There’s been over a thousand A-League games played.
Some good, some bad but be prepared to take a trip down memory lane as we look at the best five ever played.
5) Perth Glory v Gold Coast United 2009/10 (Round 6)
There’s nothing quite like a good old-fashioned football rivalry which unites the fans and amps up the atmosphere. Failing that though, there’s nothing quite like a forced rivalry which is entirely contrived and serves only to highlight the business interests of the club owners.
Yes, in a tale as old as time two star-crossed teams located approximately 4,337 kilometres apart, Perth Glory and Gold Coast played for the forgettable and lamentable ‘Iron Ore Cup’. Get it? Because their owners worked in mining… Who says romance is dead in football?
Given the contrasting form of both sides, it was such a surprise to see Perth dominating this game from the get-go, preying on Gold Coast’s lethargy to be 2-0 up inside 20 minutes thanks to fine strikes by Branko Jelic and Viktor Sikora and seemingly have the match on ice. However, much like Clive Palmer’s newfound political career the Gold Coast came back to life again and returned fire in the second-half. A Jacob Burns own-goal set-up a tense final few minutes before Shane Smeltz arrived centre-stage to seal a point for United in stoppage time.
Hindsight will paint a different picture, but this was the new A-League verse the old NSL. Gold Coast at the time where a shining light of how Australian football could expand and grow the game as they went on to claim a third place finish.
I guess Clive Palmer kept the cup? I mean he bought the trophy after all. What a weird time that was.
4) Adelaide v Brisbane Roar 2018/19 (Round 17)
Adelaide’s tensions flared as Danish midfielder Ken Ilso was controversially red-carded in the ninth minute which seemed to be the slice of luck Brisbane needed. Brisbane had been struggling through the season after sacking former coach John Aloisi and replacing him with Darren Davies but that didn’t matter here as Henrique struck earlier to open the scoring.
As if to prove it wasn’t a fluke, young star Dylan Wenzel-Halls pounced on a mistake from Ryan Strain to volley the ball past Paul Izzo to double the lead before Adam Taggart found his radar with an accurate strike from outside the box. 3-0 should have seen Adelaide dead and buried but when Isaias stepped and nailed a free-kick on the stroke of half-time, there was a weird sense something had changed.
Specifically, Dane Ingham had a brain-fade and received his second yellow-card and marching orders while Jamie Young went from Human Wall to Wrecking Ball by clothes-lining Craig Goodwin on a break-away to earn the third red card of the match.
Goodwin did his best Lazarus impression and rose from being hit into next week to score United’s second and make every Brisbane fan nervous. George Blackwood then used all of his height to nudge a header over a sprawling Brendan White to level it which should have been good enough.
But hen, young talent Carlo Armiento – who had been subbed on minutes earlier – found himself in possession as the seconds ticked down before delivering a perfect curling cross. It was made better by Nikola Mileusnic who met it was an equally perfect header to send United’s Red Army into cardiac arrest.
There had been a lot of talk about how the A-League was struggling but this action-packed game showed the league still has a lot to offer for the neutral and fans alike especially when Australian football needed a positive story.
3) Melbourne Heart v Melbourne Victory 2011/12 (Round 12)
Nothing quite like a Sydneysider to fire up a newly formed Melbourne Derby (and we aren’t talking about Harry Kewell).
Matt Thompson. All-time great of the Newcastle Jets with a penchant for the spectacular, Thompson had the best five minutes of his life on 23 December 2011. Archie Thompson opened the scoring with a sublime chip over Clint Bolton before Matt Thompson slid one past Ante Covic to restore parity and send the crowd into raptures.
He wasn’t done there though. Finding himself with no other option, Thompson was played through by Fred and caught on an acute angle with all 193 cm of Ante Covic to beat and he did it in style, one-upping Archie Thompson’s earlier chip with one of his own.
Heart’s marquee man Alex Terra showed his acrobatic flair as he volleyed for the Heart’s third goal while seemingly off balance. Carlos Hernandez breathed life into the fixture in injury-time with a trademark goal from the free-kick but Heart ran-out 3-2 winners.
The fourth instalment of the Melbourne Derby remains arguably one of its best and cemented the fixture as a ‘must watch’ given the entertaining nature of the fixtures and passion both sets of supporters bought to the game.
2) Sydney FC v Melbourne Victory 2016/17 (Grand Final)
This game wasn’t brilliant from an aesthetic point of view but my word it was intense, and you felt every minute and every tackle of this one as it threatened to boil over at times, with 60 fouls and 11 cards given overall.
Marcos Rojas was hit into next week by two Sydney defenders but play continued as Carl Valeri fed through goal-scoring machine Bersart Berisha who used all his nous to produce a tidy finish to open the scoring.
Rhyan Grant restored parity after poking home from close range following David Carney’s shot being palmed away by Lawrence Thomas. The noise from the crowd was something else as Sydney were suddenly back in the game. That took it to penalties and the tension in the ground ramped up to extraordinary levels.
The nerves were palatable as Alex Wilkinson, usually a picture of composure, sent his penalty wide. The case of the nerves seemed to be contagious as Carl Valeri fired his penalty into the crossbar. Danny Vukovic, forever the man for the moment, saved Marcos Rojas’ penalty before Milos Ninkovic sealed Sydney’s comeback and crowned Sydney’s era of dominance under Graham Arnold.
Sydney’s supporters celebrated long and hard into the night (or at least as well as you can when the nightclubs lockout at 1:30 in the morning).
1) Brisbane Roar v Central Coast Mariners 2010/11 (Grand Final)
On the original Orange Sunday, Brisbane’s championship dreams look to be crumbling in extra time – only the second instance of extra time in an A-League Grand Final – as the Mariners led 2-0 with less then four minutes left via Adam Kwasnik pouncing on a loose ball from a corner scramble and Oliver Bozniac striking a blow with a goal on the counter-attack in classic ‘Mariners’ fashion.
Rumour has it that organisers just finished preparing a Mariners themed celebration before Brisbane was like “Yeah nah, hold my beer”.
Thomas Broich trapped the ball slightly behind him under immense pressure from the Mariners defence, laying it off to Henrique who managed to scrounge a shot away that squeezed past Mat Ryan.
In the dying embers of extra time, the Mariners cleared another Roar forward foray for a needless corner… yet all they had to do was clear the corner and the trophy was theirs at last.
Broich floats in the corner as a mass of bodies converge in the box before man mountain Erik Paartalu and buries a bullet header into the upper reaches of the net.
The rest as they say is history as Brisbane claim their first premiership via a penalty shoot-out. This game had it all: drama, action, excitement and unprecedented support, it was a glimpse at what Australian football could achieve.
Feature image credit: Jaime Castaneda
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