Brisbane puts on a great A-League grand final

The A-League powers that be have ridden a wave of good fortune when it comes to the venue for the grand final.

In nine seasons, only three venues have hosted the decider – the Sydney Football Stadium, Docklands Stadium in Melbourne and Brisbane’s Lang Park.

So far, the A-League hasn’t had to confront the tricky issue of where to schedule a game if a team like Adelaide United won the right to host.

More A-League grand final coverage:
– Full match report and video highlights
– Comment: Mike Tuckerman
– Roar revel in Suncorp success
– Football is here to stay in Australia
– Mulvey: Roar now A-League benchmark
– The Roar‘s live blog
The Central Coast Mariners played their ‘home’ final in Sydney in 2008, as did the Wanderers last season.

Brisbane boasts arguably the best rectangular ground in the country and proved it again with this season’s thrilling climax.

It was a game that could have ended up at Sydney’s Olympic Stadium or back at Docklands. But Brisbane Roar’s tight win over the Victory in the semi final ensured those in charge had sly smiles on their faces.

With the magnificent Western Sydney Wanderers fans heading north in their tens of thousands, the sold out “Cauldron” looked and sounded the part of a marquee event. With 52,000 fans, incredible noise, colour and chants, the showpiece event had the very best that football has to offer.

On the ground, the two teams might not have read the script in the first 45 minutes. The first half was a stilted, tight and scrappy affair. Of the two goalkeepers only the Wanderers’ Ante Covic was made to sweat when a Thomas Broich shot shaved his far post deep into the half.

Perhaps this should have been expected. After all, these were the top two sides in the A-League with the two best defences of the regular season.

It was a defender who opened the scoring in the 55th minute. Matthew Spiranovic got behind Broich at the near post and headed home a pinpoint Shinji Ono corner to send the travelling red-and-black-clad fans into raptures. It’s a sight many Australian fans hope the 25-year-old might repeat in Brazil next month. He will surely be part of Ange Postecoglou’s Socceroos squad.

As soon as the Wanderers scored the Roar became more expansive, attacking down both flanks and stretching a resolute and well-drilled Wanderers defensive unit. There were signs that Brisbane were gaining the upper hand – dominant in possession and becoming increasingly penetrative in the front third.

But it took some misfortune to upset the Wanderers defensive resolve when Nikolai Topor-Stanley fell awkwardly while tackling Brisbane striker Besart Berisha. He was forced to leave the field with a knee injury. The resulting re-shuffle saw Aaron Mooy come into the defensive midfield position that Iacopo La Rocca was excelling in, with the latter moving back to the centre of defence.

For all his undoubted talent, Mooy was not nearly as effective and the Roar began to control the middle of the park.

Still, the Wanderers held on until the almost inevitable one-two punch from Brisbane’s ‘Killer Bs’. A Broich free kick was headed home by Berisha only four minutes from full time and Suncorp went crazy. I have no love for our current prime minister, but he’d make a believer out of me if he was able to get Broich and Berisha naturalised and eligible for the Socceroos in the next week or so!

It could have been different had Tom Juric’s shot, parried by Michael Theo in the Roar goal, dropped a little more kindly to Youssouf Hersi late in the game. While Berisha’s last game for the Roar was being watched closely, it was easy to forget that Hersi was wearing the red and black hoops for the last time.

A game that had grown great yet again saw the Roar finish strong. An extra time winner for substitute Henrique should have almost been expected. As Brisbane held on to win the game and the championship, it threw up an amazing statistic: the Roar have now won three grand finals out of three, yet have never scored first and have never scored earlier than the 84th minute.

The Wanderers were wonderful in defeat, which is cold comfort for them, but they now have Asian Champions League games to look forward to. Brisbane have a third title in four seasons and the dynasty Ange started has now been resumed by Mike Mulvey. A couple more titles and their training ground will feature all gold-plated toilet seats.

That they will be attempting to defend their title without the wonderfully crazy Berisha is almost unthinkable. The wild-eyed Albanian heads south to Melbourne Victory having scored half of Brisbane’s grand final goals, even though he wasn’t there for the epic 2011 decider.

So season nine comes to a close, and officials will be again thanking their lucky stars that the final showpiece ended up once again in a “Cauldron”. It’s a venue fit for a football banquet.

More A-League grand final coverage:
– Full match report and video highlights
– Comment: Mike Tuckerman
– Roar revel in Suncorp success
– Football is here to stay in Australia
– Mulvey: Roar now A-League benchmark
– The Roar‘s live blog