From Kuol to Kisnorbo, my top moments from this year in the Isuzu UTE A-League

At the close of another dramatic year for Australian football, Tom Smithies picks out the memories that mattered in the Isuzu UTE A-League.

If the 12 months of each year seem to rattle past more quickly than ever, it also feels like as much football drama as ever gets stuffed into that period.

For Australian football it was unremitting – from the Covid chaos of last season in the Isuzu UTE A-League, through June’s World Cup qualifiers and the unfolding of the Australia Cup, back into another season and then the bizarrely timed but compelling narratives of a November-December World Cup.

In amongst the A-League’s own storylines, the emergence of a new generation of talent has combined with some slick imports to produce football with an emphasis on attack and a commitment to going for the win. In no particular order, here are 10 A-League Men moments of 2022 that endured in the memory.

May 7: Jake Brimmer free-kick v Sydney FC

So much style, so much symbolism.

Brimmer’s free-kick on the turf of the old enemy didn’t just confirm Victory’s position of finishing second the table, and underline why Brimmer himself would be named a few days later as the winner of the Johnny Warren Medal for being the competition’s best player. It rubbed buckets of salt salt in the wound of Sydney FC, who knew by then they wouldn’t make the finals. But in the broadest sense it was emblematic of the growing array of creators in the league, players with touch and vision like Brimmer, Jay O’Shea at Brisbane, Ulises Davila at Macarthur, Craig Goodwin at Adelaide and Florin Berengeur at Melbourne City.

Read: the Jake Brimmer story

May 26: Garang Kuol shocks Barca

Sometimes it’s hard to lay your finger on the point that one magical moment becomes a stream, and when that stream of moments becomes evidence of a serious talent.

But in the midst of the crazy first year of Garang Kuol’s first year as a professional footballer, the point at which he collected the ball in his own half for the A-Leagues All-Stars, left four Barcelona defenders in his wake (two of them on their backsides) and put an impudent finish millimetres wide was, in retrospect, a pretty bloody strong hint.

Kuol to the fore as All-Stars have fun

July 15: Chris Ikonomidis scores against Manchester United

Another off-season moment to revel in, even if it came in the context of a 4-1 win for United that rather flattered the english side in their friendly against Victory. Ikonomidis’s finish to open the scoring, a deft shot from near the penalty spot, was sprightly enough but it lso capped off a startling move by the Australian side that took possession from a goalkick at one end to scoring at the other in seven passes and 14 seconds. Not bad for a side almost three months away from kicking off its season.

Read: the 7 passes that exposed United

December 17: Craig Goodwin becomes a fully fledged star

This was a process years in the making, but Goodwin’s free-kick against Wellington provided yet another moment for his increasingly jostled highlights reel. A fortnight earlier his shot against Argentina had sparked the Socceroos almost-comeback at the World Cup, and the left-footer now looks utterly comfortable on any stage.

But it has been a year of delivering from the United captain, who Opta stats show led all players for chances created (87) with a league-high 38 of these chances coming from set plays. That left foot is prodigious.

Read: the brilliance of Craig Goodwin’s left foot.

October 8: Big Blue, Round 1

It wasn’t just the sheeting rain that made Allianz Stadium gleam on its A-League Men debut. A crowd of more than 20,000 made light of the foul conditions and the players responded with a humdinger of a contest.

Goals and atmosphere showed the A-League at it’s most exciting, and reminded us of what the local competition can deliver. Not that Sydney FC will look back on this particular night with any great degree of fondness, as Victory hit them three times on the break to earn a deserved 3-2 win – the highlight being Chris Ikonomidis’s equaliser.

Read: Victory draw first blood at new Allianz

October 23: Kisnorbo’s half-time speech

In the end, the cameras got him just in time. When KEEPUP’s A-Leagues All Access series featured the Melbourne City boss, we got unprecedented access to the inner sanctum, and to the methods that have been so successful in his coaching career to date. In particular, the individual, personalised exhortations he made to each player at halftime in the derby were hair-raisingly effective.

As it turns out, we weren’t the only ones watching, which is why Kisnorbo this month became the first Australian to go to coach in one of the top five leagues in Europe, lured to become head coach at Troyes in France’s League 1.

Read: Kisnorbo’s way is always PK to the max

May 21: Western United blow Melbourne victory away

It might seem strange to choose this game to mark the incredible title campaign mounted by Western United under John Aloisi – after all, a week later they won the grand final. But this second leg was a major statement of intent after Western had slipped out of the top two only at the climax of the regular season, and had lost the first leg of the semifinal 1-0 to Victory.

To produce four goals when the stakes were so high was remarkable for a team that had scored no more than one in the majority of its league games, and only scored more than two three times all season. Here, though, they picked apart Victory expertly, and a week later would be crowned champions.

Read: Aloisi triumphs but now must plot way forward

January 22: Nestory Irankunda’s free-kick stuns Jets

No one else bothered to stand over the ball when Adelaide got a freekick just outside the Newcastle box with 87 minutes on the clock, such was the confidence in Irankunda’s demeanour.

With good reason too; a few seconds later, Irankunda had become the A-League’s second youngest ever goalscorer at 15 years and 356 days. But the youngster was just one of a cohort who have made their mark on the A-League in the past year or more, including teammates Bernardo Oliveira and Steven Hall, Jacob Farrell at the Mariners, Archie Goodwin (Newcastle), Sydney’s Patrick Wood, and Melbourne City’s Jordan Bos.

Read: A-Leagues among world’s best for displaying young talent

February 20: Ben Garuccio’s goal of the year

You can talk for hours about the significance, the context and the meaning. You could draw comparisons with Riley McGree’s famous take on the scorpion in 2018, and argue for hours over which was better. But in the end, really you should just sit back and marvel at the athleticism, opportunism and execution of Ben Garuccio’s piece of brilliance, that deservedly won last season’s goal of the year.

Not forgetting that the winner of FIFA’s Puskas Award will be awarded early next year… 

Read: what makes a perfect A-League goal?

Redmayne’s dirty piece of brilliance

Shithousery has suddenly become quite a concept, personified by Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez at the World Cup – his antics to put oppostion players off so overt and deliberate, they have already been the subject of psychological study.

Martinez glories in the infamy – Andrew Redmayne, not so much. But with one flick of the hand, a goalkeeper whose entire career has been in the A-League produced a moment that changed the course of history. Not the save in the penalty shootout against Peru, of course, even though that sent Australia to the World Cup. No, the real evil genius was Redmayne dispatching a water bottle away from the goal area, the one that Peruvian keeper Pedro Gallese’s had wrapped his notes on each penalty taker around.

The fact Redmayne even went back to make sure, picking the notes themselves up and getting rid, underlined what choice chicanery this was. 

Read: Redmayne’s “kill or be killed” moment