Adelaide United downed the Western Sydney Wanderers 3-1 in the A-League Grand Final on Sunday to claim the club’s first premiership.
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Two first-half goals to the Reds set up the victory, with Bruce Kamau’s clinical finish from close range and a magical free-kick from Isaias putting the home side in complete control.
From their dire early predicament, the Reds lost just once in their past 21 games – 16 wins and four draws – taking them to the title.
The Wanderers will contest their third Grand Final in four years, having reached the championship match on debut in 2012-13 as a hastily-assembled grab-bag of locals and foreign journeymen before repeating the feat the following year.
The tension was released, the result was secure – it was more despair for coach Tony Popovic and the Wanderers, and an end to the wait at last for Adelaide.
It was 2-0 to the Premiers 10 minutes before the break as Isaias curled home a sumptuous effort to leave Redmayne with no chance and the Adelaide fans in ecstasy.
Scott Neville’s opportunist riposte on 58 minutes would make Adelaide sweat but all the pain of Adelaide’s decade without an A-League championship would wash away. They made us run and a few of the boys started getting exhausted, especially second half.
“Of course, we’re proud of what we’ve done this year…”
When asked if the Wanderers’ decision to adopt a Spanish-inspired, ball-playing style of football this season was inspired by Adelaide’s decision to follow that path in 2013, Popovic said it was just a “coincidence”. Although the Reds have never won back-to-back finals before, and face the prospect of a third Grand Final defeat, Guillermo Amor will be quietly confident in his side.
“It’s a special day, for me it’s different when you are player and [now a coach]”, Amor told the awaiting media in the post-match press conference. This team is united in every sense of the word.
Seeing Michael Marrone potentially suffer a serious second half injury – said to be a torn achilles – only led his teammates to greater heights when the game was up for grabs. “At 2-0 it seemed quite comfortable and then they scored and put pressure on us. He brought that onto the field and what a fantastic game he played”.
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“To do the double from the position we were at after round eight, not many teams could have done that”, United captain Eugene Galekovic said.
