Congratulations on Sydney FC winning the A League Grand Final in Melbourne last night. Well Deserved the win as they had a great year. Condolences to the victory as they were also good all year but there can only be one winner. GO SYDNEY FC !!!!!!!!


Sydney FC win A-League grand final, beat Melbourne Victory 4-2 on penalties
foxsports.com.au
March 20, 2010 .

Sydney FC have won the A-League grand final, defeating Melbourne Victory 4-2 on penalties to add the championship to the premiership they won on the final day of the regular season.

Korean defender Sung Hwan Byun scored the decisive penalty, sending Victory goalkeeper Mitchell Langerak the wrong way to claim Sydney's second championship after the teams had been locked at 1-1 after 90 minutes and extra-time.

Simon Colosimo, Hayden Foxe and Karel Kisel were also on target from the penalty spot for Sydney.

Victory captain Kevin Muscat missed his side's first penalty, hitting the post after sending Sydney goalkeeper Clint Bolton the wrong way, while Bolton denied Marvin Angullo with a save at full stretch to his left.

Shannon Cole missed for Sydney, denied by Langerak, who made an outstanding save at full stretch to his right, while Grant Brebner amd Leigh Broxham were on target for Victory.

Colosimo was named man-of-the-match, winning the Joe Marston Medal, and Sydney skipper Terry McFlynn expressed the delight his team were feeling.

"It's a fantastic feeling among all the boys," McFlynn said.

"I think it showed we are the best two teams in the competition.

"After 120 minutes, we couldn't be separated and it's come down to the dreaded penalty shootout.

"Someone had to win, and fortunately it was us."

The match was no classic, with a serious knee injury to Victory striker Archie Thompson the only major incident in the first hour of play.

Thompson is believed to have sustained a torn anterior cruciate ligament, an injury that sees him facing a full knee reconstruction and ends his participation in Melbourne's Asian Champions League campaign.

Thompson emerged on crutches once the match went into extra-time when the scores were deadlocked at 1-1 - his injured knee heavily bandaged.

"It's not looking good - it's looking (like a torn anterior cruciate)," Victory coach Ernie Merrick said.

"It was pretty hard to play our best football losing Archie."

But the match sprung into life in the final half-hour of the second half, after the sides had previously nullified each other with the knowledge of their respective game plans having already played each other five times this season.

Melbourne, the defending champions, thought they had taken the lead when centre-back Rodrigo Vargas found the back of the net from a 61st-minute corner-kick, but his effort was correctly ruled out for offside.

The Victory players did not see the strike had been disallowed, however, and they continued to celebrate to the joy of their fans while Sydney broke at pace on the left flank.

Sung exploited Melbourne's lack of concentration, taking the ball over the halfway line before feeding Alex Brosque, who skipped past Muscat to cross the ball from the byline.

The cross took a wicked deflection over Langerak, and Sydney striker Michael Bridge bundled the ball home from inside the six-yard box barely a minute after Vargas's header had been disallowed.

Sydney striker Chris Payne, minutes later, had a gilt-edge opportunity to put the game beyond Melbourne, but he screwed his shot wide from inside the penalty area with Langerak out of position and beaten.

Adrian Leijer, who returned to the Victory this season after an unsuccessful spell with Barclays Premier League club Fulham, made Sydney pay for Payne's profligacy when he equalised with a bullet header eight minutes from full-time.

The defender outjumped former Melbourne championship defender Sebastian Ryall to power the ball past Bolton from a free-kick taken by Muscat.

Melbourne, who had looked incapable of Sydney's defence, were now in the ascendency and the Sky Blues were holding on.

Leijer had a chance to win the match with another header, from a corner-kick five minutes from full-time. This time, however, he could not find the target after outjumping Colosimo to claim a chance easier than that he had netted.

Aziz Behich spurned an even easier opportunity a minute later, from yet another corner-kick. But Behich inexplicably attempted a diving header with the ball on the deck inside the six-yard box, allowing Bolton to smother the ball on the goal-line, when the substitute was surely better served by shooting.

Extra-time failed to produce any great heights, a trio of shots from distance the only attempts on goal.

Bridge went close for Sydney in the opening stages of the second-half of extra-time, testing Langerak with a shot after a well-worked free-kick, while the goalkeeper was untroubled by Cole's free-kick in the final minute.

Bolton also had to make a save in the latter stages of extra-time, holding the ball comfortably to deny Carlos Hernandez from a free-kick.