Victory to win 2-1 in a tense A-League Grand final

 

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By Davidde Corran, 20 Mar 2010 Davidde Corran is a Roar Expert

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 A-League, A-League grand final, football, Melbourne Victory, Sydney FC

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Simon Colosimo of Sydney during their round one A-League match between Sydney FC and the Melbourne Victory in Sydney. (AAP Image/Jason McCawley)

Let me be clear: while Sydney might be the traditional soul of Australian football, these days Melbourne is its home. On November 16th 2005 history was made at Sydney’s ANZ stadium when the Socceroos qualified for the 2006 World Cup.

Yet, football only truly arrived on the domestic stage 18 months later with Melbourne’s hosting of the second A-League Grand Final.

In 2009 when the Socceroos, with the opportunity to secure World Cup qualification, stumped up at ANZ stadium to take on Uzbekistan, some 57,000 fans turned up.

A few months later over 70,000 were at the MCG for a dead rubber between the Socceroos and Japan. A significant crowd for a game sandwiched between two virtual sell-outs in the AFL.

While everyone writes about how Sydney succeeding is crucial for the A-League, Melbourne continues to do the business, providing the league with the largest source of financial and administrative credibility.

Don’t believe the hype around Central Coast Mariners well put together financial records either.

Melbourne is the only club who are turning a profit and look financially viable, an achievement made while bringing a wealth of money into the A-League thanks to its big crowds, growing profile and successful home Grand Finals.

When a decent crowd turns up for a preliminary final in Sydney then we can start talking about the Sky Blues importance to the A-League.

The harbour city might be Australia’s biggest market but it is also an international city with a largely apathetic demographic.

Of course, all this leads to a tasty finals decider.

Sydney can turn up at Melbourne’s home ground, be the first team to defeat the Victory in a finals game and then celebrate on their patch.

It would be quite the kick in the teeth for a city that tends to invest more in the Melbourne-Sydney rivalry then their northern neighbours.

On The Roar yesterday, the thought-provoking Paddy Higgs argued: “the grand final could represent the best opportunity for Sydney FC to land the title over the next few seasons.”

Considering stability has been the key to Melbourne Victory’s success, it’s an interesting point.

While many peripheral players have changed, the defending champions have only maintained their success by retaining a core group of players. Reliable, quality signings are hard to come by in the A-League.

That said, Sydney doesn’t have that special of a squad, anyway.

Certainly it’s not the best in the league and it might not even be the second strongest either. So the loss of a handful of players might not be catastrophic.

Vitezslav Lavicka’s experience and managerial quality should be enough to keep the side competitive next season and I trust he will be able to forge another competitive unit.

This won’t be Sydney’s last chance to win a Grand Final, but it’s certainly a good one.

The final aspect of the debate surrounding this game is it’s relevance in the Australian football landscape.

I consider The World Game’s Scott McIntyre to be both one of Australia’s finest football journalists and also a trusted friend. However, I disagree with him that Melbourne should field a weakened side this evening.

In his blog, McIntyre asked: “What is the benefit (outside of an Australian notion of ‘bragging rights’) to the club of grand final success in this instance – no new sponsors, no revenue and no prize money?”

McIntyre then went on to argue, “that’s why, with Melbourne already qualified for the 2011 ACL (Asian Champions League), Victory should basically play with its National Youth League side in this Saturday’s A-League ‘season finale’.”

Personally, I suspect that the first and most important goal for most Melbourne fans this season was to secure ACL qualification. With that already achieved many will be satisfied, but a loss at home to Sydney would be a massive dampener on a mostly successful season.

Football fans want to win silverware.

For some reason, even if the trophy looks like a toilet seat, it means something and tonight’s game still holds plenty of significance to both Victory’s fans and players.

So prediction time: I expect Lavicka to be wary after the recent Major Semi Final loss to Melbourne and he’ll mould his side to take a smash and grab approach.

Sydney certainly has the players capable of doing so.

However, Adelaide’s attempt at a similar thing in last season’s finale didn’t work.

A poor refereeing decision might have spoilt that game, but 12 months ago the Victory proved they have the quality to win a game with a solitary moment of brilliance. I predict a similar outcome tonight.

So for me, it’s Melbourne to confirm their status as the A-League’s best domestic club with a tense 2-1 victory.

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