Adelaide: Adelaide United reached the summit of Australian football for the first time in their history after being crowned champions of the A-League on Sunday with a 3-1 triumph over Western Sydney Wanderers in the Grand Final.
The Reds got off to a dream start at the Adelaide Oval in the 22nd minute when Marcelo Carrusca broke free down the left and swung in a dangerous cross, with Bruce Kamau showing the greatest desire to reach it first and connected with a left-footed half-volley into the back of the net.
Four minutes after the half-hour mark, it was 2-0 after Kamau won a freekick on the edge of the box by drawing a foul from Nikolai Topor-Stanley, paving the way for Isaias to send a sublime curling freekick into the top corner.
Western Sydney did give themselves a lifeline as they pulled one back in the 58th minute; Brendon Santalab’s lovely layoff into the path of Scott Neville was met with an instinctive first-time drive that had Eugene Galekovic well beaten.
But in the final minute, any hopes of a Wanderers comeback were ended when Pablo Sanchez pounced on a mistake by Kearyn Baccus and burst into the box before finishing past Andrew Redmayne to seal the win for Adelaide.
The triumph sparked off wild scenes of celebration from Guillermo Amor and his charges at the final whistle as they completed a remarkable campaign with a double, having also come from outside the top six at the halfway stage to be crowned A-League premiers after finishing top of the table at the end of the 2015-16 regular season.
As premiers, Adelaide had already booked their place in next year’s AFC Champions League while Western Sydney, champions of Asia in 2014, will also be returning as A-League runners-up after a year’s absence.
The Reds were also initially in the running to play in the Champions League this year but fell short in the play-offs following a 2-1 defeat to China’s Shandong Luneng.
Should Australia retain the same number of spots in Asian football’s premier club competition for 2017, Brisbane Roar will enter at the qualifying play-off stage as the A-League’s third-placed team.
Photo: Adelaide United
Source: the-afc.com