The 1986 NSL Cup was the tenth edition of the

NSL Cup The National Soccer League Cup (known most commonly as the NSL Cup) was an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic Australian soccer organised by the Australian Soccer Federation between 1977 and 1997. History The NSL Cup was or ...

, which was the main national

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, ...

cup competition in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. The competition was known as the Nanda Soccer Cup for sponsorship reasons.

Sydney Olympic Sydney Olympic Football Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club, based in Belmore, Sydney, New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states o ...

were the defending champions, having defeated

Preston Makedonia Preston Lions Football Club (formerly Preston Makedonia Soccer Club) is a semi-professional soccer club from Preston, a northern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The club was established in 1947 to play non-professional soccer matche ...

to win their second title in the previous year's

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

, but they were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Canberra City. Sydney City defeated Adelaide Hellas 3–2 in the final to win their first NSL Cup title. As winners, they qualified for the

Oceania Cup Winners' Cup Oceania Cup Winners Cup, known for sponsorship purposes as the Qantas South Pacific Cup Winners Cup, was one of the two main Oceania tournaments for clubs, the other one is Oceania Champions League. It was only played in 1987 and Sydney City (Austr ...

Teams

The

was a knockout competition with 32 teams taking part all trying to reach the Final in September 1986. The competition consisted of the 24 teams from the

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its ...

(12 from the Northern Conference and 12 from the Southern Conference) plus 8 teams from their respective top division state leagues.

Teams

First round

Second round

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

References