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Melbourne Victory never looked troubled in beating Brisbane Roar in their A-League semi-final, setting up a dream grand final showdown against Sydney FC.
Trust Besart Berisha to be the man to fire Victory into the title decider, as he headed home the only goal of the game in a 1-0 win over his former club at AAMI Park yesterday afternoon.
His expertly taken goal came courtesy of a pinpoint cross from Fahid Ben Khalfallah, although Roar fans will be tearing their hair out at how cheaply they gave away possession for the goal.
It summed up a disappointing display from the visitors, and John Aloisi could have some selection headaches to contend with next season with Tommy Oar and Brett Holman as his designated marquee players.
Oar battled hard but had little impact against a well-marshalled Victory defence, while Holman turned in a truly awful display when his team needed him most.
And unless there’s a twist in the tale, they’re unlikely to have the goals of Jamie Maclaren to rely upon next season either.
There are even whispers that Maclaren could be wearing Melbourne Victory colours next season, signing on as a like-for-like replacement for a potentially Chinese Super League-bound Berisha.
Whomever the Roar’s personnel next season – and they’d be wise to do their utmost to re-sign Avraam Papadopoulos – there’s no doubt they saved their worst for last yesterday.
But perhaps that does a disservice to Victory – who were superb in defence, creative in attack and had the always-accurate services of Berisha to fall back on for a goal.
And in Marco Rojas, James Troisi and Ben Khalfallah, Victory possess the sort of attacking trio that could actually cause Sydney FC some problems next weekend.
About the only disappointment from a Victory perspective was the total lack of atmosphere inside AAMI Park, with the on-going boycott from the North Terrace continuing to bite hard.
The Victory fans were completely out-sung by the visiting Roar supporters, many of whom can thank the Roar Supporters Federation for receiving free tickets to the game.
A-League fans in general could do with some similar representation, with Ticketek once again making a dog’s breakfast of getting grand final tickets into the hands of Sydney FC fans.
How many times are Ticketek going to fail at the seemingly simple task of selling tickets – adding insult to injury by charging an absurd service and handling fee – before someone at Football Federation Australia holds the company to account?
That said, given some of the astronomical prices being charged to attend the grand final, it’s clear fans are not at the forefront of FFA’s thinking.
They’re probably too busy fending off enquiries about the Video Assistant Referee system, which was called into play twice in Sydney FC’s 3-0 win over Perth Glory.
If we’re going to split hairs over the VAR, then both decisions looked technically correct on Saturday night – even if Perth Glory fans would prefer to disagree.
But questions have already been asked about how the VAR is to be used going forward, with Sydney FC benefiting twice on Saturday from goals that had already been disallowed.
Their second goal was the most contentious, with defender Jordy Buijs scoring a superb solo strike – but only after Glory defender Dino Djulbic claimed he had been impeded by an offside Bobo in the build-up.
It would have been a harsh decision to disallow the goal given that Buijs started and finished the move himself.
But there’s no doubt Glory were desperately unhappy with the decision – to say nothing of Filip Holosko’s fractionally onside header.
The Sky Blues nevertheless looked much the better side and had already taken a deserved lead through Josh Brillante’s thunderbolt.
They’ll need their midfield to be at their best in a grand final that pits first versus second next Sunday afternoon.
And another A-League season will climax with the biggest game of all, as Sydney FC host arch-rivals Melbourne Victory for the 2016-17 title.