Australian football: Melbourne Victory win A-League grand final
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Melbourne Victory has won the A-League Grand Final against Adelaide United at the Telstra Dome. Melbourne came into the match with a 6-0 (2-0, 4-0) win over Adelaide United in their two legged semi final. Adelaide United came into the match with a win against Queensland Roar in the preliminary final.
The A-League uses the Page playoff system where the winner of the major semi final (1st vs. 2nd) qualifies for the grand final, while the loser plays the winner of the minor semi final (3rd vs. 4th) for the remaining place.
28 February 2009 19:30 UTC+11:00 | |||
Melbourne Victory | 1 – 0 | Adelaide United | Telstra Dome Attendance: 53,273 Referee: Matthew Breeze |
Pondeljak Allsopp |
Report Summary |
Cristiano |
Melbourne midfielder Tom Pondeljak scored the only goal for the match with a long range strike on sixty minutes.
Adelaide were reduced to ten men after ten minutes when Cristiano landed a clumsy elbow to the head of an opposing player. Melbourne was reduced to ten men twenty minutes from time when Danny Allsopp was sent off due to a late fracas.
"It was a great performance. Adelaide were great, they pushed us right to the death but I think we deserved it," Melbourne captain Kevin Muscat said. "Down to 10 men it was a very difficult game for us but the amount of courage and heart the boys showed tonight to get through the game and keep fighting to the end was fantastic. I couldn't ask any more."
"It's one of those things I guess, it changed the game, but what can you do about it now?" Adelaide Captain Travis Dodd told Fox Sports after the match. "We worked hard to keep it scoreless until half-time, to keep our discipline and keep our shape and keep doing what we were doing."
Related news
- "Australian football: Adelaide United defeat Queensland Roar, through to A-League Grand Final" — Wikinews, February 21, 2009
- "Australian football: Melbourne through to A-League Grand Final, Adelaide to play Queensland in preliminary final" — Wikinews, February 14, 2009
- "Australia's Queensland Roar through to first A-League football preliminary final" — Wikinews, Feruary 13, 2009
Sources
- Julian Linden and Clare Fallon. "Soccer-Melbourne win Australian A-League grand final" — Reuters, February 28, 2009
- Joe O'Shea. "Victory claim second A-League title" — Australian Broadcastinf Corporation, February 28, 2009