| Player | Goals | Final Round Opponent |
| 1. Adrian Segecic (Sydney FC) | 13 | Melbourne City (2nd) |
| 1. Archie Goodwin (Adelaide United) | 13 | BYE |
| 3. Nicolas Milanovic (Western Sydney Wanderers) | 12 | Macarthur FC (8th) |
| 4. Noah Botic (Western United) | 11 | Auckland FC (1st) |
| 5. Hiroshi Ibusuki (Western United) | 10 | Auckland FC (1st) |
| 5. Kosta Barbarouses (Wellington Phoenix) | 10 | Perth Glory (13th) |
| 5. Patryk Klimala (Sydney FC) | 10 | Melbourne City (2nd) |
