For much of a combustible, often ugly, evening at Allianz Stadium, it seemed a record-breaking season, recent head-to-head form and home advantage would count for naught. But Sydney FC, the heavy pre-grand final favourites, proved a steel underpins their much-lauded style by overcoming an early punch to the guts delivered by Besart Berisha and going on to win a penalty shootout after 120 minutes of football ended 1-1.
Fittingly, Miloš Ninković, the Johnny Warren medal winner and star of this 2016-17 A-League season, converted the winning penalty, although the Serbian was largely contained on a night not suited to his artistry on the ball. The platform for Ninković to deliver the knockout blow had been set by another star of Sydney’s campaign, goalkeeper Danny Vukovic, who saved Marco Rojas’s spot kick.
Rhyan Grant had got Sydney back into the game on 69 minutes, prodding home from close range to restore parity after a moment of individual wizardry from Berisha, the man who seems to revel in these high stakes games, had lit up the match.
But Berisha’s brilliance – and James Troisi’s extra-time volley that struck a post – could not prevent Sydney’s third A-League title, secured in a mostly jubilant, but uniformly breathless, arena that had witnessed fireworks – both metaphorical and literal – from start to finish. It also went some way to eliminate painful memories of the last time these two sides met in a grand final, two years ago in Melbourne, although Graham Arnold would rather have won in different circumstances.
“I’ve been through that [a grand final penalty shootout] before,” the Sydney coach said. “It’s not the greatest way to win or lose. But that’s the way it is. I thought it was a real cup final. It was a very physical game, a lot of free-kicks, a lot of fouls, a lot of passion.”
Indeed, it was far from a classic encounter between these two old rivals but what it lacked in class and guile was made up for in brawn and, by the end of the night, pure drama. From the first whistle, Sydney FC captain Alex Brosque set the tone, leaving a high foot in on eventual Joe Marston medal recipient Daniel Georgievski’s thigh and what ensued during a niggly, and at times spiteful, game should have come as no surprise.
Referee Jarred Gillett had his work cut out – nearly every decision he made was vociferously contested by one side or the other, and the opening period ended with five names in his notebook. He had accrued a total of 11 by the time the shootout arrived. Meanwhile, Graham Arnold and Kevin Muscat spent much of their time stalking the touchline and berating the fourth official.
The flow of the game suffered from the regular stoppages, playacting and constant recriminations – and arguably the state of the pitch, which had been used for a Super Rugby fixture the previous night despite a last-ditch attempt to shift that fixture elsewhere. With both team’s more creative players stifled, the likes of Ninković and Rojas were unable to stamp their authority in the way they might have been expected.
With supply lines cut, scoring opportunities were few and far between. Fahid Ben Khalfallah found Rojas at the back post with pinpoint accuracy after 11 minutes, but the New Zealand international’s pull back across the face of goal was turned over the bar by a Sydney defender.
Ninković was able, fleetingly, to give a glimpse of what he is capable of when he delivered a teasing ball across the face of goal on 16 minutes, the kind that must have been in mind when the term “corridor of uncertainty” was invented. Victory survived, but it led to a brief period when Sydney began to flex their muscles for the first time.
Berisha soon put paid to that with his individual moment of brilliance. The Kosovo international took on the Sydney defence with the kind of single-minded intent that has become his trademark. The way he scythed through Sydney’s backline showed scant regard for a defence that had, to that point, conceded just 12 goals all season. He has now scored in each of the four grand finals he has appeared in.
The initial spate of bookings came soon after the deadlock had been broken and it took just over 20 minutes for Khalfallah and James Troisi to be shown yellow, along with Sydney’s Josh Brillante, Ninković and Filip Hološko. Three of those names were taken following an ugly 20-man coming together in the centre circle as tempers boiled over in a moment that typified the first half.
Any hopes that cooler heads would emerge after the break soon evaporated as Victory skipper Carl Valeri levelled the booking ledger by becoming Victory’s third man into the book, for a crude challenge that might have warranted a straight red on another day.
Football was, however, occasionally allowed to shine through amid the pervading fug. Most of it came from Sydney in the second half and it was the home side who fashioned the better chances – first Hološko ballooned over from close range when he should really have done better, and then David Carney, on for Hološko, saw an effort saved by Thomas.
Carney, who won the title 11 years ago during his first stint with Sydney, was to play a key role moments later. It was his curling shot that Lawrence Thomas tipped onto the inside of the post, leaving a desperate, prone Berisha to head feebly into the path of the onrushing Grant. The right-back tapped gleefully home.
The goal further invigorated Sydney, yet try as they might and amid much huffing and puffing they were unable to blow down Victory’s door again in regulation time. Indeed, they could have been caught on the break, as Rojas and Troisi combined well, but the latter lacked a finishing touch.
“The first half was difficult,” Arnold said. “The first half we didn’t play our way, we ended up playing a game of kick and rush and fighting for the second ball. And when you have the quality of players like Ninković and Brosque that’s not their type of game.
“I said at half-time I’d rather lose than not play our way, the way we’ve played all season, the way we’ve created history with a lot of things. I wanted us to play our way and we did.”
To extra-time and Victory pulses again quickened, momentarily, when a high ball was launched into the box before it skewed away from a posse of players and brushed the outside of the post; the flag was up, regardless.
After the changeover, and with tired limbs in evidence all over the pitch, Troisi dug deep and mustered what so nearly could have been the defining moment of the game – a truly brilliant volley that arguably deserved to be the winner, but he saw it cannon back off Vukovic’s upright.
At the other end, Carney had a chance to settle it with five minutes remaining but he sliced his shot horribly to leave the expectant home crowd frustrated – and preparing to accept that their entire season, which had been so dominant, would not only come down to a winner-takes-all match, but rather one decisive penalty shootout. This time for Sydney, they will feel justice was served.
