South Melbourne were forced to work late into the night and survived an almighty scare, but advanced to the Australia quarter-finals after defeating Fremantle City on penalties (3-1) after a gripping 3-3 draw on Sunday night.
The tame trio of spot kicks taken by City’s Charles Chechlacz, Ilyas Akhmedov and Riley Woodcock – all saved by South’s Jake Charleston – did not reflect the resolve the Football WA outfit showed across the night, earlier fighting back from 2-0 down to take the lead early in the second half through Shubham Mokala.
That goal on 51 minutes had Scott Miller’s side dreaming of becoming the first Western Australian club to reach the Cup quarter-final stage, but almost came too early as Hellas poured players forward, finding the game’s final leveller twenty minutes later as Bul Juach converted a penalty he’d drawn.
Despite persistent rain and a wearing pitch – Lakeside just thirty hours on from hosting Saturday’s Dockerty Cup final – neither side settled for spot kicks, with City’s Michael Domfeh guilty of spurning the best of the late chances. When it did arrive the shootout provided a chance at redemption for Charleston, who’d endured a difficult night in the greasy conditions and was largely at fault for Fremantle’s first-half comeback goals through Chechlacz (penalty) and Cameron Edwards.
The two sides entered the fixture in fourth position on their respective league tables but given the strength of those competitions and markedly different histories in this one, that is where any equality looked to end. Fremantle’s teamsheet boasted 14-cap Socceroo Josh Risdon, who joined the club in May following his esteemed A-League career, but still looked to lack overall strength in comparison to Hellas’ proven NPL level performers.
So it proved through the opening twenty minutes as the favourites breezed to an early lead. Aaran Cocks’ right-footed goal from the left wing has early claim for goal of the round, before Jack Painter-Andrews burned around Risdon – deployed at the base of midfield by Miller, who himself is a 2-cap Socceroo – and drove a cross into the teeth of goal, finished by David Yoo.
Few would have predicted the epic that was to unfold from that point, and not least the roughly 40 travelling Fremantle fans who braved the distance and Melbourne’s August rain, but gleefully cheered on their side throughout. It could be argued their side looked the better through extra time, any underdog complex long-since abandoned, but perhaps it returned at the penalty spot as their confidence simply melted away.
Instead it is South who move to the familiar position of the quarter-finals, where they will meet familiar opposition in either Preston or Brunswick Juventus. Winners of December’s inaugural Championship and plenty more besides, they have little to prove to anyone in the Australian game.
Their story in the Australia Cup has been one of consistency, reaching the quarter-finals now for a third time, and the semi-finals in 2017 (although under the old provisions, when at least one state-league side was baked in to reach that stage). Perhaps in lacking a truly deep run such as that seen by Sydney United & Heidelberg, they don’t come to mind immediately when considering Cup success. But in grinding past the stubborn hurdle of Fremantle on Sunday night and on the favourable side of the draw, they remain a chance to set that perception straight.