After a couple months’ break, the AFC Champions League Elite is back to finish out the league stage, but for Central Coast Mariners, the dream is already dead.
After being humiliated and eliminated back in December, all that’s left to play for is spite and pride—and that first one is definitely in play, given the opponent. Malaysian powerhouse Johor Darul Ta’zim sit only just above the cutoff, meaning a loss to CCM now could derail all their plans.
Before this golden opportunity to play spoiler begins, let’s review why the Mariners are in this unenviable position and size up the team they’ll look to drag down with them.
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It’s so Marinover
Through the first five matches, the Mariners hadn’t fared as well as they’d hoped, but they had at least hung well against eventual J.League champions Vissel Kobe on the road going into match six. In theory, facing Japan’s eighth-best team, Yokohama F. Marinos, at home seemed like a genuine chance to snatch vital points and stay alive—but in practice, it went about as well as starting a fistfight with a P-plater’s Nissan Altima while it’s going 160 down Main Beach.
Things started derailing for the Mariners almost immediately, as in the sixth minute, captain Anderson Lopes found Kenta Inoue, who curved it low from some way out to give the J.Leaguers an instant advantage. Not content with that, Yokohama immediately started gunning for another, repeatedly creating good chances for themselves until it finally paid off in the 30th.
Inoue would once again strike the blow, as he picked up a teammate’s blocked shot and blasted it into the net, catching the Coasties flat-footed. As if that weren’t enough, when Vitor Feijão attempted to put up a cross that might lead to the Mariners pulling one back, it instead got caught by Yokohama keeper Hiroki Ilkura, who shipped straight to winger Yan Matheus.
The Brazilian promptly took a long run and dealt to Lopes, who pulled a nasty fake, then fired high over CCM keeper Dylan Peraić-Cullen’s head to make it 3-0 to the Tricolor, a scoreline that would stand until halftime.
From this quandary, the Mariners emerged for the second half a broken team, possessing even less, shooting fewer shots, and earning fewer corner kicks than they had in the first half. When Yokohama’s substitute midfielder Jun Amano scored the fourth and final goal off a direct free kick in the 70th, it was more salt in the wound than anything.
As a result of this humiliating display, and combined with unfavourable results from all the teams who could have kept CCM hanging on by a thread if they’d lost, the Mariners officially found themselves dead last and eliminated from the competition, while Yokohama rocketed to the top of the East Asian table.
Though the Mariners have had time to lick their wounds, and come into this on a five-game undefeated streak, they still have tons of rust to shake off—after all, they’re riding four straight draws in the A-League. Now, however, they get to play vengeful ghosts against one of the teams who contributed to their elimination.
Meet Johor Darul Ta’zim, tiger sultans of Malaysia
Founded in 1972 and owned by a local prince, Johor Darul Ta’zim currently rule Malaysian football with an iron fist. They’ve won the Malaysian Super League every single year since 2014, they’ve already completed a leg of a potential third consecutive domestic treble, and in 2015, they won the AFC Cup, making them the first and only Malaysian side to win a continental trophy.
As for this league stage, it’s been up and down for the Southern Tigers, with a 2-2-2 record, and while they’re on the favourable end of a three-way tiebreaker to sit sixth, they’ll come into this with a very precarious spot to protect.
From an attacking perspective, JDT have spent this tournament flying on their wingers. On the right, Arif Aiman Hanapi is the big shooter with four goals and an assist, including a crucial brace in the stage opener to force a draw with Shanghai Port.
On the left, Spaniard Juan Muñiz, recruited here a few years ago from Greece’s top flight, has been a major architect, assisting twice thus far, but he’s also got potential to pop off as a scoring threat, as his hat trick back in August to win the Malaysian FA Cup shows.
Between them, Brazilian striker Bergson has been something of a sleeping giant, with just one goal to his name, but if he wakes up, look out—he scored a combined 10 goals in the previous two AFC Champions Leagues, and he’s been otherworldly in league play this year, scoring hat tricks almost at will.
In the midfield, the big guns tend to come with La Liga experience. The biggest standout by far is Eibar alumnus Eddy Silvestre, who’s been just as key as any defender to the point he’s played all the way back at times. Former Celta man Natxo Insa hasn’t been quite as consistent, but he’s shined against Chinese sides, having strong individual days against Shanghai Shenhua and Shandong Taishan.
Finally, the back line is led by the most familiar face here, Shane Lowry of Perth Glory and Aston Villa fame. Lowry was especially of assistance in JDT’s last game against Buriram, an ugly cardfest where the team sorely needed his defensive grit to overcome playing one man short for most of the first half.
Given how the Tigers like to spare keeper Andoni Zubiaurre as much work as possible—they’re rocking a +61 goal differential in league play right now—expect Lowry to lead his men with an eye towards preventing and blocking shots before they even reach the Spaniard behind him.
The keys to successfully playing spoiler
In theory, if you’re going to face Johor, it’s best to do it in your own house. In their native Malaysia, the Southern Tigers are practically spotless, allowing no goals and taking no losses, but in their road matches, they’re 0-1-2 with a -3 goal differential.
Brian Kaltak of the Mariners and Lachlan Bayliss of the Jets compete for the ball. (Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
However, given the Mariners’ own haplessness at home this campaign, with a lone victory in front of the sauce bottles across all competitions, this may be a matter of summoning enough stoppable force to overcome the movable object in front of them.
Given the freedom to experiment their early elimination allows, it may be worth it to experiment a little and put their incoming transfers to use. Abdelelah Faisal, in particular, should be eager to impress, and already scored what turned out to be a point-saving goal against the hated Jets earlier this month.
If he can match that form, that’s great, and if he exceeds it and goes back to the Australia Cup form he had in Perth, the Mariners may find he’s the man to break their malaise.
That will mean little, however, if the Mariners’ back four keep getting caught lacking. As the second half of Inoue’s brace proves, it’s not enough to have numbers in the box if your defenders are standing still and failing to execute. Given how active JDT will be in the wide areas, discipline and smart reads will be essential to keep the Tigers’ front three from either individually popping off or linking up to cause chaos.
Whatever happens, the important thing is to find strength wherever the Mariners can find it. Any glory left in this year will have to be earned through the A-League, which means they’ve effectively got a mulligan for the next two matches. If CCM brings some fire and forces a good result, it could be exactly what they need to rally themselves back to life.
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