Brace yourself for the biggest match in Australian domestic soccer history

September 16, 2026 — 3:30pm

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When the FFA Cup launched in 2014, few could have imagined the ripple effect it would have on Australian soccer. For the first time since the advent of the A-League, the national spotlight shifted from the game’s new-look, corporatised shopfront to the grassroots and community clubs beneath it, including the exiled giants of the old National Soccer League, still simmering about their exclusion.

On opening night, the Brisbane Strikers, champions of the NSL in 1997, defeated the Broadmeadow Magic 2-1 after extra time. Those who watched the Fox Sports coverage may not remember the game vividly – but they will probably remember how it felt to have the action from a suburban oval in Newcastle beamed into their lounge rooms, and the way it cut to footage of goals as they happened in three other concurrent matches in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

It instantly made Australia feel more like the authentic soccer nation it yearns to be, and jump-started mostly dormant conversations about the merits of promotion and relegation versus expansion, and a national second division, which continue to dominate the discourse.

Now known as the Australia Cup, the tournament is bigger than its historic forebear, involving 777 clubs from across the country, compared to 747 for last year’s edition of the English FA Cup. Peter V’landys wants to bring back the old Amco Cup, the long-dead midweek knockout competition from the pre-NRL days, but soccer does this stuff better than rugby league or any other sport here ever could. For 12 years, the Australia Cup has been spinning impossible storylines, bringing together all levels of Australia’s most participated but most fractured sport: David,........

© The Sydney Morning Herald