South Melbourne made history to beat Melbourne Victory on penalties in a thrilling Australia Cup final at AAMI Park.
Denis Genreau finally broke the deadlock for Melbourne Victory with an overhead kick in the sixth minute of extra time but South Melbourne equalised in the 117th minute through Max Mikkola.
Harrison Sawyer saw his penalty and then his re-take saved by Javier López before Victory captain Jason Davidson missed the final penalty and South Melbourne became the first NPL club to win the Hahn Australia Cup.
HOW IT HAPPENED
It came as little surprise that the final stuttered into life with an exchange of fouls and, in the third minute, saw its first yellow card. Jacob Eliopoulos was booked for a late, high challenge on Jordi Valadon and Keegan Jelacic steered the resulting free-kick into the hands of Javier López.
South Melbourne were the better side in the opening quarter of an hour and looked most likely to break the deadlock when Yuki Uchida darted to the byline and fizzed a dangerous, low cross past an open goal.
The two central defenders ahead of South Melbourne’s López had been brilliant and they were backed-up by their goalkeeper when he dived desperately to his right and turned Santos’s volley onto the post.
On the break that followed, Uchida sized up Jason Davidson before shifting the ball onto his left and firing a shot that split the gap between the goal and the onrushing Bul Juach.
Jordon Lampard – who had not started a match in this Hahn Australia Cup before the final – had an excellent first-half in a backline that looked as comfortable on the ball as they did off it. His set-pieces were threatening throughout and when he curled an inviting free-kick into the area it was headed narrowly wide by Thomas Giannakopoulos.
With the game goalless at half-time, South Melbourne made the only change at the interval when they introduced Paulo Retre for the cautioned Eliopoulos. In the opening moments of the second half, Retre picked out Juach who forced Jack Duncan into his first save of the night.
Guillermo May and Denis Genreau were brought on in the 58th minute and they linked up with Santos in a smooth, sweeping counter-attack that ended back with May, who was able to wriggle onto his left-foot but blazed his shot over the bar.
Genreau and May picked at the South Melbourne lock with some hopeful interplay and the latter worked his way into a nice position when he took the ball well inside the area, but fired his shot at López.
After 70 minutes, Juach had set off on a handy run with the ball and when he touched it past Davidson, the Victory captain stood firm and received a yellow card for knocking the centre-forward over.
In the 77th minute came perhaps the finest chance of the 90. May, who had been Victory’s finest player since coming on, was away down the right-hand side. He delayed for a moment and then rolled the ball across to Santos who spurned a golden opportunity, scuffing his shot into the shuffling feet of López.
The 13 minutes that followed were cagey and leggy but were not decisive and the match, unfolding in-front of a crowd that had just been announced as the largest to ever pack into AAMI Park for a sporting event, ticked over into extra-time.
EXTRA-TIME
Five minutes into extra-time, the moment finally came. In a crowded penalty area, Genreau was picked out from the right by Joshua Inserra. The ball lifted awkwardly as it reached him and in a moment of improvisation, he flicked it up and leapt into the air. The overhead kick clipped the crossbar on its way down and landed inside the goal just inches from the goal-line. VAR, in use for the very first time in an Australia Cup final, reviewed the footage and sent the Victory fans into a second wave of euphoria when they confirmed the goal on the screens inside the ground.
Five minutes later, every eye in AAMI Park was thrown onto the crossbar at the other end of the ground. Juach slipped beyond Davidson and curled a loopy shot over Duncan but it only dipped in time to bounce off the top of the crossbar.
In the 108th minute the woodwork was struck again. After a scramble in the box following a Victory corner, Michael Ghossaini flicked his desperate header onto the post.
Juach was handed another chance to score when Duncan fumbled an unassuming cross from James Lackay down to the centre-forward, but he was unable to keep his spinning shot below the bar.
They left it as late as possible, but as they had done in every game of the competition to that point, South Melbourne fought back from behind. Jordi Swibel burst into space wide down the right flank and whipped a low cross to the back post for Juach. From the tangle of legs the ball bounced towards goal and when it was nodded away by Philipp Ziereis it fell into the path of Max Mikkola who scraped it in and made it 1-1 – an enormous goal in the history of Australian domestic football.
PENALTIES
May and South Melbourne skipper Marco Janković converted the opening penalties before Harrison Sawyer, a South Melbourne old boy, had his penalty saved. The referee deemed that López had left his line early and when Sawyer stepped back up, López denied him once again. From then on, it felt fated. Swibel, Ghossaini, Lackay, Genreau, and Andrico Mesourouni all converted their penalties then Davidson put his over the bar and South Melbourne became the first team from outside of the A-Leagues to win the Australia Cup.
