For 83 minutes, Brisbane’s composer, conductor and the man they call Mozart, Thomas Broich, glided around Suncorp Stadium trying to harmonise his band.
His lethargic teammates failed to follow. Burnt out from a busy ACL schedule and stifled by the frenzied and applied Perth Glory, he played a lone hand in representing the Roar’s usual grace, penetration and poise.
The Glory were superb. While their football was not pure it was industrious. Skipper Jacob Burns and Liam Miller sat in front of the defence and stopped attack after attack. When breached by either Broich, Partaluu or Murdocca, the makeshift central defensive pairing of Steve Pantelidis and Bas Van Den Brink were suitably tight.
Moreover Brisbane’s usual attacking prongs were terrible. Henrique was completely ineffective and Mitch Nichols lacked the composure and inventiveness of play we have become so accustomed to.
This led Bersart Berisha to be an isolated figure, forcing Ivan Franjic and Shane Steffanuto to be more involved in the play when in attack. It was Franjic who had Brisbane’s best chance for the first half, saved well by Danny Vukovic.
The lack of fluidity in the Roar’s play directly stemmed from the bland performances of midfield fulcrums Partaluu and Murdocca. Usually the generators of Brisbane’s tempo, they were slow to the ball, one-dimensional in passing and eventually substituted together, midway through the second half for James Meyer and Nick Fitzgerald.
The introduction of these two brought sharpness to the Roar and was a turning point in the game.
Up to that stage the Glory had counter attacked and managed to score in the 51st minute through an Ivan Franjic own goal. Billy Mehmet’s run past four Brisbane players created the cross from Travis Dodd that was deflected in by the Roar left back.
Before this goal and up until Broich’s intervention the Glory were smothering Brisbane.
However when it was needed, Mozart delivered. Receiving the ball on the right he took a perfect touch and wound in a dipping and curling cross which was met by the perfectly timed run of Bersart Berisha.
Superlatives cannot measure the quality of the German’s cross. It was stunning.
The Albanian flicked the ball past Vukovic in the 83rd minute, changing the course of the match.
Brisbane pressed and pressed in the final minutes. The experienced and tireless was Dean Heffernan sent off for a second yellow at the start of injury time, leaving Perth with 10 men.
Eventually the Glory were robbed. It was a terrible and blatantly wrong decision to award the penalty to Brisbane in injury time. Berisha did wonderfully to elude the challenges flung at him in the box from a desperate Glory defence but nonetheless was not fouled in any way.
The referee was simply fooled. Not by a Berisha dive but by the fact that Liam Miller missed a challenge on Berisha that the referee seemed to think clipped him. Really Berisha was brought down by the force of his own fresh-air attempt to shoot.
It was terribly harsh for the Glory to lose in this way. Berisha sent Vukovic the wrong way from the spot and with a second remaining Brisbane had a second title.
The Roar’s play at no point reached anything resembling their normal selves. If it weren’t for Broich’s masterful cross for the first goal and lead-up play to Berisha for the penalty, Brisbane would not have won.
Perth scurried and hampered as hard and long as they could, but their abrasiveness could not match or quell the wizardry of Broich.
Broich was wrongly awarded the Joe Marston Medal for best afield due to what Lyall Gorman termed an “an administrative error”, before Jacob Burns was rightly awarded the Medal after the match.
But the German midfielder was still the standout for the home side, providing a positional master class to the crowd of 50,000 at Suncorp with his tackling, interceptions and distribution.
Perth will feel robbed, cheated. And they should, it was a disastrous penalty decision. However with 10 men, 30 minutes of extra time to play and a slowly awakening Brisbane, they surely could not have scored a winner or held on for penalties.
Brisbane secure their second championship deservedly. They are the best footballing team this nation has seen in a long time. Certainly the best I have seen.
Let it be a notice to every football fan and participant that this is the way to play. Ange Postecoglu has given Australia something great to build on. A modern football blueprint.
For this they are deserved champions.
EDITOR’S NOTE: At the time of writing and editing the article, Thomas Broich had incorrectly been awarded the Joe Marston Medal, before Jacob Burns was then awarded the Medal post-match. This article has now been corrected to reflect Burns as the Joe Marston Medallist.
The Bush
Roar Guru
Way to sensible of a post for you to survive to Guru stage on the Roar!
The Bush
Roar Guru
You do realise that Osieck has done the following; 1. Been assistant coach to a World Cup winning team (1990 - West Germany); 2. Won the Asian Champions League (the League that Ange's team is about to bow out of in last place); 3. Won the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2000 with Canada, that's right, not USA or Mexico, Canada. Ange's is great, but let's try and keep things in perspective... P.S. He also wont the Turkish Cup during his time with Kocaelispor.
The Bush
Roar Guru
+ 1
Load of Crap
Guest
what joke, justify the dive as much as you want, but you really don't have to the decision was made and result set in concrete. He dived that's it, he's not the first and sadly not the last. He probably wasn't even the only player to take a dive in the match, but he dived, took a punt at getting a penalty and he got it. He would have taken a dive regardless of the match or what the time was. He took a dive and as Perth Glory supporter the game should not be remembered for this one act, because at the end of the day I am proud of the performance of the Glory players and Iam disappointed that they didn't win but understand that Brisbane are deserving of the win and congratulations to them. Football is bigger than this incident and hopefully we have short memories, get over it and be more inclined to remeber the fact that there was over 50 tousand people at a game of football in Australia.
peter
Guest
Perth came to the grand final with seemingly no intention of playing - only stopping Brisbane playing. A tactic fraught with danger and ultimately their conservatism and fear was pun ished. All Perth were robbed of was an extra time loss - they were gone after the equaliser. Down to 10, knackered, and no attacking threat. They were not unlucky - just not good enough.
Bob
Guest
did you even watch game?
Bob
Guest
Well you should also ask to amend the entire article because it was a penalty and the Glory weren't robbed as they didn't even have a shot on goal. But hay, who needs facts...
oikee
Guest
Agree, it looked to me Brisabne were doing all the attacking, i think Brisbane were saved by Berisha brilliance. Him and Broich are simply wonderful players. I dont think we win without them. Thank goodness they play for Brisbane. Yeah.
The Bear
Guest
Way too much sense in many these posts : ) Just reaffirms that this blog site attracts a more thoughtful and rational species!
The Bear
Guest
+ 1
anthcol
Roar Pro
Yeh i agree. He wasnt up to his usual standard but compared to every other Brisbane player he was so far ahead. If it wasnt for his brilliant cross Roar would not be champions. Therefore he deserves high plaudits.
Dillan
Guest
+1
dinoweb
Roar Guru
Sorry, but just how exactly were Perth robbed? They never really looked like scoring a goal off their own foot for the entire match, and as you yourself say, the first Brisbane goal was superb. If the penalty had tied it up and Brisbane went on to win then perhaps I could perhaps understand this "robbed" idea, but seriously Brisbane had 9 shots to 1 and dominated possession. It is Brisbane that would have been robbed if the score had stayed at 1-0.
Anthony
Guest
My bad
Matt Bungard
Roar Guru
I've been on the Broich bandwagon since the start but I really don't think he played well in this game...even when he was mistakenly given the medal, I thought it was a little odd. It reminded me of the 2010 NRL Grand Final where Darius Boyd won best on ground despite having an average performance that day - it was more a testament to his achievements throughout the year, than his showing in the grand final.
JohnL
Guest
The double sub by Brisbane was Luke Bratten and Nick Fitzgerald for Paartaluu and Murdocca. James Meyer came on around the 74th minute mark.
Anthony
Guest
I wrote this before the medal was winner was changed, I asked for the article to be changed but it wasn't
Kasey
Guest
If we had proper football journalists and indulgent editors(as other sports seem to have) I'd be confident we'd find out some time this week just how that happened. Instead I'll bet London to a brick all we get this week from the MSM is endless rehashes along the theme of "See the Berisha 'penalty farce' is exactly why Sockah will never amount to a hill of beans in this country" We've gone from one of the best GFs in Australian sporting history to a game that contained yet another excuse for those who already hate our sport to push their agendas about why it 'sucks and we should be watching something else:( Keep a special eye out for any elements that push the racist element, that an Aussie would never 'dive' like that. [FWIW - it wasn't a dive, he just fell over his own feet IMO and the Ref messed it up big time:( ] As for finding out how the wrong name was read out, we football fans will as usual rely on our fall back of bit-part bloggers and internet forums (ie: the way of the future) I guess.
Roarsome
Guest
In order to be 'robbed', you need to be in possession of something, which they weren't. Without a single shot on goal throughout the game and down to 10 men, a more fitting phrase would be "Perth were denied the chance to pull something out of their ass or more likey, lose gracefully in extra time". They certainly weren't robbed. I'm not entering the debate of the pen so far as to say. No Roar player blew the whistle and from where the ref was standing, he thought it looked like a Pen and awarded it. It's on the score sheet. -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.
Johnno
Guest
Ange for next socceroos coach. If Holger is sacked if he gets some bad results mid qualifying, then Ange has to be looked at replacing Holger. I think Ange is a better coach than Holger. Ange it would not surprise me in the last 2 year , if he has a better win loss statistics than Holger in his entire career. -Ange has been a successful coach every where he has went . Would Hiddink be getting the same results at the Brisbane Roar , as Ange. I -Ange record at the Brisbane roar in the last 2 seasons would match all the best coaches in world football i would imagine. the speical one, Sir Alex Ferguson, Hiddink you name it. -Wenger hasn't won a EPL title in a long time, and would love the record Ange has. -If Ange is getting better statical coaches than some of the best coaches in the World then surely Ange should be considered one of the best coaches in World football right now. -He is defiantly getting better statistical results than Sir Alex Ferguson, And Wenger in the past 2 years that can not be denied. -