There was only 1 goal, but the 2009 A-League grand
final was every bit as entertaining as the 6-0 thrashing handed out to
Adelaide United two seasons ago. And last night they would have found
themselves much more crushed because the game was a hard fought
contest. It wasn't a free flowing game of football, and it wasn't a
showcase of the technical excellence that Melbourne is capable of
producing, but it was a gladiatorial battle between two teams who
despise each other.

The Presets proved that only
is an open stadium an absolutely terrible place for any type of music
to be played, but that pre-match entertainment takes a little bit away
from the anxiousness before a grand final. Yet when the music was gone
and the match began it didn't take long until any noise The Presets
could have produced would have been drowned out by furious shouts as
Vargas was left bleeding on the ground. Cristiano was wrongly set off
and the precedent was set. Adelaide reacted by defending with 11—err,
10 players in front of their goal.

Vidmar can
blame the sending off all he wants, but the fact is his tactical
reaction was slow. It was not until half time that he brought on
another striker (not that Agostino is much of a striker any more!) and
for the first 10 minutes of the first half they dominated. It took Ward
being taken off for Berger (a fullback) for Melbourne to regain control
again. Still, Adelaide does like defending, as it's a little harder to
try and injure your opponent and start brawls, when you're attacking. :P

As
I said it may not have been a showcase of technical football but it
certainly was one hell of a physical contest. A bitter one at that.
Multiple little 'arguments' broke out with regularity and the game was
lucky to finish with only two players being sent off, and half the
Adelaide team being booked.

After Adelaide's
goalkeeper (a former player of ours) pushed over Allsopp another
scuffle broke out and Allsopp head butted Cornthwaite and he too was
given his marching orders. Naturally nothing happened to Galekovic,
indeed he was the one that alerted the woeful Mathew Breeze to the
head-butt!

That's
not to say there wasn't some good football on display. Both goalkeepers
put in absolutely amazing performances by pulling off a handful of
fantastic saves and it took a fantastic long range strike from Tom
Pondeljak to break the deadlock. At which point there was a mysterious
rain of beer sprayed down from the upper tier as the crowd exploded. I
hope it was beer anyway...

There was another
beer-rain when the full whistle was blown after an agonising three
minutes of stoppage time which felt far closer to thirty minutes. But
when it was finally over the second time was far more satisfying than
the first. The first was a surreal experience, but this was an awesome
one. We were pushed all the way in a violent contest yet we were still
the ones that landed the final blow despite the viciousness of
Adelaide's play.

The atmosphere for the whole
match was fantastic too (despite the pasison police telling people to
'shut their trap or get out' and stop standing on seats. I stared
distastefully at one of them, and when I managed to catch their eye
they liked away in terror gg). The Blue and White Brigade seemed quite
quiet to me (I was next to them) and a little disjointed, and perhaps
this is because I like Australian atmospheres, but there's nothing
better than having 53,000 people shouting passionately. Indeed it's
even better than having a few hundred or thousand singing.

In
fact, 50,000 people booing Adelaide after the match was just plain
awesome. A woman behind me was not too impressed by it and singled me
out for me wearing a t-shirt with Jesus on the back (apparently I was
nothing like Jesus!) but after the bitterness of the contest it just
made it all the sweeter and more satisfying.

Bring on next season.

Merrick...smiling?