2010 A-League Grand Final

The 2010 A-League Grand Final took place at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Australia on 20 March 2010.

2010 A-League Grand Final
Event2009–10 A-League
Melbourne Victory Sydney FC
1 1
Sydney won 4–2 on penalties
Date20 March 2010
VenueEtihad Stadium, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Man of the MatchSimon Colosimo, Sydney FC
RefereeStrebre Delovski [1]
Attendance44,560

It was the final match in the A-League 2009–10 season, and was played between premiers Sydney FC and runners-up Melbourne Victory. Sydney FC won the match 4–2 on penalty shootout after drawing the game 1–1 and became the winners of the 2009–10 Championship in addition to their premiership.[2]

The A-League National Youth League Grand Final was held at Etihad Stadium prior to the main game. After coming 4th in the 2009–10 season, Gold Coast United won the youth title in their inaugural season, coming from a goal down to defeat Perth Glory, 2–1.[3]

Route to the final
See also: 2009–10 A-League
  Semi Finals Week 1 Semi Finals Week 2 Preliminary Final Grand Final
    A - 18 February       D - 7 March               G - 20 March  
  1  Sydney FC  1 —  Sydney FC  2    Melbourne Victory  1 (2)
  2  Melbourne Victory  2 —  Melbourne Victory (a.e.t.)  2              Sydney FC (p.s.o)  1 (4)
                    F - 13 March          
    B - 20 February                Sydney FC  4        
  3  Gold Coast United  0 (5)              Wellington Phoenix  2        
  6  Newcastle Jets (p.s.o)  0 (6)     E - 7 March                  
             Wellington Phoenix (a.e.t.)  3                
    C - 21 February        Newcastle Jets  1                
  4  Wellington Phoenix (p.s.o)  1 (4)                        
  5  Perth Glory  1 (2)                        

Match

Summary

An early knee injury forced key striker Archie Thompson, who scored 5 goals in the 2007 A-League Grand Final, off the field in the sixteenth minute. He was replaced by Costa Rican Marvin Angulo.

With both teams struggling to break the deadlock, Melbourne were left stunned when Mark Bridge scored a goal in the 63rd minute after a deflected cross. To add to Melbourne's misfortune, it was scored less than a minute after Rodrigo Vargas' headed goal was correctly disallowed by the assistant referee for offside.

Melbourne were able to find an equaliser through Adrian Leijer after Kevin Muscat delivered a set piece. Leijer's late header resulted in some frantic final minutes, but neither team were able to find the breakthrough goal in normal time. Extra time resulted in few opportunities and the game was decided by penalties for the first time in A-League history.

Details
Melbourne Victory1–1 (a.e.t.)Sydney FC
Leijer  81' Report
Summary		 Bridge  63'
Penalties
Muscat
Brebner
Angulo
Broxham 		2–4 Colosimo
Cole
Foxe
Kisel
Byun
Attendance: 44,560[4]
Melbourne
Sydney
MELBOURNE VICTORY:
GK1 Mitchell Langerak
DF2 Kevin Muscat (c) 62'
DF5 Surat Sukha 71'
MF6 Leigh Broxham
MF8 Grant Brebner
FW10 Archie Thompson 16'
DF12 Rodrigo Vargas
MF16 Carlos Hernández
FW21 Robbie Kruse
MF22 Nick Ward 76'
DF23 Adrian Leijer 81'
Substitutes:
GK20 Glen Moss
MF11 Marvin Angulo 16'
DF17 Matthew Foschini
DF19 Evan Berger 100' 71'
FW25 Aziz Behich 76'
Manager:
Ernie Merrick


Joe Marston Medal: Simon Colosimo

Assistant Referees: Ben Wilson Matthew Cream
Fourth Official:Matthew Breeze
SYDNEY FC:
GK1 Clint Bolton
DF2 Sebastian Ryall 26'
DF3 Stephan Keller
DF4 Simon Colosimo 51'
MF6 Karol Kisel 84'
MF8 Stuart Musialik 105'
FW14 Alex Brosque 116'
MF15 Terry McFlynn (c)
FW16 Chris Payne 75'
FW19 Mark Bridge 63' 31'
DF22 Byun Sung-Hwan
Substitutes:
GK20 Ivan Necevski
DF5 Hayden Foxe 105'
MF7 Brendan Gan
DF12 Shannon Cole 75'
FW31 Joey Gibbs 116'
Manager:
Vitezslav Lavicka


A-League
2010 Champions
Sydney FC
Second Title

Statistics
Melbourne Sydney
Attempts at goal1412
Attempts on target66
Attempts off target76
Attempts - woodwork10
Keeper saves34
Ball possession51%49%
Corners85
Fouls committed1316
Offsides33
Yellow cards24
Red cards00

See also

References
  1. "A-League Grand Final To Be Refereed By Strebre Delovski". Goal.com. Retrieved 20 March 2010.
  2. "Sydney FC claim A-League title". ESPN. 20 March 2010. Archived from the original on 23 March 2010. Retrieved 20 March 2010.
  3. "Tahj secures glory for Gold Coast". A-League.com.au. Archived from the original on 7 November 2010. Retrieved 20 March 2010.
  4. The stadium was configured into rectangular mode for the match
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