Twenty-four hours after scoring the all-important goal in Brisbane’s dramatic Hyundai A-League win over Central Coast Mariners, Erik Paartalu is still struggling to believe the miraculous scenes at Suncorp Stadium were a reality.
The premiers had dominated the majority of regular time, but looked resigned to their first defeat in 28 matches when the visiting Central Coast Mariners moved two goals clear during the added 30 minutes.
But the Roar have earned a reputation as comeback kings in their record breaking season, and after an inspirational pep talk from captain Matt McKay, they delivered their greatest comeback of all.
“The credit has to go to Matty. We’ve given him a fair bit of stick this season about some of his speeches before games, but he was spot on,” said Paartalu on Monday.
“He kept it short and simple and made us believe we still had a chance.”
“He just told us that our season wasn’t over, that we’d done it before and we could score two goals in 15 minutes again.”
With 116 minutes played, substitute forward Henrique netted the first, giving the home-side a sniff, but there would have been few amongst the 50,000 at Suncorp Stadium who weren’t in a state of shock when Paartalu headed home an equaliser with the final touch of the game.
Once they’d reached the spot kicks, the momentum was all with Brisbane, and self-confessed penalty-addict Michael Theoklitos saw the side home with two fantastic saves.
“There’s no chance I’d have believed how it would all turn out. It was ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous,” said Paartalu.
“I can’t remember a thing about the goal – not what I was thinking, not making the run, not making the header.”
“It was probably the best moment (in my sporting career). We’re all still just buzzing.”
Earlier in the week, Paartalu had said his aim had been to hit the back of the net five times in the season, but the mission had become ‘highly unrealistic’ heading into the Grand Final with only three to his name.
His 120th minute miracle goal and his ice-cool penalty conversion moments later meant the ‘Viking’ had reached his quota, and kept with the Roar’s 2010-11 theme of redefining what is and isn’t realistic.
