Who could have seen that coming? Such a comprehensive A-League title win by Adelaide United was well off the radar eight rounds into the season, when the Reds were winless under new coach Guillermo Amor.
The impact and emotion of the 3-1 grand final victory over the Western Sydney Wanderers is still being felt around a city that flooded the Adelaide Oval in a sea of red.
Looking around the Reds’ supporters crammed expectantly into the southern end at the start of the game, there were plenty of nerves.
After 90 minutes, those feelings changed to jubilation when supersub Pablo Sanchez did what he does best, scored a late goal, and sealed the club’s first title win.
It was a far cry from the dark days of the 2006-07 and 2008-09 seasons, when Adelaide lost grand finals to eastern arch-rivals Melbourne Victory in disconcerting fashion.
Since those losses, Adelaide fans have carried a little chip on their shoulder, created by the merciless men from Melbourne, such as the vile Kevin Muscat and the smiling assassin Archie Thompson.
In the wash-up of the second loss, then Reds’ coach Aurelio Vidmar described Adelaide as a “pissant town”, a place where internal politics prevented his team from achieving the ultimate.
As seasons went by, the pain of those grand final losses reduced, but the chip on the shoulder of this town’s passionate football community remained.
Adelaide, as a city, has a proud record of winning national titles, via Adelaide City in the former NSL, and producing bucket-loads of talent for the Socceroos.
But the city had never claimed the A-League title, with those ugly losses to the Victory overshadowing the club’s every move.
That has all changed, thanks to Guillermo Amor’s Red men, led by the mighty Eugene Galekovic.
Absent through injury for much of the early stages of the campaign, Galekovic was the supreme commander in what is being described as the most amazing turnaround ever seen in Australian sport.
Galekovic, who has few rivals as Adelaide’s greatest player of all time, is peerless and in a sport where trades are engineered at the drop of a hat, Reds fans are lucky to have had him as their custodian for so long.
The man is a giant and it is from defence that premierships are built – as has been shown during this successful title tilt, where the Reds had the best back half in the competition.
Adelaide’s willingness to run and defend, harrying the opposition and then counter-attacking proved a winning blueprint.
It is a blueprint that has seen the Reds shake that ugly ‘pissant’ tag and emerge champions, creating some new moments for their fans’ wonderwalls.
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Here is the way the Roar expert panel sees all the action unfolding across the final weekend of play prior to the semi-finals.
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