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When it absolutely mattered, Besart Berisha once again proved himself to be the most valuable player in the A-League.
He didn’t score the most goals in the competition this season, and he didn’t win the Johnny Warren Medal as the best player, but he stood up to do the hardest and most important job – score meaningful goals – at the most crucial time.
Mark Janko was clearly the season’s highest scorer, but he couldn’t score a goal for Sydney FC at the business end of the season.
Nathan Burns won the Johnny Warren Medal based on his ability to terrorise opposition defences with brilliant close control as he ran the ball into the penalty box and finished with goals, but he couldn’t score for Wellington Phoenix at the business end either.
Berisha could.
He scored twice in the last three rounds as Victory geared up for the finals with three straight wins and then scored the first goal in both their semi-final and grand final wins.
Against City in the semi it came when the defence foolishly left him alone and he nailed a header from close range off a cross from the right.
Against Sydney in the grand final the ball ricocheted off Berisha to Gui Ginkler and straight back to Berisha, who hooked it inside a defender with his left foot and then used the same foot to smash it past the goalkeeper.
Berisha has done it repeatedly in A-League grand finals now – scored decisive goals. First for Brisbane Roar and now Victory.
When there is something lacking that is keeping your team from taking that extra step, you’re either going to fill that breach with the right player or you’re going to keep running second, third, fourth or whatever.
Victory was lacking a killer player up front, that someone who could be a focal point and turn all of their good work in getting the ball forward into goals. They identified Berisha and made sure they got him from Brisbane, and on the biggest stage he delivered – yet again.
The rest of the A-League needs to find their own Besart Berisha. (AAP Image/Joe Castro)
Lets have a look at the other teams in the finals.
Sydney were getting goals late in the season from Alex Brosque and Bernie Ibini, but when everything is on the line you need your main man to make a difference. Janko couldn’t do that.
The supply of ball to Janko in the grand final wasn’t the greatest. Victory central defender Matthieu Delpierre did a tremendous job in keeping the pressure on him as well. We know those two things.
What we don’t know is whether Janko’s recent lack of goals had put even the slightest seed of doubt in his own mind. Wellington suddenly looked barren without Burns being able to score.
Melbourne City’s leading scorer this season was Aaron Mooy, out of midfield. Former Socceroo striker Josh Kennedy joined the club during the second half of the season, but while he was establishing a physical presence up front he wasn’t scoring regularly.
Adelaide United has a number of goal-scorers, but not one dominant goal-scorer.
Brisbane obviously misses Berisha.
Outside of the finals there was, of course, Perth Glory, which would have entered the finals in third place had they not been barred from the playoffs as part of the club’s penalty for being caught cheating the salary cap.
Irishman Andy Keogh made plenty of noise at striker for them in the first two-thirds of the season, but in the closing rounds he was clearly out-scored by young teammate Jamie Maclaren.
The Central Coast Mariners and Newcastle Jets struggled all season to score goals, while Western Sydney Wanderers had Tomi Juric and eventually Karem Bulut up front.
Juric is a good player in many ways, but he still doesn’t score enough goals. Bulut looked like he might be the answer up front for Wanderers, but now that the season is over he has moved on from the club and so has Juric.
Based on how the two clubs finished this season, Victory, in particular, and Sydney have set the bar pretty high for the other eight clubs for next season.
Some of those clubs need to work extremely hard to find the right players to add to try to bring them up to speed. Brisbane brought Berisha here from overseas a few years ago, so you can’t say the right players aren’t out there.
You’ve just got to be good enough to find them.
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