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

Event	2009–10 A-League
Melbourne Victory Sydney FC 1 1
After extra time Sydney won 4–2 on penalties
Date	20 March 2010
Venue	Etihad Stadium, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Man of the Match	Simon Colosimo, Sydney FC
Referee	Strebre Delovski[1]
Attendance	44,560
← 2009 2011 →

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

	Elimination finals					Semifinals						Preliminary final					Grand final
						1	Sydney FC	1	2								Melbourne Victory		1 (2)
						2	Melbourne Victory	2	2								Sydney FC (p.s.o.)		1 (4)
												Sydney FC		4
	3	Gold Coast United	0 (5)
												Wellington Phoenix		2
	6	Newcastle Jets (p.s.o.)	0 (6)
						Wellington Phoenix			3
						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

20 March 2010
19:00 UTC+11

Melbourne Victory	1–1 (a.e.t.)	Sydney FC
Leijer 81'	Reports[4]	Bridge 63'
Penalties
Muscat Brebner Angulo Broxham	2–4	Colosimo Cole Foxe Kisel Byun

Etihad Stadium, Melbourne

Attendance: 44,560^[5]

Referee: Strebre Delovski

Melbourne Victory

Sydney FC

GK 1 Mitchell Langerak DF 2 Kevin Muscat (c)  62' DF 5 Surat Sukha  71' MF 6 Leigh Broxham MF 8 Grant Brebner FW 10 Archie Thompson  16' DF 12 Rodrigo Vargas MF 16 Carlos Hernández FW 21 Robbie Kruse MF 22 Nick Ward  76' DF 23 Adrian Leijer 81' Substitutes: GK 20 Glen Moss MF 11 Marvin Angulo  16' DF 17 Matthew Foschini DF 19 Evan Berger  100'  71' FW 25 Aziz Behich  76' Manager: Ernie Merrick

GK 1 Clint Bolton DF 2 Sebastian Ryall  26' DF 3 Stephan Keller DF 4 Simon Colosimo  51' MF 6 Karol Kisel  84' MF 8 Stuart Musialik  105' FW 14 Alex Brosque  116' MF 15 Terry McFlynn (c) FW 16 Chris Payne  75' FW 19 Mark Bridge 63'  31' DF 22 Byun Sung-Hwan Substitutes: GK 20 Ivan Necevski DF 5 Hayden Foxe  105' MF 7 Brendan Gan DF 12 Shannon Cole  75' FW 31 Joey Gibbs  116' Manager: Vitezslav Lavicka

Joe Marston Medal: Simon Colosimo (Sydney FC) Assistant referees: Ben Wilson Matthew Cream Fourth official: Matthew Breeze

Match rules 90 minutes 30 minutes of extra time if necessary. Penalty shoot-out if scores still level.

Statistics

	Melbourne	Sydney
Attempts at goal	14	12
Attempts on target	6	6
Attempts off target	7	6
Attempts - woodwork	1	0
Keeper saves	3	4
Ball possession	51%	49%
Corners	8	5
Fouls committed	13	16
Offsides	3	3
Yellow cards	2	4
Red cards	0	0

See also

• 2009–10 A-League
• List of A-League champions