Oakleigh Cannons and Macarthur will battle it out in Australia Cup Semi Final action at Jack Edwards Reserve on Wednesday night (7:30pm KO).
Both sides compete in the Semi Finals for the first time with the chance to go up against Sydney United 58 in the final on the line.
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Oakleigh were crowned NPL Victoria Champions with a thumping 5-0 Grand Final win against South Melbourne on the weekend in what was their 38th competitive match of a mammoth 2022 season.
Following their Grand Final triumph the Cannons confirmed that Head Coach, Chris Taylor who has previously also lead South Melbourne to the Australia Cup Semi Finals had signed a new long term deal at Jack Edwards Reserve.
Taylor’s side defeated Bonnyrigg White Eagles and Brisbane City before pulling off a cupset victory over Sydney FC en route to the final four.
Standing in the way of Oakleigh and an all NPL final are Macarthur, who themselves are on their deepest cup run after suffering defeat in the Round of 16 in their only previous Final Roudns appearance.
The Bulls have scored 12 goals and conceded none on their way to the Semi Finals in Dwight Yorke’s first season in charge.
Al Hassan Toure and Lachlan Rose have starred for Yorke’s side so far netting four and three goals respectively from the Bulls victories over Magpies Crusaders United, Modbury Jets and Wellington Phoenix.
You can catch all the action from Wednesday’s Semi Final live and Free on 10 Play.
Opta Stats - #OAKvMAC
- This will be the first meeting in the Australia Cup between Oakleigh Cannons FC and Macarthur FC; it will be the first time the Bulls have faced a Victorian team in the competition.
- This will be Oakleigh Cannons FC’s first Australia Cup semi final; the Cannons are the fourth different member federation team from Victoria to feature at this stage of the campaign (Bentleigh Greens SC – 2014, 2018, South Melbourne FC – 2017 and Hume City FC – 2015); no other state or territory has been represented more than once in this regard.
- This will be Macarthur FC’s first Australia Cup semi final; the Central Coast Mariners (2014), Melbourne City FC (2015), Western Sydney Wanderers FC (2017) and Wellington Phoenix (2022) are the A-League Men teams to lose in their first attempt at this stage of the tournament.
- Oakleigh Cannons FC (7) and Macarthur FC (6) have scored the most and joint-second most big scoring chances of any teams in the 2022 Australia Cup (also Sydney FC – 6).
- Daniel Arzani (Macarthur FC) has created 12 scoring chances in the 2022 Australia Cup, the most of any player and four more than Oakleigh Cannons FC’s best (Wade Dekker – 8).
