Hyundai A-League great Archie Thompson believes Besart Berisha’s sense of occasion has the Victory marksman primed to reach his magical 100 A-League goals milestone this Friday night in Sydney.
Ironically, Berisha scored his first ever goal in the Hyundai A-League at Sydney FC’s home ground Allianz for former club Brisbane Roar.
Now, six years later, the goal machine is poised to make his A-League century if he can bag a brace (he sits on 98 goals in the Hyundai A-League) in Friday night’s Big Blue for the Big V.
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It’s this sense of occasion, sense of the big stage and drama that has Thompson believing Berisha could hit the magical 100 in the Harbour City this Friday night at the home of their bitter rivals.
Add in the fact that Victory desperately need a win to stay in touch with league leaders Sydney FC – who could all but confirm the Premiership trophy by defeating their southern rivals – and you have a night of rare drama ahead in arguably the biggest game of the season so far.
“That’s almost what it seems like for ‘Bes’… he’s almost like the Cahill of domestic football.
“He [Berisha] almost writes his own scripts, or the script is written for him and suddenly, ‘bang’, it happens.
“When we needed a goal in World Cup qualifiers or at World Cups, Timmy scores.
“And this is the same almost as Bes making 100. It almost the script leads to a big game [in which to reach his milestone].
“It’d almost happen like that [to reach 100 in the Big Blue].
“It’s Bes, those sorts of players, the theatre seems to follow them,” Thompson told www.a-league.com.au at the launch of the ALDI Mini-Roos, for which he’s an ambassador.
Thompson, a Victory legend and a favourite in the Caltex Socceroos, will be in Sydney this Friday night to see how the drama unfolds.
The former strike partner of Berisah retired on 90 career goals in the A-League last season – though he wishes he had made his own century.
“I wish I had got to 100 – 90 just doesn’t have the same ring!” Thompson said with a smile.
“It’s something that looks better.
“And I always said he [Berisha] scored a lot of penalties but I played a game for Murray United on Saturday and I took a penalty and I missed it!
“So I’ve been harping on about how I hadn’t taken penalties in my 90 goals and now I know why!
“But he deserves it. I hope he [Berisha] gets to 100, he will get there in the end.”
