2015 FFA Cup final

2015 FFA Cup Final
Date	7 November 2015
Venue	AAMI Park, Melbourne
Man of the Match	Kosta Barbarouses
Referee	Ben Williams
Attendance	15,098
Weather	Partly cloudy; 17 °C (63 °F)
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The 2015 FFA Cup Final was the 2nd final of the FFA Cup, the premier soccer knockout cup competition in Australia. The match was held on 7 November 2015 at AAMI Park. The final was held on a Saturday night for the first time.^[2] Adelaide United were the defending champions, though they were knocked out of the competition at the Quarter-Final stage by rivals Melbourne Victory.^[3]

Perth Glory qualified for the FFA Cup Final on 21 October 2015, with a 3–1 victory over Melbourne City at Nib Stadium. Melbourne Victory qualified for the FFA Cup Final on 28 October 2015, with a 3–0 victory over Hume City at AAMI Park.

Melbourne Victory won the match 2–0, with goals from Oliver Bozanic and Besart Berisha.

Venue

Panorama of AAMI Park, host of the 2015 FFA Cup Final.

On 27 October 2015, Football Federation Australia announced the 2015 FFA Cup Final would be held at either AAMI Park in Melbourne or Perth's nib Stadium. The choice of venue depended on the result of the second semi-final match between Hume City and Melbourne Victory. If Melbourne Victory defeat Hume City, the 2015 Final would be held at AAMI Park. A Hume City win would see the other successful semi-finalist, Perth Glory, host event at nib Stadium. Melbourne Victory's win confirmed the Final venue to be AAMI Park.^[4]

The home ground of Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City since its opening in 2010, AAMI Park holds a capacity crowd of 30,050 which makes it the largest capacity rectangular field venue in Victoria. The stadium was one of five host venues for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup.

Road to the final

Melbourne Victory		Round	Perth Glory
Opponent	Result		Opponent	Result
Balmain Tigers	6–0 (A)	Round of 32	Newcastle Jets	2–2 (A) 4–3 (p)
Rockdale City Suns	3–2 (A)	Round of 16	Queensland Lions (a.e.t.)	1–0 (A)
Adelaide United	3–1 (H)	Quarter-finals	Western Sydney Wanderers	1–1 (H) 4–2 (p)
Hume City	3–0 (A)	Semi-finals	Melbourne City	3–1 (H)
Note: In all results above, the score of the finalist is given first (H: home; A: away).

Melbourne Victory and Perth Glory were among 648 teams who entered the inaugural FFA Cup competition, and as A-League clubs, both entered the tournament in the Round of 32.^[5]

Melbourne Victory's first match was an away win 6–0 over fourth-tier Balmain Tigers at Sydney's Leichhardt Oval. Victory were then pushed to a narrow 3–2 win over Rockdale City Suns. After two consecutive away games, Victory defeated reigning FFA Cup winners Adelaide United 3–1, before a 3–0 win over the last non-A-League club Hume City.

Perth Glory began their FFA Cup campaign with a 4–3 penalty shootout win over the Newcastle Jets at Magic Park, after a 1–1 draw in normal time, 2–2 after extra time. They then achieved a 1–0 extra time victory over the Queensland Lions. Following this was a 4–2 penalty shootout victory over the Western Sydney Wanderers after a 1–1 draw in normal time, with the Glory subsequently qualifying for the FFA Cup Final on 21 October 2015, with a 3–1 victory over Melbourne City at nib Stadium.

Match

Summary

Melbourne Victory were dominant at the beginning of the first half. The home side had the ball in the back of net by the 16th minute courtesy of a strike by New Zealand international Kosta Barbarouses, although the effort was disallowed as Victory defender Matthieu Delpierre was offside. Victory went ahead in the 35th minute, when Oliver Bozanic was on hand after build up on the right from Jason Geria and Barbarouses. Melbourne doubled the advantage seven minutes later with Carl Valeri playing a through-ball into the path of striker Besart Berisha, whose first touch took him past the final defender and then fired the ball across Perth Glory keeper Ante Covic and inside the left post.

Perth started the second half with the majority of possession and almost halved the deficit within four minutes when Diogo Ferreira slammed a shot into the right-hand upright. In the 61st minute, Richard Garcia's first-time effort flew over the crossbar. Perth had most of the scoring chances in the second half without being able to convert any of them. Victory were forced to play the last eight minutes with 10 men after Valeri was sent off for a second bookable offence - a foul on Dino Djulbic.^[6]

Details

7 November 2015

19:30 AEDT

Melbourne Victory	2–0	Perth Glory
Bozanic 35' Berisha 42'	Report

AAMI Park, Melbourne

Attendance: 15,098

Referee: Ben Williams

Melbourne Victory

Perth Glory


GK	1	Danny Vukovic
RB	2	Jason Geria
CB	6	Leigh Broxham	33'
CB	17	Matthieu Delpierre
LB	5	Daniel Georgievski
RM	21	Carl Valeri (c)	77' 86'
CM	7	Guilherme Finkler		84'
LM	13	Oliver Bozanic
RF	9	Kosta Barbarouses
CF	8	Besart Berisha		88'
LF	14	Fahid Ben Khalfallah	40'	90+2'
Substitutes:
GK	20	Lawrence Thomas
DF	24	Thomas Deng		88'
MF	16	Rashid Mahazi		84'
MF	22	Jesse Makarounas
FW	11	Connor Pain		90+2'
Manager:
Kevin Muscat


GK	1	Ante Covic
RB	19	Joshua Risdon
CB	6	Dino Djulbic	15'
CB	23	Michael Thwaite (c)
LB	3	Marc Warren		86'
RM	10	Nebojša Marinković
CM	13	Diogo Ferreira
LM	15	Hagi Gligor		61'
RF	11	Richard Garcia
CF	16	Sidnei	55'	74'
LF	17	Diego Castro
Substitutes:
GK	12	Jerrad Tyson
DF	2	Alex Grant		74'
DF	5	Antony Golec		86'
FW	20	Guyon Fernandez		61'
FW	21	Stefan Valentini
Manager:
Kenny Lowe