February 28, 2009

The Victory confirmed their status as the most successful club in the A-League's short history with a dramatic 1-0 win over gutsy Adelaide United on Saturday night.

The final result was hardly unexpected, after Melbourne had reduced the Reds to a rabble in a 6-0 aggregate triumph in the two-legged major semi-final earlier this month.

But the nature of the grand final win at Telstra Dome was much more of a shock.

The general consensus was that Adelaide needed everything to go absolutely right if they were to spring what would have been a massive upset.

And then it took only 10 minutes for it all to go horribly wrong.

Referee Matthew Breeze's contentious decision to send off Adelaide striker Cristiano for an elbow to the face of Melbourne defender Rody Vargas had echoes of the 2007 grand final between the same two teams.

Back then, United lost Ross Aloisi to a red card in the first half as the Victory ran riot for a 6-0 win.

This time around, Adelaide showed immeasurably more spirit in the space of adversity.

So much so that the score was still 0-0 at half-time, by which point Adelaide goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic had been forced to make only one genuine save.

Tom Pondeljak - who had been on the losing side in two of the previous three A-League deciders for his former club Central Coast - finally broke the deadlock for Melbourne on the hour with a spectacular long-range shot from well outside the penalty area.

But if the capacity pro-Victory crowd of 53,273 expected their team to cruise home in the final half hour, their hopes were dashed when Melbourne striker Danny Allsopp became the second player to get his marching orders from Breeze after an off-the-ball incident with Reds defender Robert Cornthwaite.

With the match now down to 10-a-side, both sides had their chances in a dramatic final 20 minutes.

But in the end it was the Victory who were able to hang on, adding the championship to the premiership and pre-season cup they won earlier in a season of unprecedented success.

They also became the first club in the four-year history of the A-League to lift the championship twice - with coach Ernie Merrick and six players including skipper Kevin Muscat part of both triumphs.

Goal-scorer Tom Pondeljak capped a memorable night by winning the Joe Marston Medal as the best player.

Pondeljak paid tribute to Adelaide after the match.

"Adelaide played really well tonight, they came here and put on a good performance, only one goal separated the two sides, I want to congratulate them on a great year," he said.

But he said Victory deserved the title, having claimed the premiership as the top team after the final round, and also having taken out the pre-season trophy.

"Throughout the course of the season we deserved this win, tonight I think we proved we were the best team in the league."

Reds coach Aurelio Vidmar said he had major doubts over the decision of referee Matthew Breeze to send off Cristiano.

"I haven't seen the replay yet but I've been told a fair bit that there was absolutely nothing in it," Vidmar said.

The coach believed his side had the upper hand to that point and suggested the ejection possibly cost them the championship.

"I can't fault anyone tonight, it was a magnificent effort and we certainly deserved a lot more," Vidmar said.

"If we had 11 men on the park I certainly think we could have got a lot more out of it."