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This weekend’s semi-finals were not only the perfect advertisement for finals football, they were also the reason other codes are scared of the A-League’s potential.
Let’s deal with the first major talking point – finals football is here to stay, and the A-League is so much the better for it.
Had we crowned a champion on a first past the post basis – as those critics who wish to copy Europe would have it – we’d have missed out on two of the best finals games in A-League history.
We’d also have missed out on two Bruno Fornaroli specials last week, not to mention two sold-out games in Adelaide and Parramatta this weekend.
For those hoping that finals football would be consigned to the dustbin, sorry, but your arguments have been rendered irrelevant by a weekend of unimaginable drama.
Western Sydney Wanderers’ incredible 5-4 win over Brisbane Roar at Pirtek Stadium yesterday goes into the record books as one of the greatest comebacks in the history of Australian football.
At 3-0 down midway through the first half, the Wanderers looked more likely to be planning their end-of-season trip than booking tickets to Adelaide.
If there’s ever such a thing as scoring your goals too early, then the Roar were guilty of it as the Wanderers cut the deficit to a single goal by the half-time break.
When Romeo Castelen levelled proceedings with his second shortly after the re-start, the pendulum had swung back entirely in Western Sydney’s favour.
And by the time Castelen had registered his hat-trick on the hour mark, the Wanderers looked to be heading to their third A-League grand final.
So when Jamie Maclaren equalised for the visitors to make it 4-4 in normal time, it was impossible to predict a winner.
Having expended so much energy in a staggering 90 minutes of football, it would have been understandable if both teams sat back and played for penalties.
Instead the Wanderers continued to surge forward, and although Jamie Young repelled substitute Dario Vidosic’s original strike, he was unable to stop the marquee man from bundling home Mark Bridge’s cross in extra-time.
It was football of the most breathtaking variety and it completely overshadowed Adelaide United’s 4-1 dismantling of Melbourne City on Friday night.
For all their regenerative powers, the Wanderers may find backing up for the grand final in Adelaide a difficult task.
There were times this season when City looked unstoppable, yet Adelaide made them look decidedly second-rate in front of a jam-packed Coopers Stadium.
Not only have the Reds rediscovered a genuine goal scorer in Bruce Djite at precisely the right time, but Guillermo Amor’s outfit possesses the guile to pick apart even the tightest back four.
The Wanderers may boast many things, but a tight defence is not one of them – so we can expect goals one way or another in front of a capacity crowd at the Adelaide Oval.
The recently revamped stadium might not be an ideal venue for football, but with a capacity of 50,000 it’s where an Adelaide grand final by necessity has to be.
And with the round-ball code set to fill a ground more accustomed to hosting cricket and AFL fixtures, a few of Australia’s long-established sporting powers might be forgiven for throwing a few barbs football’s way this week.
The simple fact is the A-League produces the sort of atmosphere rival sports can only dream of.
And when the action on the pitch conjures the sort of drama we saw this weekend, it’s time for A-League fans to admit that ours is a competition as entertaining as any other.
If football has long been the sleeping giant of the Australian sporting landscape, then it’s safe to say the giant has stirred to life.
All that’s left is for Adelaide United and Western Sydney to write the next chapter, on the back of what has been the most compelling A-League finals series to date.