When the Bentleigh Greens and South Melbourne resume hostilities in tonight’s Round 6 FFA Cup clash at Kingston Heath Soccer Complex, they will square off in a winner-takes-all battle.
Such is the importance of the competition that most sides in the NPL would prefer a deep run into the national tournament ahead of league honours at home.
Tonight’s fixture is no different as the two best teams in Victoria face off in what is shaping up as perhaps the biggest game in this country outside the A-League.
In the league, South Melbourne have a three point lead over their rivals, who will have home ground advantage with a four figure crowd expected to flood into the Cheltenham venue on Centre Dandenong Road.
Both sides have unfinished business in the competition, with the Greens keen to replicate their run into the final four of the competition in 2014 and put to rest the ghosts of last year’s early Round 5 shock elimination to the Ballarat Red Devils.
The visitors were eliminated at this stage of the tournament two years ago by old rivals Melbourne Knights, and despite making the Round of 32 last year, will feel that their early elimination to the Palm Beach Sharks on penalties was not a true reflection of their overall quality.
Furthermore, a run deep into the FFA Cup and a home fixture or two along the way is seen by club representatives at Lakeside Stadium as a major platform to showcase its A-League credentials.
Prior to the clash, the respective managers of both teams weighed in on the importance of tonight’s game, with former South forward and coach John Anastasiadis believing the stakes of the fixture is more important than the opponent the Greens are pitted up against.
“Everyone has built up this game as the biggest in Australia, but for me it was a game that was going to happen anyway, whether it be with South or another big club. It’s not so much about who we’re playing against, but what we’re playing for,” he said.
“We know South is a big team and they are on top of the ladder while we are second, but we’ll just go out there and do what we have to do to get to the final 32 because we are desperate to get a taste of that again as we did a couple of years ago.”
South Melbourne are heading into the fixture on the back of a 2-0 home win over mid-table Port Melbourne, which saw the two-time reigning Premiers extend their lead on top of the league ladder to three points over their opponents.
Their manager Chris Taylor was firm in his belief that the 90 minutes on Friday night were not the best due to the fact that some of his players already had one eye on this game, while also acknowledging the limited nature of preparation both teams have had since being in action four nights ago.
“The FFA Cup is now more significant than league results and that is what makes tonight’s game of great importance. Our performance against Port Melbourne was not the best, but I believe that a lot of it was down to the fact that our players were already looking ahead to this fixture,” Taylor said.
“That is one of the difficulties of being in a semi-professional environment regarding training and not having ample time to prepare yourself for the following match.”
Anastasiadis voiced similar sentiments regarding his side’s performance against Hume, however he stressed that temptations to look too far ahead were resisted by his players, who gave it their all in the 1-1 home draw against 6th placed City.
“Maybe some players did have an eye on it because everyone has been talking about the game on Tuesday, but we put that to bed quickly by the fact that we had a tough game with three points on the line to play for on last Friday night,” he said.
“The [players] will pump themselves up, get ready for the game and motivate each other given what’s at stake, and I’m sure the South players will do the same in what will be a great spectacle for anyone at the game.”
The Oceania Club of the Century won the last meeting between the two in April, which saw South goalkeeper Nikola Roganovic save two penalties to condemn 10-man Bentleigh to a 2-1 defeat.
Prior to that, Bentleigh claimed the season curtain-raising Charity Shield fixture 3-0 at home, in addition to their Grand Final triumph against the four-time NSL Champions last year at Lakeside.
Despite only losing to them once in their five encounters, Anastasiadis does not believe his side has an edge over their rivals, believing that Bentleigh’s recent victories have evened the ledger between the two.
“I don’t think we have the wood on them. During the early days of my tenure at Bentleigh they had the edge over us but over time we have managed a few victories and evened the ledger. It’s fairly even and will be a great match and I know a lot of people cannot wait for it especially our boys,” he said.
Taylor echoed his counterpart’s views regarding the tie being evenly poised between the two NPL titans.
“If I’m honest, I believe it is anyone’s game. We have a lot of respect for them given we have been the two benchmark teams for the past two years,” he said.
“The luck of the draw has pitted us off against one another. It will be very hard on whichever team loses given what is at stake, but I guess it sets up a great spectacle for the neutral.”
Such has been physical and competitive nature of their past four clashes that each of those has seen one of the sides finish the game with 10 men. However, Taylor is not too worried about past decisions and misdemeanors between the two title rivals and is confident that both teams will enter into battle tonight with only one thing in mind.
“We cannot dwell on the past too much and whether certain decisions have gone for or against in previous encounters between the two sides. Both sides will have that mindset going into tonight and start afresh to get the better of another and win,” he said.
Anastasiadis meanwhile joked that the grass at Kingston Heath will be cut extra short to ensure the style of football is his side play is complimented by the surface, which was a topic of contention in their last away fixture while playfully adding that he will make sure there is big hole reserved in the visiting dug-out for Taylor.
Rivals on and off the field, tonight’s game seemingly is off an even greater importance than last year’s NPL Grand Final, with both sides fancying themselves as going far in the national competition should they wake up tomorrow as entrants into the FFA Cup proper.
Whatever happens, there is no doubt that the Victorian football community is expecting a night of mouth-watering action on the field with kick-off scheduled for 7.30.
Feature image: Anita Milas