Coach Corica rails at officials as Auckland miss out on Grand Final

UPDATED May 25, 2025, 11:43 AM

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Auckland FC coach Steve Corica criticised officials after missing out on a place in the A-League Grand Final as Saturday's 2-0 loss against Melbourne Victory denied the New Zealanders a season-ending clash against Melbourne City next week.

Goals from Zinedine Machach and Bruno Fornaroli saw Victory overturn a 1-0 first leg deficit to allow Arthur Diles' side to set up an all-Melbourne final while Corica fumed over a disallowed effort from Logan Rogerson with 21 minutes remaining.

"I don't want an apology, I want the right decision to be made," said Corica, who led A-League debutantes Auckland to the Premiership title.

"My opinion is they got it wrong and that could have cost us getting back into the game, for one, and getting into a final.

"You're talking about big decisions so you would hope they would get it right but I don't think so."

Auckland were trailing 2-0 on the night and 2-1 on aggregate when Rogerson headed in from close range after Guillermo May had crossed from the byeline, momentarily believing he had pulled his side level overall.

But officials ruled the ball had gone out of play before swinging back in prior to Rogerson making contact to leave the New Zealand international with his head in his hands and the 30,000 crowd booing the officials in anger.

"The atmosphere was amazing here again, they've been sensational here all year, the supporters, and we appreciate that," said Corica.

"I'm probably more disappointed for them.

"I think they've been the best crowd all season, they've turned up every week in really good numbers and it's disappointing that they don't get to host a Grand Final next week because of poor refereeing decisions."

Victory coach Diles claimed not to have seen the incident and was instead preparing himself for a meeting with crosstown rivals Melbourne City in the Grand Final.

"It's a great moment for us as a football club, something we've worked really hard for and you get a reward tonight off the back of that," he said.

"It was beautiful to play in front of 30,000 fans tonight. It was even nicer to spoil the party." REUTERS

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