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A-League Season 10 ends with a bang... and a fall

Roar Guru
18th May, 2015
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Melbourne Victory have led the way in the current A-League fan crisis. (AAP Image/David Crosling)
Roar Guru
18th May, 2015
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1376 Reads

Football Federation Australia Chairman Frank Lowy’s nasty fall from the stage at Sunday’s A-League grand final has dominated the headlines post-match, which is something of a shame for it detracts from what was a masterful performance from champions Melbourne Victory.

The Victory’s clinical dispatch of Sydney FC was a dominant tactical triumph for Kevin Muscat and his players. They swamped the Sky Blues, playing a high energy press which denied Sydney’s danger men space and time in the areas where they were likely to do damage.

Sydney looked poor, but that wasn’t really the case. They were pressured too often to be effective, could not establish any rhythm, and were unable to hold the ball long enough to punch holes in the Victory defence, as they had done so effectively against Adelaide the previous week.

Marc Janko was so well-marshalled by the Victory back four that he did not manage a single shot – his only chance being a header in the second half. Alex Brosque hardly touched the ball in the first half, but underlined his danger by drawing the only save of the first 45 minutes from Victory keeper Lawrence Thomas.

Mark Milligan, best on ground by a country mile, was as effective without the ball as he was with it. His workrate was amazing, his screening of the back four ensuring Sydney were unable to provide any service to their potent attacking trio of Janko, Naumoff and Ibini.

Even then, it was only Besart Berisha’s explosive strike in the first half that separated the teams going into the last 10 minutes.

Having successfully nullified Sydney’s forward momentum, cutting off passing channels and allowing no space between the lines, Melbourne still had the energy to break quickly and kill the game off with two late goals.

Typical of Victory’s energy levels was the run from Leigh Broxham to score the third. From deep inside his own half he surged down the inside right channel to accept the pass from Fahid Ben Khalfallah and hit an unstoppable strike into the top of the FC net.

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Cue the celebrations – and the very scary incident involving Frank Lowy. As the cameras panned the crowd and the commentators fell silent, I had fears of a very public on-screen tragedy.

Whenever the cameras don’t focus on the incident, the viewer has a sense that something bad is happening away from their eyes. For this reason, I’m not joining in the banter. It was a very bad fall for anyone to take, let alone an 84 year old man, albeit an obviously tough one.

I understand that Frank Lowy has, in the course of the past decade, made decisions that have disenfranchised and upset a lot of football fans. I don’t agree with everything he has done. But there would have been no A-League for the last 10 years, and likely not three successive World Cup finals campaigns for the Socceroos without his influence and decision-making.

He has given far more than he has taken away, and we have a vibrant and wonderfully competitive national competition to show for it.

A competition that the Melbourne Victory rule once more.

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