{"id":4423,"date":"2011-03-15T20:17:27","date_gmt":"2011-03-15T10:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=4423"},"modified":"2014-05-12T19:06:32","modified_gmt":"2014-05-12T09:06:32","slug":"a-league-grand-final-brisbane-roar-vs-central-coast-mariners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=4423","title":{"rendered":"A-League Grand Final – Brisbane Roar vs Central Coast Mariners – Orange Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Season With Verona by Tim Parks<\/p><\/div>\n

This whole thing started seven months ago when my mate Rich lent me a book called A Season With Verona<\/em><\/a> by Tim Parks.\u00a0 On its own terms it is a wonderfully insightful book into Italian footballing culture but it also resonated with me on another level that relates directly to this blog.\u00a0 I really enjoyed sharing Park’s highly personal and detailed account of how a sports fan experiences the ups and downs of a single season.\u00a0 Like the hopes you carry into the start of the season for what lies ahead.\u00a0 The excitement and mystery surrounding new players or coaches.\u00a0 The characters in the crowd that sit around you during the game who share the experience.\u00a0 The highs, the lows, the wins, the losses, the injuries, the comebacks, the times where real life gets in the way.\u00a0 All of that stuff.\u00a0 So I unashamedly stole Parks’ template and decided to write about A Season With Brisbane Roar<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

So for twenty-two<\/a> blog entries, I shared my thoughts on the 2010\/11 season of the Brisbane Roar in the A-League.\u00a0 I went to every single home game this season, bar one.\u00a0 I watched every away game live on TV.\u00a0 I had been a casual Roar fan for the past three years or so but I could rarely find anyone to go the games with me back then.\u00a0 Then all of a sudden, by chance, I ended up with four consistent companions who were regularly available to come to the games with me.\u00a0 My brother-in-law Dom, my mate Rich and his wife Jill and lastly my own wife Jen who became a big supporter in the past twelve months (yes!).\u00a0 This was critical to my seriously escalating fandom.\u00a0 Like the best things in life, watching sport works best as a shared experience.<\/p>\n

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At Suncorp with Rich during the Round 11 match against the Victory<\/p><\/div>\n

Part of what initially made A Season With Verona<\/em> relatable to me was the performance of the team that Parks was following.\u00a0 In 2002, Verona were minnows in the Italian Serie A and in the book they end up finishing fourth from bottom and getting relegated on the last day of the season.\u00a0 In the 2009\/10 season for the Brisbane Roar, their former coach got sacked midway through the season for drink-driving on the way to training.\u00a0 Then twelve players left the club shortly afterwards, many openly criticizing the new coach Ange Postecoglou and his methods on the way out.\u00a0 The club finished 9th out of 10 teams.\u00a0 Although we had a promising start to the 2010\/11 season when I began writing about the Roar, I fully expected that by the time Round 30 rolled around we would probably be languishing around mid-table at best.<\/p>\n

Unbeknownst\u00a0 to me at the time, I had chosen to write about the club in their most remarkable year where they would go on an unprecedented run of undefeated games, experience a natural disaster that would see their stadium get submerged in flood water, only to recover a few weeks later to host their maiden grand final appearance in front of 50,000 fans.\u00a0 During their first home game against Sydney FC, a paltry crowd of 10,000 turned up to watch them play.\u00a0 Over the course of the season however, the club’s performance caught the eye of not just football fans around the country but casual sports followers in Brisbane who might traditionally follow League or Rugby.\u00a0 It was immensely gratifying to see the crowd figures swell from 10,000-15,000 in the regular season to consistently over 20,000 for their last four home games of the season.<\/p>\n

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The Den is filled to capacity during the Grand Final<\/p><\/div>\n

The Grand Final was played at a sold out Suncorp Stadium against the Central Coast Mariners.\u00a0 This was the Roar’s first ever grand final appearance and it was the Mariner’s third appearance in the six year history of the competition.\u00a0 Neither side had been crowned as champions before.\u00a0 Jen, Dom, Rich, Jill, myself and five other friends had tickets for the game and had some of the best seats in the house.\u00a0 Middle terrace, close to the halfway line.\u00a0 The atmosphere in the ground was absolutely electric and I had been sick to my stomach with nerves since about an hour before kick off.\u00a0 We had had an incredible season but who knew what was in store for the final?\u00a0 We were going in as favourites but being on a 27-match unbeaten streak surely meant that the pressure would eventually have to take its toll.\u00a0 We were due for a loss.\u00a0 And the Mariners had pushed us to the absolute limit, drawing 2-2 and 3-3 in previous weeks.<\/p>\n

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The starting 11 for the final<\/p><\/div>\n

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The game was evenly contested from the outset with both sides having clear cut opportunities.\u00a0 From the opening minute of the game, Thomas Broich appeared to be through on goal but was incorrectly flagged offside by the linesman.\u00a0 It set the tempo for the match that followed which would be full of chances.\u00a0 A Mariners’ shot at goal from a corner was cleared off the line by captain Matt McKay who worked hard all game and played an absolute blinder.\u00a0 The Roar fired ten shots at goal by halftime.\u00a0 It became clear though that the Mariners’ 19 year old goalkeeper Matthew Ryan was playing the game of his life.\u00a0 He was blocking everything that came his way.\u00a0 The one shot that beat him rattled off the crossbar and stayed out.\u00a0 It was a tumultous struggle and after 90 minutes, the scores remained locked at nil-all.<\/p>\n

By this point I was already emotionally drained from the excitement and tension.\u00a0 It felt like an absolute journey<\/em>.\u00a0 A normal football game probably shouldn’t feel that long but this was different.\u00a0 Not least because when the game started, the sun was shining and it was an absolutely scorching late afternoon in Brisbane.\u00a0 Then on the stroke of halftime it started absolutely pissing down with rain.\u00a0 Then when the rain cleared in the second half, the sun began to set and there was a pinkish evening sky which was complimented by the orange haze drifting around the stadium which came from the flares being set off in The Den.\u00a0 Then the stadium lit up the floodlights for the night sky at Suncorp for extra time.\u00a0 That’s when disaster struck.<\/p>\n

As extra time began, a groove settled in the game where Brisbane Roar pressed for the winner and the Mariners sat back and looked for opportunities to score on the counter.\u00a0 Eventually, one such break away for the Mariners resulted in a corner kick and in the ensuing scramble, Adam Kwaznik fired in a goal from close range to put them up 1-0.\u00a0 The Roar looked crestfallen with captain Matt McKay sinking to his knees.\u00a0 The Roar tried to rally but by pushing forward so much, it only helped to expose the tired legs in the backline.\u00a0 Once again, the Mariners lead a counter attack charge that saw Kwaznik fire a shot at goalkeeper Michael Theoklitos who could only parry it away.\u00a0 Oliver Bozanic reacted first and slotted home the second goal for the Mariners.\u00a0 2-0 up in the Grand Final with only 15 minutes left.<\/p>\n

I was absolutely crushed when the second goal went in.\u00a0 I knew in my heart of hearts that we had lost the game right there.\u00a0 I felt deflated, slumped in my seat, watching the perfect season go up in smoke.\u00a0 I couldn’t believe it.\u00a0 Their keeper had looked unstoppable all game and now they were up 2-0 and were going to steal the show.\u00a0 I wrote in a previous blog entry about my history of predominantly supporting teams that don’t have a history of winning championships.\u00a0 I tended to naturally gravitate to the underdogs. I should<\/em> be used to this.\u00a0 In the Brisbane Roar however, I had become absolutely attached to this team and this incredible season.\u00a0 To see them bounce back from last season to where they were now.\u00a0 To come back from behind to stay undefeated all year against highly fancied opponents.\u00a0 It seemed bitterly unfair and a cruel blow to lose the final this way.<\/p>\n

Ten minutes passed in the second half of extra time and although the Roar were doing their best, the scored hadn’t changed.\u00a0 It was all over.<\/p>\n

Then something remarkable happened.<\/p>\n