The Australia Cup 2024 gets back underway on Wednesday and Thursday as the remaining teams vie for the final four places in the competition.
On Wednesday night, Hume City and South Melbourne do battle in an all-NPL Men's Victoria tussle, and A-Leagues sides Adelaide United and Western Sydney Wanderers are in action on Thursday night.
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Hume City FC v South Melbourne FC
Date: Wednesday 11 September 2024
Time: 7:30 pm (AEST)
Venue: Hume City Stadium
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Hume City were tasked with breaking down FC Melbourne Srbija in the Round of 16, eventually claiming a 1-0 win through Aamir Abdallah.
The winger has been one of the standouts of the Australia Cup, creating the most big chances in the Australia Cup thus far (4) and is second for assists in the competition with three in addition to his two goals so far.
Abdallah and South Melbourne’s Harrison Sawyer rank joint-second for shots taken, with their 11 each, only beaten by Joseph Knowles (14).
Hume City are the only side to have kept clean sheets in both of their Australia Cup rounds to date but the side lost 1-0 in extra time to South Melbourne in the NPL Men’s Victoria Preliminary Final and are yet to beat Hellas this season.
In fact, City are yet to score a goal against their opponents in 2024, losing narrowly 1-0 on all four occasions across the league and Dockerty Cup.
With South Melbourne already claiming the NPL Men’s Victoria Premiership and the Dockerty Cup, a win in the Grand Final against Oakleigh would have secured a treble, however they went down 1-0 to the Cannons last weekend.
An Australia Cup Semi Final berth would go a long way to putting that disappointment behind them in their bid to become the first Member Federation side to win the competition in the modern era (since 2014).
They required extra time to get past Olympic FC in the Round of 16 as they peppered Olympic’s goal with a single-game Australia Cup 2024 Final Rounds record of 32 shots.
Defender Marco Jankovic scored twice, including the winner from a long-range free-kick that flew into the goal in extra time to secure the game 3-2 for South Melbourne.
Form says South Melbourne are the team to beat but if ever there was a time for Hume City to end their losing streak against their cross town rivals, this is it.
Adelaide United FC v Western Sydney Wanderers FC
Date: Thursday 12 September 2024
Time: 7:30 pm (AEST)
Venue: ServiceFM Stadium
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Despite Olympic Kingsway forward Liam Boland’s historic brace breaking the Australia Cup Final Rounds goal-scoring record, Adelaide United edged past Olympic Kingsway in the Round of 16 with a 3-2 victory.
Austin Ayoubi, an own goal, and Luka Jovanovic led United into the Quarter Finals in what was Adelaide’s second 3-2 scoreline of the tournament after downing Blacktown City in extra time in the Round of 32.
Jovanovic comes into this game with goals in back-to-back games after his extra-time strike against Blacktown, while the Reds also have three of the five players (Isaías, Panagiotis Kikianis, Ethan Alagich) with the most accurate passes in the competition so far, with Isaías leading the tournament with 222.
While they have made hard work of it at times, Adelaide are still yet to go behind in an Australia Cup 2024 match.
Since winning the competition for the third time in 2019, United have gone no further than the Quarter Finals.
However, on the four occasions the Reds have made the Semi Final, they’ve only failed to win the competition once, finishing as Runners-up in 2017.
The Wanderers got the better of United in the 2023/24 campaign, winning all three encounters.
Their two A-League Men’s clashes in 2023/24 were narrow 1-0 and 2-1 victories for Western Sydney.
These teams also played in the Round of 16 a year ago, where the Wanderers defeated Adelaide 5-1.
Marcus Antonsson scored a brace in that 2023 Cup tie, and was on the scoresheet, notching his first of the season in a 4-0 rout of Lions FC in the Round of 16 two weeks ago.
In addition to Antonsson’s strike, Nicolas Milanovic, Zac Sapsford and the Europe-bound Marcus Younis completed the scoring.
Western Sydney recently announced former Manchester United and Chelsea star Juan Mata for 2024 as they continue to build momentum ahead of the new season, but, he will not make his debut in this clash.
If Western Sydney prevail, they will equal their best-ever run making the Semi Finals for the first time since 2018.
