It featured the type of grandstand finish one dare not suggest as a possibility beforehand, lest you be dismissed for self-indulgence. And when South Melbourne emerged as champions of the Australia Cup after a heart-stopping penalty shootout, what was left was pure magic distilled into one of the great nights in the history of Australian domestic football. The reverberations of what unfolded at AAMI Park on Saturday night have the potential to linger for decades.
Never before has a team from outside the A-League won the Australia Cup – until now. And not only has a team from outside the closed-shop top flight of Australian football now finally broken through this glass ceiling, but it’s Hellas that has done it. Standard bearers of the NSL, the home of Ange Postecoglou, Ferenc Puskás, John Margaritis, Paul Trimboli and more, South was discarded and deigned to be forgotten alongside the rest of “Old Soccer”.
And they’ve never forgotten it. Yet while their ambitions and grievances never faded as they were left behind, for many years simply surviving was the sum of their resistance. But 22 years on from their banishment, they’re still here; they’ve refused to go away.
And against a potent symbol as one can find of the “New Football” era in Melbourne Victory, they’ve made history. They’ve made history, again. They did it in a manner that, even without the overarching narratives, would have seen the game remembered.
With fewer than five minutes of extra time remaining, trailing 1-0 after Denis Genreau’s remarkable 95th-minute goal put Victory ahead, substitute Jordi Swibel burst down the right and whipped a ball in. Bul Juach turned it back centrally, and it fell to another substitute in Max Mikkola, who bundled it goalward and, despite Jason Davidson’s best efforts, found the net. Just like the two decades prior, they’d survived. a and bewilderment gripped the stadium in equal measure.
Forlorn resignation among the South fans gave way to the rapturous realisation that penalties were afoot, while the Victory supporters saw their celebrations of a third Cup and the chance to gloat against their uppity, semi-professional rivals turn to ash in their mouths. As much as 2-0 or 3-0 would have flattered Victory, they had the chances to win it. Amid their periods in control, Santos had inexplicably sent what should have been a 78th-minute, wide-open winner straight at South goalkeeper Javier Lopez, and they hit the post twice – first when Lopez turned a Santos shot on to the woodwork in the 25th minute and then deep into extra time when substitute Michael Ghossaini headed into it.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
