2021–22_A-League_Men

2021–22 A-League Men

2021–22 A-League Men

45th season of top-tier soccer league in Australia

The 2021–22 A-League Men, known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, was the 45th season of national level men's soccer in Australia, and the 17th since the establishment of the competition as the A-League in 2004.

Quick Facts Season, Dates ...

Melbourne City were the defending champions and premiers, having won their first titles respectively the previous season. They retained the premiership, but lost the Grand Final to first-time grand finalists Western United.

Clubs

Twelve clubs participated in the 2021–22 season.

More information Club, City ...

Personnel and kits

More information Team, Manager ...

Managerial changes

More information Team, Outgoing manager ...

Foreign players

More information Club, Visa 1 ...

The following do not fill a Visa position:
1Those players who were born and started their professional career abroad but have since gained Australian citizenship (or New Zealand citizenship, in the case of Wellington Phoenix);[43]
2Australian citizens (or New Zealand citizens, in the case of Wellington Phoenix) who have chosen to represent another national team;
3Injury replacement players, or National team replacement players;
4Guest players (eligible to play a maximum of fourteen games)

Salary cap exemptions and captains

More information Club, First Marquee ...

Transfers

Further information: A-League Men transfers for 2021–22 season

Regular season

League table

More information Pos, Pld ...
Source: A-Leagues
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Points per game; 5) Least red cards; 6) Least yellow cards; 7) Toss of a coin in an event of a tie of two clubs.
(C) Champions
Notes:
  1. The stadium will be undergoing construction during the season, which will reduce the stadium's capacity to around 26,000.[2][3] The stadium will have a capacity of 40,000 once construction is complete.[4]
  2. Determined by which of the Premiers for the 2021–22 or 2022–23 seasons accrued the most combined points over both seasons.[64] Melbourne City qualified as they were Premiers in both seasons.
  3. The top two teams enter the finals series at the semi-finals, while the teams ranked third to sixth enter the finals series at the elimination-finals.
  4. Wellington Phoenix cannot qualify for Asian Football Confederation competitions as they are based in New Zealand, which is under the Oceania Football Confederation.
  5. The top 8 teams qualify for the round of 32, while the bottom four teams participate in a play-off round.[65]

Fixtures and results

More information Home \ Away, ADE ...
Source: A-League
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

AFC Champions League qualification

Due to the re-formatting of the AFC Champions League to have an inter-year schedule from September (northern hemisphere autumn-to-spring) instead of an intra-year schedule (northern hemisphere spring-to-autumn),[66] the qualification for the 2023–24 AFC Champions League was changed. The single qualification spot for this competition goes to whichever of which of the Premiers for the current season or the following season accrues the most combined points over both seasons.[67] Melbourne City won the Premiership in both the 2021–22 and 2022–23 seasons,[68] thereby automatically qualifying for the Champions League.

Finals series

Main article: 2022 A-League Men finals series

Format

The finals series, which ran over three weeks, consisted of the top six teams from the regular season. In the first week of fixtures, the third-through-sixth ranked teams played a single-elimination match, with the two winners of those matches joining the first and second ranked teams in two-legged semi-final ties. The first and second placed teams chose whether they would play home or away in the first leg.[69] The two winners of those matches meet in the Grand Final.[70] This season was the first to use this format.

Elimination-finals Semi-finals Grand Final
4 Adelaide United 0 1 1
4 Adelaide United 3 1 Melbourne City (a.e.t.) 0 2 2
5 Central Coast Mariners 1 1 Melbourne City 0
3 Western United 2
3 Western United 0 4 4
3 Western United 1 2 Melbourne Victory 1 1 2
6 Wellington Phoenix 0

Elimination-finals

More information Western United, 1–0 ...
Attendance: 3,376
Referee: Alex King
More information Adelaide United, 3–1 ...
Attendance: 10,113
Referee: Daniel Elder

Semi-finals

Summary

More information Team 1, Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score ...

Matches

More information Western United, 0–1 ...
Attendance: 7,295
More information Melbourne Victory, 1–4 ...
Attendance: 15,349
Referee: Alex King

Western United won 4–2 on aggregate.

More information Adelaide United, 0–0 ...
Attendance: 9,279
Referee: Chris Beath
More information Melbourne City, 2–1 (a.e.t.) ...
Attendance: 9,347

Melbourne City won 2–1 on aggregate.

Grand Final

Main article: 2022 A-League Men Grand Final
More information Melbourne City, 0–2 ...
Attendance: 22,495
Referee: Chris Beath

Regular season statistics

Top scorers

More information Rank, Player ...

Hat-tricks

Main article: List of A-League Men hat-tricks
More information Player, For ...
More information Key, (A) ...

Clean sheets

More information Rank, Player ...

Awards

Annual awards

The following end of the season awards were announced at the 2021–22 Dolan Warren Awards night on 26 May 2022.[76]

More information Award, Winner ...

Team of the season

More information Team of the season, Goalkeeper ...

See also

Notes

  1. [N 1]
    Away kit
  2. [N 2]
    Away kit
  3. [N 3]
    Away kit
  4. [N 4]
    Away kit
  5. [N 5]
    Mauk was captain of Adelaide United until his transfer to Fagiano Okayama on 27 February 2022.[45]
  6. [N 6]
    Goodwin replaced Mauk as captain of Adelaide United on 5 March 2022.

References

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